The Liberal-National Coalition says it would cut temporary visa holders by about 650,000 over four years and bring net overseas migration down to 100,000 a year in the first two years of a Coalition government. Party leaders in Canberra announced the target; visa holders would bear its cost.
Jana Favero of the Asylum Seeker Resource Centre said Taylor was out of touch with everyday Australians. “Instead of focusing on the real problems – how to help people pay their rent, manage their mortgage or put food on the table – the Coalition is joining the far right's blame game,” she said.
Who Gets Sorted Out
The Coalition would abolish temporary graduate visas, while leaving limited post-study pathways for PhD, health and education graduates and people studying at regional universities. It would cap international student commencements at 240,000, restrict most students from bringing dependents and tie each student visa to the institution where the student enrolled. A visa becomes more than permission to stay. It's a leash to one institution.
The policy would halve Australia's humanitarian intake to 10,000 a year and give people seeking to make an onshore asylum claim 30 days. Bridging visas face the steepest cut: the ABC reported the Coalition would bring them down from about 414,000 to 20,000. Taylor said temporary visa holders making a second or subsequent temporary visa application would generally have to leave Australia and apply offshore.
The Coalition says it would add 100,000 skilled migrant visas while cutting 650,000 temporary visas. That includes about 60,000 additional temporary skilled visa holders and 15,000 new skilled project visas a year for major projects. It would double the talent and innovation allocation to 7,000 through a new AUKUS and Five Eyes visa. Permanent applicants would get priority based on factors including age, income, English-language proficiency and skilled partners.
Targets Without the Receipts
Taylor said net overseas migration would fall from 292,000 to 100,000 in the first and second year. The Australian Bureau of Statistics recorded 292,100 people in the year to March. The target would rise to 130,000 in the third year and 160,000 in the fourth.
Taylor called the proposal “the biggest cut to immigration in the history of this country” and said, “Australia should be a home, not a hotel. And right now, we're seeing under Labor a guest worker economy.” Nationals leader Matt Canavan cast the same contest as a campaign to “take back our country” from temporary migrants, whom he accused of undercutting Australian wages. “We are a country, not a campground,” he said.
The Coalition said the policy would be neutral for the federal budget, but released no costings or modelling on the broader economic impact. Taylor said the party had worked with the Parliamentary Budget Office and promised to release costings closer to the 2028 federal election. He described the economics as “simple” and said, “We are very, very confident that that simple approach – reducing the numbers but raising the standards – ensures that it's budget neutral and will strengthen the economy, improve productivity, improve competitiveness, improve the skills.” The confidence came before the numbers.
A Race to Cut
Labor was targeting net overseas migration of 245,000 by June the following year and 225,000 by the middle of 2028. The Coalition's targets go further. Labor's visa changes, announced the previous month and taking effect on Friday, also largely targeted students, their families and working holiday-makers.
One Nation had proposed cutting 750,000 temporary visas over three years, pushing net overseas migration into negative territory, then targeting 130,000 in the fourth year or a “ceiling” of 130,000 reviewed annually. One Nation MP Barnaby Joyce said, “I congratulate the Coalition for basically coming up with our policy.” One Nation leader Pauline Hanson called the Coalition's position “a photocopy” of her party's policy and said it had arrived “late to the grand final.”
The Sydney Morning Herald reported Taylor unveiled the policy at a press conference in Sydney on Tuesday, alongside deputy Liberal leader Jane Hume. The reporting describes a contest among parties over how far to cut migration, while the Coalition's proposed rules would determine who can study, work, bring family or wait in Australia for a visa decision.