International students would effectively be banned from bringing family members to Australia under a long-awaited overhaul of the immigration system to be unveiled by Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke today. Source: ABC News.
In a speech titled “The work of managing the migration program: who arrives, who stays, who leaves”, Mr Burke will outline changes to try to ensure the government meets its target of reducing net overseas migration (NOM) from 300,000 to 225,000 by 2028.
Mr Burke had planned to announce the policy six weeks ago but was forced to abruptly postpone the National Press Club (NPC) address because of a disagreement between ministers weighing competing priorities.
The ABC reports that the reworked plan was endorsed by Cabinet’s Expenditure Review Committee this week ahead of the rescheduled NPC address today.
The government plans to bring down the NOM by cutting the number of temporary visas, which has risen to three million, ensure migrants leave Australia once their visas have expired to prevent so-called “visa hopping”, and curb their ability to claim protection.
While international student numbers are expected to be left untouched, the ABC reports they will effectively lose the ability to bring their families to Australia under the crackdown.
Last financial year, 337,427 student visas were granted, and of those, 45,991 were secondary applicants, classed as dependents or family.
Labor’s plan has some similarities to One Nation’s migration policy, released this week, which included a crackdown on family visas for both students and skilled migrants.
It is unclear whether the government will also target the families of skilled migrants, but Mr Burke recently used his powers to dramatically slow down the processing of skilled and family visas lodged by applicants offshore.
Mr Burke told Question Time yesterday he would like to implement Labor’s planned overhaul via legislation but will pursue other “levers” if he could not get parliamentary support.
To address a blowout in bridging visas, the government has also been considering removing the work rights of temporary migrants whose claims for protection have been rejected by Home Affairs.
Under pressure to bring down overseas arrivals, Mr Burke has already made sweeping changes to the migration system, pausing or slowing down the processing of working holiday maker visas in July and reprioritising the processing of skilled visas.
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International students to be effectively barred from bringing family to Australia (By Jane Norman, ABC News)
