Migration levels were too high and placing a strain on the housing market, Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke said as he revealed the long-awaited changes at the National Press Club.Â
But the suite of policies he was left to announce, six weeks after his initial appearance was shelved amid cabinet disagreement, was not as comprehensive as he would have liked, Mr Burke said on Thursday.
He blamed a breakdown in negotiations with the coalition preventing him from introducing legislative changes that would have given more effective policy levers to fine-tune the migration system.
Instead, Mr Burke was left with regulatory tweaks, including a ballot system for working holiday makers and restricting foreign students from bringing family members to Australia.
Walking the tightrope between quelling community discontent over high net migration and not alienating Labor's left-wing base, Mr Burke described migration as "fundamentally a strength to Australia" while acknowledging genuine problems to be confronted.
Mr Burke said the demand-driven approach that had characterised the Australian migration system since the Hawke era was no longer fit for purpose.
Still, the announcement copped criticism from multiple sides.
The business community lashed the changes to working holiday visas, which the agriculture and tourism sectors heavily rely on, and not even One Nation leader Pauline Hanson dared to touch in her plan to slash migration unveiled days earlier.
A ballot system will be introduced for years two and three, limited to 45,000 and 5000 respectively, which Accommodation Australia chief executive James Goodwin said would amount to about a 40 per cent reduction from current levels.
"Working holiday makers are the wrong target to try reduce net overseas migration," Mr Goodwin told AAP.
But the current freeze on processing of working holiday visas will come to an end, with processing times for applications to be stabilised at three months.
A more hardline approach to deporting visa overstayers was condemned by humanitarian groups and the Greens, who warned of Trump-style ICE agents policing the streets.
A central component is the reintroduction of a pre-2015 system that Mr Burke said would encourage overstayers to leave or face being locked up in a detention centre.
An extra 100 compliance officers and 250 detention beds represented a race to the bottom in Australia's treatment of migrants and asylum seekers, said Kon Karapanagiotidis, chief executive of the Asylum Seeker Resource Centre.
"Today is a dark day for multicultural Australia," he said.
About 80,000 non-citizens without a valid visa are estimated to be in Australia.
Ramping up removals - voluntary or forced - would help bring net overseas migration down from 292,100 to meet budget forecasts of 245,000 in 2026/27 and 225,000 each year thereafter.
But a bigger influence on migration remaining above target in recent years has been high numbers of student and bridging visas.
Among the changes, international students will no longer be able to transfer to a lower qualification to stay in the country.
Tourists will be prevented from extending their stays in Australia with the introduction of a ''no further stay'' condition on visitor visas.
Some aspects of the changes were welcomed by industry groups, especially in construction.
Housing trades will be prioritised in the skilled migration system, with construction workers given the same treatment in the points test as applicants with university qualifications.
The skilled migration program will also be tweaked to prioritise applicants in healthcare, education, law enforcement, defence, resources, agriculture, aquaculture and fishing.
The Australian Bureau of Statistics revealed net overseas migration fell from about 299,000 in 2025 to 292,100 in the year to March.
