Coalition Unveils Deepest Migration Cuts in Australia's History

The Coalition has released a migration policy it says would deliver the largest cut to immigration ever attempted in Australia, promising to bring net overseas migration down to 100,000 people a year for its first two years in office before letting it climb back to a ceiling of 160,000 by year four.

Opposition finance spokesperson Angus Taylor framed the plan as a direct response to record migration under Labor, arguing lower numbers would ease pressure on roads, schools, housing and other infrastructure. Net overseas migration currently sits at roughly 292,000, a figure that measures people settling in Australia long-term minus those leaving, and excludes tourists.

Under the policy, the intake would rise gradually from 100,000 to about 130,000 before settling at 160,000, a level the Coalition says it chose to match the pace of new housing completions. Overall, the party is proposing to remove 650,000 temporary visas from the system over four years.

Several visa categories face direct cuts. The temporary graduate visa, which lets international students stay on to work after finishing their courses, would be scrapped entirely. The annual international student intake would be capped at around 240,000, while the humanitarian and refugee intake would be halved from 20,000 to 10,000 places a year.

The biggest reduction targets bridging visas, a broad category covering temporary migrants awaiting the outcome of another application. The Coalition wants to cut this from about 414,000 visa holders to just 20,000, partly by requiring anyone seeking protection, commonly known as asylum, to lodge their claim within 30 days of arriving in Australia. Analysts have questioned whether a reduction of that scale is realistic.

Taylor has described the package as budget-neutral, saying increases to skilled migration places would offset the visa categories being cut. The Coalition says it is working with the Parliamentary Budget Office to assess the broader economic impact, given migration's role in offsetting Australia's low rate of natural population growth.

The announcement adds a third option to an increasingly crowded migration debate. Labor's current policy aims to bring net overseas migration down to 225,000 by 2028, a comparatively modest reduction, while One Nation has proposed pushing migration into negative territory before it settles near 130,000. Both the Coalition and One Nation are targeting international student numbers heavily, a prospect that has alarmed universities reliant on overseas student fees to help fund their operations, with some institutions, including the University of Sydney, having drawn roughly half their enrolments from international students in recent years.

Migration has become closely tied to the cost-of-living and housing affordability debate, with all major parties now competing over how far and how fast to cut net overseas migration as voters weigh the issue ahead of the next election.