Australia to Bar International Students From Bringing Family Members

Australia will no longer allow international students or graduate visa holders to attach family members to their visas, Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke announced in an address at the National Press Club in Canberra.

Burke said the change would not affect families already in Australia on such visas, who would be allowed to remain until they leave the country or become eligible for a permanent visa. "We're not going to be breaking up families onshore," he said.

Exceptions will apply for students from Pacific and ASEAN nations, and for certain courses such as PhD programmes, where Burke said the circumstances of study differ markedly from undergraduate degrees.

The government also plans to introduce a ballot system for second and third-year working holiday visas. Applicants will still need to meet existing requirements, including 88 days of regional work for a second year and six months for a third, but qualifying will no longer guarantee a visa. Burke said the ballot was intended to give the government control and certainty over numbers.

Burke rejected suggestions that the measures were drawn up recently in response to political pressure, saying the proposals had largely been worked up and formalised by February. He framed the changes around a simple principle: those seeking to come temporarily should apply for a temporary visa, those seeking to stay permanently should apply for a permanent visa, and those without a valid visa should leave.

The changes are aimed at bringing net overseas migration in line with budget forecasts of 245,000 this financial year and 225,000 in each subsequent year.

Opposition Immigration Minister Jonathon Duniam told reporters in Canberra that the measures did not amount to a crackdown. He described them as tinkering around the edges and a tightening of internal elements of the migration system. Duniam said the government had deliberately slowed the granting of working holiday visas, which he called a lifeblood of the hospitality, horticulture and agriculture sectors, and argued that migration numbers remain higher than before the COVID-19 pandemic.