Australia will introduce a 45,000-person cap on second-year Working Holiday Maker stays and a 5,000-person cap on third-year stays, Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke announced at the National Press Club in Canberra on Thursday, as part of a migration overhaul.

Burke, who framed the package as restoring "integrity" to the migration programme, set a net overseas migration (NOM) target of 245,000 for the current financial year and 225,000 for 2026-27. The Australian Bureau of Statistics reported on the same day that NOM fell to 292,100 in the year to March 2026.

The package targets three groups: visa overstayers, international students seeking family migration, and Working Holiday Makers from countries other than the United Kingdom.

How will the backpacker ballot work?

For Working Holiday applicants from countries with regional work requirements, processing will return to its previous faster pace. Second-year eligibility will be capped at 45,000 places; applicants must still complete 88 days of regional work before entering the ballot.

The third-year ballot will be restricted to 5,000 places, with a six-month regional work requirement. Last year roughly 57,000 backpackers stayed for a second year and about 31,000 completed a third.

UK applicants will stay in slow processing because the UK Working Holiday scheme does not require regional work and runs under the Australia-UK Free Trade Agreement. UK Working Holiday numbers have grown from about 17,000 during the pandemic to just under 80,000.

What changes to student and visitor visas?

International students will largely lose the ability to attach family members to their visas. Existing families already onshore will keep their status, along with Pacific and ASEAN nationals and students in courses such as PhDs.

Students who change course will have to apply for a new student visa rather than transfer within the system. Graduates may move only to a higher qualification level.

Visitor visas will generally carry a "no further stay" condition, blocking arrivals from applying onshore for another visa.

What changes hit skilled work visas?

Burke will redesign the points test so housing construction trades receive the same recognition as a university qualification. Ministerial Direction 119 will be amended to give processing priority to construction, healthcare, agriculture, fisheries and teaching, reversing a July directive that pushed offshore skilled visa applicants to the back of the queue.

What is the visa overstay crackdown?

Burke announced 100 additional compliance officers and 250 new detention beds. The government is examining whether to repurpose the former Melbourne quarantine facility.

Migration agents will face sanctions or deregistration for encouraging clients to lodge "non-meritorious" claims.

"We cannot have people with some sort of official, formal status, using that official formal status to encourage people to make something which, by any definition, is an unacceptable abuse of the system," Burke said.

Burke wants to restore a pre-2015 deterrent in which detention prompted overstayers to leave voluntarily. "When people had overstayed a visa, we would bring people into detention centres, give them a bridging visa, tell them to leave," he said.

What legislation is still pending?

Burke flagged two changes that need parliament: an expression of interest system to control student arrivals, and tighter rules on weak protection claims. Applicants from countries where more than 85% of protection claims fail account for about 80% of the processing caseload.

Burke ruled out introducing those laws immediately, saying loose immigration agreements could trigger a "behavioural change completely against the national interest" before parliament acted.

How does Burke frame the political debate?

Burke dismissed claims that Australia is a country of "mass migration", noting the country is on track to have 700,000 fewer people in 2030-31 than pre-pandemic forecasts projected. He said migration is currently 47% lower than its post-COVID peak.

He rejected One Nation's plan to push Australia into negative NOM for three years followed by 130,000 annually, saying deeper cuts would harm the economy. He pointed to two-thirds of nurses and roughly half of doctors and construction workers in Australia who arrived with family.

"Imagine half of the construction workers who we have to build the houses that we need, not coming," Burke said. "We need immigration."

He defended the skills list, noting 15,000 construction workers have arrived under Labour while "zero" yoga teachers have entered. Yoga teaching was added under the former Coalition government as part of a deal with India.

"The housing shortage we have is not caused by immigration," Burke said. "But immigration needs to be part of the solution for the housing crisis."