By Navpreet Aulakh, Registered Migration Agent, MARN 2619467. Checked against Department of Home Affairs guidance, the ABS overseas migration release and the Minister's National Press Club address on 17 September 2026. This article will be updated as the government publishes the detail.
Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke has used a National Press Club address in Canberra today to set out how the Albanese government intends to bring net overseas migration down to 225,000 a year. The speech, titled "The work of managing the migration program: who arrives, who stays, who leaves", was originally scheduled for August and was pulled at the last minute when cabinet could not agree on the final package.
Here is what the plan does, what it does not do, and what it means for the people who contact our office every day: international students, sponsored workers, working holiday makers, visitors and partners.
The headline number
The target has not changed. The government is working to the figures already written into the May budget: net overseas migration of about 295,000 in 2025-26, falling to 245,000 in 2026-27 and 225,000 a year from 2027-28.
Fresh ABS data released an hour before the speech put net overseas migration at 292,100 for the year to March 2026, down 17,400 (5.6 per cent) on the year before and down from the 2022-23 peak of 538,000. In other words, the number is already falling. Today's package is about making sure it keeps falling to the budget line, not about announcing a new headline cut.
How it will be done: regulation, not legislation
This is the most important structural point in the speech. The government wanted to legislate two stronger measures - a time limit on lodging onshore protection claims, and limits on international students' appeal rights - but talks with the Coalition broke down last week. Those two measures have been dropped from the immediate package.
Everything that remains will be delivered through levers the Minister already controls: visa conditions, legislative instruments, ministerial directions and processing priorities. Two of those levers are already in use:
- Working holiday (subclass 417 and 462) processing has been slowed since July, a move the government confirmed in August and which regional tourism and horticulture employers have criticised.
- Ministerial Direction 119 reordered skilled visa processing so that offshore applicants sit behind onshore applicants. In some occupations that has pushed waits from days to over a year.
For clients, regulation has a practical consequence: changes can take effect quickly, sometimes with only days' notice, and they usually apply from the date of lodgement. If you are planning an application that could be affected, the safest position is to lodge a complete, decision-ready application sooner rather than later.
The measures
The Minister's statement was released as he took the stage, and the package is broader than the pre-speech briefings suggested. The measures below are drawn from that statement and the address. We will link each legislative instrument and confirm commencement dates as Home Affairs publishes them.
1. International students will lose the ability to bring most family
This is the single biggest change. Student visa numbers are not being cut, but the ability to include a partner or children as secondary applicants on a subclass 500 visa is being removed for most students. To put the scale in context, 337,427 student visas were granted last financial year and 45,991 of those went to secondary applicants.
What we do not yet know: which students keep the entitlement (higher-degree research students are the obvious candidate), whether existing student visa holders can still add a subsequent entrant, and the commencement date. Those three details decide whether families already in the pipeline are caught.
2. A ballot for second and third year working holiday visas
Backpackers wanting a second or third year on a subclass 417 or 462 will enter a ballot rather than apply as of right, and an additional regional work requirement will apply. Australia already runs a ballot for working holiday makers from China, India and Vietnam, so the mechanism exists. In exchange, the processing freeze in place since July formally ends and the Minister has promised working holiday applications will be decided within three months.
3. A "No Further Stay" condition on visitor visas
Visitor visas will carry a No Further Stay condition (the 8503 family of conditions) so that a visit cannot be converted into an onshore application for something else. This is aimed squarely at people who arrive as tourists and then lodge a partner, student or protection application onshore. Some visitor visas are also expected to move from a 12-month to a six-month stay.
4. Skilled processing priority for the sectors Australia is short of
Ministerial Direction 119 will be updated so that skilled applications in nine sectors are processed first: healthcare, construction, education, law enforcement, defence, resources, agriculture, aquaculture and fishing. The government is framing this as the "who arrives" half of the equation: fewer temporary entrants, faster processing for the workers the economy needs.
5. Departures, compliance and a crackdown on dodgy agents
Stronger compliance measures will be used to make the roughly 77,000 people in Australia without a valid visa leave, and the Minister has pledged to pursue "rogue" migration agents who knowingly lodge applications without merit. The department will also get greater power to cancel the visas of people involved in crimes against children, family violence and hate crimes. The statement does not yet say how the agent crackdown will work in practice.
6. Visa hopping
The government wants people to leave when their visa ends rather than roll from one temporary visa to the next onshore. The statement names "integrity measures" against student visa hopping but does not detail them. Based on the pre-speech briefings, expect limits on course switching purely to extend a stay, restrictions on transfers from higher education into vocational training, and tighter scrutiny of onshore applications generally. We will update this section once the instruments are registered.
What is not changing
- The humanitarian program stays at 20,000 places. The Prime Minister confirmed this before the speech.
- Student visa caps are not being reduced further in this package.
- Nothing announced today touches the permanent skilled program, the income thresholds indexed on 1 July, or the partner visa framework. Our income thresholds guide remains current.
What it means for you
If you are an international student
If you were planning to include a partner or child on your student visa, or add them later as a subsequent entrant, speak to us this week. Once the instrument is registered the window closes, and applications are assessed under the rules in force on the day they are lodged. If you are already studying and thinking about a second course, the course-switching restrictions mean the reason for the change now matters more than ever.
If you employ or are sponsored on a 482 or 186
Nothing in today's package adds a new requirement to employer-sponsored visas, and the news is good if you are in healthcare, construction, education, law enforcement, defence, resources, agriculture, aquaculture or fishing: your nominations move to the front of the queue. Outside those sectors the pressure point remains Ministerial Direction 119, with offshore nominees waiting longest. Where a candidate is already in Australia on a valid visa, an onshore nomination will still be faster. Employer costs are unchanged; see our employer sponsorship costs guide.
If you are a working holiday maker or a regional employer relying on them
Second and third year applications will go to a ballot, so a further year is no longer guaranteed even with the specified work done. Keep your specified work evidence in order, lodge as soon as you are eligible, and plan on the basis that you may not be selected. First-year applications should now be decided within three months.
If you are on a bridging visa
Watch this space. Bridging visa work rights are referenced in today's coverage without detail, and the compliance push against people without a valid visa is the part of the package most likely to touch this group. Our bridging visas guide explains cease dates and conditions as they stand today.
If you are sponsoring a partner or bringing family to visit
Partner visas are not part of this package. Visitor visas are: a No Further Stay condition means a visiting partner or parent will not be able to lodge a partner, student or other visa onshore, so the offshore route (for example a subclass 309) needs to be planned from the start. Plan for a six-month stay rather than twelve.
Questions we are already being asked
Does this apply to applications already lodged?
Regulatory changes generally apply to applications lodged on or after the commencement date. An application that is valid and lodged before that date is normally assessed under the old rules. Commencement dates have not been published yet.
Is the permanent migration program being cut?
No. Today's measures are aimed at temporary visas and net overseas migration, not the planning level for permanent visas.
Why regulation instead of new laws?
Because the government could not secure Coalition support for legislation. Regulation is faster to implement but easier for a future government to reverse.
When will the detail be published?
The Minister's statement and speech will be released through the Home Affairs ministerial site and the legislative instruments will appear on the Federal Register of Legislation. We will update this article and link to each instrument as it lands.
What to do now
If any of the measures above affect you, your family or your workforce, book your consultation and we will assess your position against the rules as they stand today and as they are expected to change. Call 1300 644 728, email visa@nanakmigration.com.au or book your consultation online.
This article is general information only and is not immigration advice for your circumstances. Migration law and policy change frequently; confirm the current position with a registered migration agent before acting. Nanak Migration Group, 1313 Success Group Pty Ltd, ABN 54 674 937 476. Navpreet Aulakh, MARN 2619467.