Backpacker ballot and detention centre for visa overstayers: what we know about Australia’s new migration plan
Australia’s migration system is to undergo changes designed to better determine who enters, stays in and leaves the country.
On Thursday, the home affairs minister, Tony Burke, outlined tweaks to working holidaymaker visas, visa applications for the partners and families of international students, and stricter monitoring and enforcement of visitors who overstay their visa.
It’s expected the measures will go some way towards quelling disquiet from the government’s political foes over the number of people entering and leaving the country after a drastic post-pandemic surge.
Here’s what we know about the changes so far.
1. Backpackers wishing to stay longer will need to enter a ballot
In June 2025, there were 206,000 working holidaymaker visa holders in Australia. For most, employment in regional areas is a requirement in order to extend a stay for more than a year.
The process will probably become more competitive, with the Australian government proposing to introduce a ballot system. Under the proposal, those hoping to spend a second year in Australia will need to be one of 45,000 plucked from the ballot pool, while third-year hopefuls will fight for 5,000 places.
The exemptions for UK workers coming to Australia will remain in place, meaning their numbers are not capped and visa holders are not required to work in the regions. Burke said the government will continue to discuss the “challenge” – agreed to as a part of its free trade agreement – with UK counterparts.
2. Tighter restrictions for international students wanting to bring family
Partner and family visas have been a hot topic for some political parties, with some suggesting they would be a good place to impose cuts to bring down migration numbers.
Burke confirmed international students and those on graduate visas will no longer be able to add family members to their visas under the proposal. The rule does not apply to visa holders and their families who are already in the country.
The new rule has a number of exemptions, however, and does not apply to visa holders from Pacific and Asean nations.
People undertaking PhD courses will also be able to bring family members.
Burke said: “You’re often in a very different circumstance of life for those sorts [PhD] of students than people are for undergraduate.”
3. More eyes on visitors who overstay their visas
Australia will commit an additional 100 compliance officers and repurpose a former quarantine facility into a detention centre for visa holders who overstay.
It’s unclear what other steps the home affairs department or the federal border force team will take in order to more closely monitor whose visa is valid, and whose isn’t. Guardian Australia has sought more detail on the proposals from the department.
Burke said he believes the changes will affect the behaviour of visa holders.
“We’re dealing with something that Australia hasn’t done for 11 years, but if you go back to how this used to work, effectively you used to get six-to-seven voluntary departures for every person … who you’d actually brought in,” he said on Thursday.
“The real change is effectively for people to be self-managing and working on the basis that this is a country where, if I’ve no longer got a visa, I should leave, and … it’s a behavioural change that’s actually the really big shift.”
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