Burke's migration shake-up fast-tracks priority job sectors

Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke used a National Press Club address in Canberra today (17 September) to confirm the most significant reshaping of Australia's skilled migration and working holiday settings since Labor came to office, with construction, healthcare, agriculture and teaching occupations moving to the front of the visa queue.

For HR and people and culture leaders in sectors reliant on temporary and skilled migrant labour, the changes carry immediate workforce planning consequences – faster processing for priority occupations, a smaller pool of working holiday makers for regional and hospitality roles, and a tighter points test favouring trade qualifications.

Priority processing tilts toward construction and care

Burke confirmed the government's Ministerial Direction 119, which governs the order in which the Department of Home Affairs processes skilled nomination and visa applications, will be widened to cover more sectors. Under the direction, occupations tied to law enforcement and defence sit at the top of the priority order, followed by construction, healthcare and teaching, with applicants already in Australia processed ahead of those applying from offshore.

"What we'll be doing is updating that and adding to the priority list, construction, agriculture, fisheries and teaching," Burke said, adding that the change would "restore the normal processing speed that we were previously at for primary applications for working holiday-makers."

Points test to reward trade qualifications

Burke said the government's skilled migration points test – the scoring system used to rank and select visa applicants – would be adjusted so that housing trade qualifications carry the same weighting as a university degree, with construction, agriculture, fisheries, resources and teaching added to the priority list.

"Imagine half of the construction workers who we have to build the houses that we need, not coming. Imagine two-thirds of the people who we rely on in aged care or nursing not coming," Burke said, arguing that steep migration cuts proposed by other parties would damage the economy.

Fewer backpackers, tighter ballot for agriculture and hospitality

Working Holiday Maker numbers will also be curbed. Burke said second-year visas would be capped and third-year visas moved to a ballot system, while flagging that United Kingdom backpackers – exempt from the changes under a free trade agreement – have grown sharply in number.

"Just to give you a sense of the pace of the growth, at the time that the free trade agreement was signed, the number of UK backpackers we had here in Australia was in the order of 17,000," Burke said. "The previous peak had been around 35,000. It's now just shy of 80,000 in terms of numbers of people here in Australia."

National Farmers' Federation president Hamish McIntyre said his members would not accept cuts to the broader Working Holiday Maker program, warning of a workforce squeeze ahead of the harvest season. "We need to have confidence that the suitable employees will be available to harvest these crops as we run up to Christmas," McIntyre said, noting that one in seven regional jobs was filled by a working holiday maker and that the cohort injected roughly $700 million a year into the economy.

Migration agent conduct also in scope

Burke said the code of conduct for registered migration agents will be tightened, with those who lodge unmeritorious claims facing sanction or deregistration. "It's something that should have happened some time ago, and 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," he said.

Mark Scott, vice-chancellor of the University of Sydney, cautioned that not all migration streams affect the labour market equally, pointing to the workforce role played by international students. "All migration is not the same," Scott told Radio National. "They make a vital economic contribution while they're here to tourism, to hospitality, to support in the aged care sector and elsewhere."

What it means for employers

Home Affairs data cited during the address showed net overseas migration falling to 292,100 in the year to March 2026, down from 301,000 in the year to December 2025, with the government targeting 245,000 this financial year and 225,000 by 2027–28. For sponsors and recruiters in construction, healthcare, aged care and agriculture, the practical takeaway is a faster – but more selective – visa pipeline, alongside a shrinking casual and seasonal labour pool from the Working Holiday Maker program.