SYDNEY, Oct 6 (Reuters) – Australia’s conservative opposition coalition has proposed to slash temporary and humanitarian visas while prioritising skilled workers in what it called the “biggest cut to immigration” in the nation’s history.
The Liberal-National Coalition’s migration policy would cut temporary visas by 650,000 over four years and bring annual net overseas migration down to 100,000 for two years, around one-third of its current rate.
The sweeping proposal comes amid growing anti-immigration sentiment in Australia due to high living costs and housing shortages.
The Coalition has come under pressure from the far-right, anti-immigration One Nation party, which has outpolled it in recent surveys and pledged to cut temporary migration by 750,000 over three years.
“What we are proposing today is the biggest cut to immigration in the history of this country,” Opposition Leader Angus Taylor told a press conference on Tuesday. “It will be putting Australia first and it will be putting our national interest first.”
“The net overseas migration numbers will be 100,000 year one, 100,000 year two, going to 160,000 in year four. That will take pressure off roads, off schools, off infrastructure, off houses, and that will ensure that our country has the breathing space it needs.”
Under the Coalition’s plan, humanitarian visa places would be reduced by half to 10,000. It would cut international student enrollment to 240,000 while abolishing Australia’s temporary graduate visa programme that allows students to live, study and work in the country after graduation.
The Coalition also pledged to increase temporary skilled visas by 100,000 and to clear a backlog of construction worker visa applications.
“We’ve also seen under Labor a shift away from skilled migration to mass migration. We will reverse that shift,” Taylor added.
The plan goes further than the cuts proposed by the centre-left Labor government last month, which aim to bring annual net migration down to 225,000 by 2028.
Migration surged after Australia reopened its borders in February 2022 following nearly two years of COVID-19 closures, driven largely by international students, backpackers and temporary workers.
However, numbers have been declining over the past two years. Net overseas migration stood at 306,000 in the year to June 30, 2025.
Australia’s next general election is not due until 2028.
(Reporting by Christine Chen in Sydney; Editing by Jacqueline Wong)
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