The federal government has unveiled a package of immigration reforms it says will lower net overseas migration, relieve housing pressure and tighten the visa system. Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke said the changes are designed to give the economy the "softest landing possible", but agricultural employers in the Northern Territory warn the measures will make seasonal labour shortages worse.
In March 2026, net overseas migration stood at around 292,000, according to the government. Burke told SBS News the government is aiming to bring that figure down to 245,000 in the current financial year and to 225,000 by 2027–28. "We just need to make sure it is targeted for the needs of Australia in numbers, and across the different categories that work for our economy," he said.
Key measures in the reform package
- Crackdown on so-called "visa hopping" between visa subclasses.
- Restrictions on secondary applicants for most student visas.
- Stronger enforcement to ensure people without valid visas leave Australia.
- A "no further stay" condition to be placed on visitor visas.
- New rules targeting migration agents who knowingly support non-genuine applications.
- Reduced access to second and third-year working holiday visas, with a ballot system introduced for some backpackers seeking to stay beyond their first year.
The working holiday changes have drawn particular attention from regional industries that depend on backpacker labour during peak seasons. Under the new system, fewer working holiday-makers will be able to remain in Australia for a second or third year. The government has pointed to the Pacific Australia Labour Mobility (PALM) scheme as an alternative source of seasonal workers.
Farmers say timing and skills matter
Northern Territory mango grower Saramat "Tou" Ruchkaew told SBS News that farmers have been "battling this support forever, for thirty-five years and now we have to go backwards". She said the harvest window is only six to eight weeks and that PALM scheme workers are not always available for such short seasonal periods. Without immigrant labour, she said, the Northern Territory mango industry would not survive.
One of Tou's full-time workers, who first arrived in Australia on a working holiday visa and later returned on a sponsored skilled pathway, said the changes would be damaging. He said farms need workers with communication and technical skills — such as driving machinery or using computers — that go beyond manual picking, and that immigrant workers often fill those roles.
What the SkillSelect pipeline shows
While the reform package focuses heavily on temporary and student visa categories, the skilled permanent migration pipeline remains large. As of August 2026, there were 180,651 expressions of interest in the SkillSelect subclass 189 pool, up 5,401 in a single month and 29.4 per cent year-on-year. The subclass 190 nomination pool held 414,019 EOIs. The median points score in the 189 pool was 75, with 35.4 per cent of candidates holding 80 points or more.
The tension between lowering overall migration numbers and meeting labour demand in regional industries is a central question in the policy debate. Burke said the government cannot shield individual sectors from the consequences of reducing migration. Growers in the Top End say they are already feeling those consequences as the mango harvest approaches. The outcome will depend on how the reforms interact with existing state nomination programs and employer-sponsored visa pathways tracked through the EOI Insights dashboard.
Try these numbers yourself
The charts on this page are a snapshot. Open the dashboard to try the live version — change the month, the visa, or the occupation and watch the numbers update.
Charts on this page are example snapshots, not live counts.
