Australia to target family visas to curb migration, says report

The Australian government is on Sept 17 set to outline plans to reduce immigration, including by clamping down on those who have overstayed their visas and introducing tougher rules for family reunion programmes.

Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke will outline the changes in a long-delayed speech to the National Press Club titled, “The work of managing the migration programme: Who arrives, who stays, who leaves.”

The plan will target those who move from one visa class to another to stay in the country, students and temporary workers, as well as their family members, the Australian Financial Review reported on Sept 16.

The government is aiming to cap Australia’s net migration this financial year at about 245,000 people – a target set in the budget in May. In recent years, the number of immigrants has consistently overshot the government’s own targets, opening it up to criticism from the political right.

Data on net overseas migration in the first quarter of 2026 is scheduled to be released on the morning of Sept 17, before Burke’s speech. 

The government has already slowed the issuance of new visas, including “working holiday” visas which are popular with backpackers. Applications for people from 23 nations with an annual cap are “paused” for the current financial year, which began in July, according to the department’s website. 

However, agricultural industries are already complaining about a lack of such workers on whom they rely. Independent lawmaker Helen Haines from rural Victoria said in Parliament on Sept 16 that her district is experiencing a worker shortage, and asked the government to speed up approvals for people including nurses to come to Australia. 

Earlier this week, the far-right One Nation party proposed cutting the number of temporary migrants by 750,000 over three years to drive down the country’s population, before returning to a policy of allowing 130,000 people to move permanently to Australia each year. BLOOMBERG