Post-study work rights excised under latest Australian plan

Australia’s opposition has vowed to eliminate post-study work rights, ban most international students from bringing family members into Australia and force temporary migrants to depart before applying for follow-up visas, under the “biggest cut to immigration in the history of this country”.

The Liberal-National party coalition has also pledged to stop international students from “violating visa restrictions on their permitted work hours”, 17 months after it proposed a 25 per cent increase to their working hours to help bankroll its election promises.

The commitments are the latest instalment in Australia’s immigration policy bidding war, after the populist One Nation Party promised to return international student numbers to 2015 levels, and the Labor government enacted its restrictions on students’ family members, course-hopping and onshore visa applications.

“Around half of international students are still living in Australia ten years after starting their studies,” the coalition’s “Australia-first migration plan” says. “A temporary visa should mean temporary. Australia is a home, not a hotel.”

The coalition also plans to slash asylum applications and “virtually eliminate bridging visas”, as part of its programme to reduce the stock of temporary visa holders by around 650,000 over four years. Skilled migration would be oriented around “employer-sponsored applicants who meet high-quality criteria for income, age, English and full-time work”, along with an expansion of a specialist “skills in demand” visa subclass.

The opposition would also reverse Labor’s restrictions to working holiday visas, a critical workforce in regional Australia – the National Party’s key constituency.

“We will take back control of our migration system to make it work for Australia by bringing in the right people in the right numbers, with a laser focus on the skills Australia needs,” the document says. “The…migration surge has changed our way of life. It is putting enormous pressure on housing, infrastructure, roads, schools and hospitals, and is making it harder for Australians to buy their own home.”

The coalition says its reforms will generate a “small positive budget impact” of around A$260 million (£137 million) over four years. “Temporary graduate visa holders pay, on average, less than one-third of the tax of a skilled visa holder,” it explains. “Put simply, for every…higher-skilled migrant we bring in, we can cut three lower-skilled migrants without worsening the budget.”

Universities Australia said the plan risked lasting damage to an Australian success story. “For nearly four decades, governments of both persuasions have supported the development of a world-class international education sector because it is good for Australia,” said CEO Luke Sheehy. “We should be building on that success, not competing over who can cut it the hardest.”

The Group of Eight said Australia “must compete for global research talent, not deter it”. International student numbers are “already falling under current policy settings”, the group said. “The risk of folding international education into the migration debate is that policy becomes driven by headline numbers rather than what Australia actually needs,” said chief executive Vicki Thomson.

The coalition document says the reforms will cut international student commencements to 240,000, from about 467,000 in 2025. “Post-study transitional visas” would only be available to students at regional universities, those studying health or education or those completing PhDs.

“Many of the major changes can be implemented quickly using existing ministerial powers,” the document says.

john.ross@timeshighereducation.com