Labor's immigration crackdown explained - ABC News & Headlines – Australian Broadcasting Corporation

Plans to detain and deport visa overstayers, and cut down backpacker and student visa numbers are among the key pillars of Labor's new plan to reduce net migration.

How will it work and what will it mean for hopeful migrants and the industries that rely on them? 

Josie Sargent: Immigration is one of the biggest political issues at the moment, and now the federal government has revealed its plan. Labor's goal is to reduce net overseas migration from about 300,000 a year now to 225,000 by 2028. That means when you take into account all the people arriving in the country and all those leaving, we still end up with hundreds of thousands more people living in Australia each year. Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke has outlined how the government plans to meet its target.

Tony Burke, Home Affairs Minister: If you want to come on a temporary basis to Australia, apply for a temporary visa. If you want to come to Australia permanently, apply for a permanent visa. And if you no longer have a valid visa, you should leave Australia. That's all it is.

Josie Sargent: So what exactly is he proposing? Well, Labor wants to clamp down on three groups. Backpackers, the families of international students, and people who overstay their visas. So let's start with international students. In the last financial year, more than 330,000 visas were granted. About 10% went to dependents or family of those students. The changes will stop international students from bringing family, unless they're doing a PhD. But Mr Burke says the family members of students currently in Australia won't be affected.

Tony Burke, Home Affairs Minister: But we will no longer be adding to the stock of students automatically being able to bring family members over. We have special visa conditions which will still allow it for the Pacific and for the ASEAN nations and for certain courses, for example, PhD courses.

Josie Sargent: And what about backpackers? The government wants to limit the number of those who stay for a second and third year by introducing a ballot system. Only 45,000 backpackers could stay for a second year, after 88 days of regional work. For the third year, the ballot would be restricted to just 5,000 places, with a six-month regional work requirement. But farmers are not happy with that. They argue they're already struggling to find workers for the harvesting season, and this is going to make things worse. The National Farmers Federation's Chief Executive, Mike Guerin, warns that'll mean more expensive food and emptier supermarkets.

 Mike Guerin, National Farmers Federation Chief Executive: Processing cannot take place without the one in seven skilled migrants we have every year in this country helping us harvest, plant and do the wonderful things we do in this industry in Australia.

Josie Sargent: The last cohort is visa overstayers. There are currently 77,000 in the country. A 100-strong border force team will be established to remove them. That sparked fears by rights groups that they would be like US ICE agents. But Tony Burke rejects that. Former Deputy Secretary of the Immigration Department, Abul Rizvi, presided over migrant removals in the past.

Abul Rizvi, former deputy secretary of the Immigration department: Immigration compliance officers were firstly very, very heavily trained. Secondly, they wore white shirts, ties and a name badge. I'm hopeful these extra staff will not be border force. We don't want people with black uniforms and guns going around looking scary.

Josie Sargent: Finally, the government would also crack down on what's called visa hopping, where people switch to different visas to stay in the country. A no further stays provision would prevent people arriving on tourist visas from lodging new applications. The Home Affairs Minister says this can all be achieved without legislation because, despite negotiations, the government hasn't been able to reach a deal with the opposition. So what are the other parties saying? Opposition leader Angus Taylor says Labor's targets are too high. The Greens argue the government is going too far. The Coalition is pushing for net migration of 170,000 people a year, pegged to housing construction, while One Nation wants it capped at 130,000.