Labor has announced a broad overhaul of Australia’s migration system, including plans to prevent international students from bringing family members, reduce access to extended working holiday visas and curb the practice of temporary migrants repeatedly changing visas to remain in the country.

The reforms will also focus on students who switch courses to extend their stay, tougher visitor visa settings, questionable protection visa claims and stronger action against people who remain in Australia after their visas expire.

Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke outlined the measures during an address to the National Press Club on Thursday, while cautioning that excessive cuts to migration could hurt the economy.

‘The times that we’ve had massive reductions too far in immigration have coincided with the worst economic times in Australia’s history. We need to be careful with it, and I’m being careful with it.’

Burke said the government was seeking to draw a sharper line between temporary and permanent migration pathways.

‘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,’ he said.

Among the most significant changes, international students and graduate visa holders will no longer have an automatic right to bring family members to Australia.

‘For international students, we will no longer be allowing the attaching of family members for international students or for graduate visas,’ he said.

The changes will not affect partners or family members who are already in Australia on an existing visa.

Working holiday-makers will also face tougher rules when seeking to remain in Australia for a second or third year.

Backpackers will no longer automatically receive another working holiday visa even if they complete the required regional work. Instead, eligible applicants will enter a ballot.

The number of second-year visas will be capped at 45,000, compared with about 57,000 people who qualified last year.

The cut will be much sharper for third-year visas, with just 5,000 places available, compared with about 31,000 people who qualified last year.

‘Not everybody will get through because we need to have some control and certainty of what those numbers are.’

Visitor visas will also be tightened to prevent people entering Australia as tourists and then switching to another visa while onshore.

At present, a visitor can apply for another visa after arriving in Australia and potentially remain on a bridging visa while that application is processed.

Burke said the practice had contributed to visa-hopping and made authorities more reluctant to approve some genuine visitor visa applications.

Under the new system, many visitor visas will carry a ‘No further stay’ condition, generally preventing holders from applying for another visa while they remain in Australia.

International students will also be prevented from repeatedly moving between courses at the same or lower qualification level in an attempt to extend their stay.

‘You can go up the qualification scale, but only up the qualification scale,’ he said.

‘So, at the end of a bachelor degree, if you want to then do a master’s, that’s up the scale, that’s ok.’

Burke said the government was targeting cases where students finish one course before enrolling in another, often cheaper or lower-level qualification primarily to remain in Australia and work.

‘One of the classic areas of Visa hopping is people finish a course, hop to the next course, hop to the next,’ he said.

He said some students were moving to questionable education providers that offered cheaper courses with minimal attendance requirements.

‘Study with me. It will cost you less. We’re not very demanding on whether you attend anything. And you’ll be able to go for your life and get out there and work.’

The government is also planning a crackdown on what Burke described as disingenuous protection claims lodged by temporary migrants who have exhausted other options for remaining in Australia.

He said some applicants were being encouraged to lodge asylum claims despite having little prospect of success because the appeal process could allow them to continue living and working in Australia for years.

‘Put one in anyway and you’ll be able to wait out the appeal system, wait out the court system, you might get up to nine years working in Australia.’

Migration agents who encourage clients to lodge bogus claims could also face sanctions or deregistration.

The government will also ramp up enforcement against visa overstayers, with Burke seeking to revive the approach used before 2015 of directing people whose visas have expired to leave Australia and potentially detaining those who refuse.

An additional 100 compliance officers and 250 detention beds will be added to support the crackdown.

The government is examining existing facilities near airports as well as the former Melbourne quarantine facility for additional detention capacity.

Despite the crackdown, Burke rejected claims Australia was experiencing mass migration.

‘There are parts of the world where mass migration is something that they are dealing with. It is not something we’re dealing with in Australia,’ he said.

‘There was a peak post-pandemic, which was too high. There are reasons why it was too high and reasons why, logically, there was always going to be a peak.’

Burke also defended immigration as critical to the Australian economy, arguing that both regional communities and major cities relied heavily on overseas workers and international students.

‘It is true that immigration is critical to the economy of our regions. It is also true that immigration is critical to the economy of our cities as well,’ he said.

He said international education supported jobs far beyond universities, including cleaners, maintenance workers and businesses.

‘There’s a whole section of the economy in the cities that is only there because we have an important export industry in international students,’ Burke said.

‘Drastic cuts, wherever you make them, hurt the economy in every part, in every area.

‘We talk about the need for extra housing. It’s pretty hard to get a house built without having a plasterer involved.

‘In both Sydney and Melbourne, close to two-thirds of the plasterers we have were born overseas.

‘We need immigration. We just need to make sure that it is targeted to Australia’s needs, both in terms of numbers and across the different categories that work for our economy.’

Burke suggested the wrong type of migrants were often staying. 

‘There are individuals who would never, in fact, meet the qualifications to be able to become a permanent resident, and effectively jump from visa to visa, use the appeals process to be able to stay here as long as possible,’ he said.

‘It eventually becomes absurd not to just let them stay because, at that point, they have Australian-citizen children and, at that point, they are so integrated into a local community.’

Burke also rejected claims Australia’s housing shortage was primarily caused by immigration, arguing that falling household sizes had played a major role.

‘Housing, and the housing shortage we have, is not caused by immigration.

‘Anyone who looks at the migration program and wants to somehow say it was their fault, no. Australians have made a decision about how many people they want per household.’

Britain must confront dementia with the same determination that transformed cancer care, Baroness Louise Casey has said in an appeal to the Daily Mail.

Lady Casey, who chairs the Independent Commission on Adult Social Care, urged ministers to make dementia “Britain’s next great national mission – just as cancer was for previous generations”.

Her call follows a new report from Alzheimer’s Society and The King’s Fund, which warns that dementia care in England is still “stuck in the last century” and requires radical reform.

The report says the dramatic improvement in cancer survival rates over the past five decades offers policymakers a blueprint for improving dementia diagnosis, treatment and care. But with the population ageing rapidly and the number of cases climbing, it warns that action is increasingly urgent.

Lady Casey and Professor Sir Mike Richards, the former national cancer tsar, will press the Government to act when they speak at the Alzheimer’s Society annual conference in London today.

Writing for the Daily Mail, Lady Casey said: “Many people in this country will remember when cancer was widely seen as a death sentence, and little could be offered beyond making people as comfortable as possible in their final days.

“Since the 1970s we have largely transformed that story through decades of research, earlier diagnosis, public awareness, clinical trials and better treatments.

“This tremendous progress did not come from one miracle cure or one government.”

‘It came because the country decided that cancer mattered, deserved our national effort, and kept up the fight, year after year.

‘It is time we gave dementia that same seriousness and ambition.’

The Daily Mail and Alzheimer’s Society have partnered in a drive to defeat dementia, which claims 76,000 lives a year as Britain’s biggest killer.

Our Defeating Dementia campaign aims to raise awareness of the disease, in an effort to increase early diagnosis, boost research and improve care.

The number of people living with dementia in the UK is expected to rise from 1million to 1.4million by 2040, with the cost to the economy predicted to double.

The new report sets out the steps experts believe the government, NHS and social care leaders must take if dementia diagnosis, treatment, care and support is to make the same progress seen for cancer, where survival rates have almost doubled since the early 1970s.

It calls for strong leadership, clear targets for diagnosis and treatment, and a commitment to improving the quality of data.

Alzheimer’s Society has previously accused the NHS of treating dementia patients like ‘second-class citizens’ who are often ‘cast aside’ with little more than a leaflet.

And the Daily Mail revealed an 18-week diagnosis target for dementia appeared in early drafts of an upcoming government guidebook but was removed in later versions, raising fears the condition is not being treated as a priority.

However, the government has committed to appointing a ‘dementia tsar’, who charities hope will drive the kind of sustained change that transformed cancer care, and there are promising new drugs on the horizon.

As the first ‘cancer tsar’, appointed as National Cancer Director in 1999, Sir Mike oversaw three consecutive cancer strategies.

Speaking ahead of today’s event, he told the Daily Mail that ‘in many ways, dementia is where cancer was decades ago’ but there are ‘lessons to be learned’ and opportunities for dementia to ‘do a bit of catching up’.

Sir Mike added: ‘When I started working in cancer 50 years ago, an eminent professor asked me why I wanted to work in oncology, adding “Don’t they all die?”.

‘There was so little hope and ambition. But look at what we have managed to achieve.

‘While there are still real challenges in cancer, the progress made shows what can be possible when investment, collaboration, leadership and hope combine.

‘Today, what continues to make the difference are clear diagnosis and treatment pathways with timed targets, and a national registry that tracks progress.

‘Dementia deserves the same ambition that has transformed cancer care. Now is the time to build momentum.

‘The conditions are right for the incoming dementia tsar to lead a movement for change, but it will require everyone involved – patients, clinicians, health service managers, academics, charities, industry, together with ongoing political will – to deliver long-term change.’

The gulf between people’s experiences of dementia care and cancer care are further exposed in a new survey of 1,000 people caring for someone with dementia.

Around a quarter of respondents were able to make a direct comparison between diagnosis, treatment and support for both dementia and cancer.

Over half (51 per cent) said their experience of dementia care was worse and only one in ten (11 per cent) said it was better.

Sarah Woolnough, chief executive of The King’s Fund, said: ‘There was a time when cancer was thought of as a death sentence, frequently referred to as the “Big C”, such was the fear around a diagnosis.

‘Whilst still a major killer claiming far too many lives, many people are living well and after cancer and there has been a remarkable transformation in cancer outcomes in a relatively short space of time.

‘The same cannot be said for dementia care, with approaches to treatment still stuck in the 20th century.

‘There is ambition that this might be about to change, with recent major scientific advancements giving hope that dementia treatment on the cusp of a cancer-style revolution in care.

‘We will only be able to fulfil this potential if the health and care system is ready to diagnose dementia swiftly and roll out new innovations at scale.

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‘That is currently far from the case, and we believe that lessons can be learnt from the progress made in cancer.

‘The potential for wholesale change is within reach; policymakers now need to follow these steps in order to grasp it.’

Michelle Dyson, chief executive of Alzheimer’s Society, said: ‘If you have cancer, it is treated urgently, you get a specific diagnosis, and there is a clear pathway that takes you through your care and treatment.

‘With dementia, it can be years before you get a diagnosis and, all too often, people are sent home with a leaflet and little else.

‘Both are horrendous conditions, and there is still much to do for cancer care, but people’s experiences are worlds apart.

‘I know first-hand, as a former Director General in the Department of Health and Social Care, what happens when something is made a priority, with proper targets, investment, leadership and accountability. We desperately need this for dementia.

‘Urgency is critical. Dementia is the UK’s biggest killer and we cannot afford for this to take 50 years.

‘Government must make dementia a priority and learn what it can from cancer to create a future where dementia no longer devastates lives.’

Social care minister Alison McGovern will admit dementia has been ‘neglected for far too long’ when she delivers a speech at the conference.

She is expected to say: ‘Nowhere is the division between health and social care felt more sharply than by people living with dementia and their families – too often left to navigate a fragmented system at the most difficult time in their lives.

‘That is why, this year, we will publish the first ever Modern Service Framework for Frailty and Dementia, our guidebook for better support.

‘It will bring health and care workers together, adhering to a set of clear national standards, sharpening our priorities, and raising expectations of the help that people living with dementia and their families should receive.

‘We must put a floor under the kind of care that people can expect.

‘And we must improve quality of care, giving the workforce the direction and support it needs to reach those standards.

‘No one wants a future where we live longer but can do less. We want a future where our loved ones stay with us for more years with more joy and more life to live.’

• For confidential advice, call Alzheimer’s Society’s Dementia Support Line on 0333 150 3456 

Pauline Hanson has gained an unexpected supporter in Fatima Payman, who previously labelled the One Nation leader a “disgrace to the human race”, as Hanson pursues a fresh dispute with Prime Minister Anthony Albanese.

Hanson, Payman and crossbench MP Dai Le have united in calling for changes to Parliament’s staff allocation system, claiming the existing arrangements favour Labor.

Their joint stance represents a striking shift for Payman and Hanson, whose public disagreements have played out repeatedly in recent years.

During one particularly prominent clash in late 2024, Hanson questioned Payman’s eligibility to serve in Parliament, citing her birth in Afghanistan and her former Afghan citizenship.

That challenge led to a heated Senate exchange in which Payman called Hanson a “disgrace to the human race”.

However, the two appeared to put their differences aside on Thursday, standing alongside each other in Canberra to raise concerns about what they say are uneven staffing allocations.

“We have different views on almost everything, but what we have in common is that we’re all women,” Payman said.

Payman also took aim at Albanese, accusing the Prime Minister of promoting support for women while responding differently to female critics.

She said Albanese’s language on gender equality did not match his treatment of women who challenge or criticise him.

She pointed to comments about former Australian of the Year Grace Tame as ‘difficult’, remarks involving Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi and a podcast appearance in which Albanese joked about wanting to ‘shag’ pop star Kylie Minogue.

‘Australia has heard the Prime Minister’s recent comments about melons, Grace Tame and Kylie Minogue,’ Payman said.

‘He boasts about leading a female-majority caucus and points to his government’s record on women’s rights. But are those rights only extended to women who agree with him?’

At the heart of the dispute is a parliamentary resource: personal advisers. 

While every federal MP and senator receives electorate staff to help run their local offices, the Prime Minister ultimately determines how many additional advisers are allocated across Parliament. 

These advisers handle everything from policy development and legislative research to media management and political strategy.

Payman argued the system gives the government enormous power over its political opponents.

Figures released earlier this year showed Payman is the only independent parliamentarian without a single additional adviser. 

After quitting Labor over disagreements about the government’s position on the Israel-Gaza conflict, Payman says she believes she has been deliberately sidelined. 

‘I know the Prime Minister wants to punish me, but he should not be allowed to play favourites,’ she said.

‘There should be an independent process for determining parliamentary resourcing, not the whim of a petty man.

‘We don’t have to agree with each other, but we can come together, join forces, and say we demand better from this government.’

For Hanson, the campaign revives a long-running concern. 

The One Nation leader has repeatedly argued that her party’s staffing allocation no longer reflects its growing parliamentary presence. 

In an August letter to Albanese, she requested a significant increase in adviser numbers, arguing One Nation is being treated less favourably than the Greens despite meeting the threshold for a recognised minority party.

‘Commonwealth law uses five members as the threshold for a recognised non-government minority party,’ she said. 

‘The Australian Greens meet that threshold and you have allocated their adviser staffing on that basis. One Nation now meets this threshold.’

The 2024 feud between Hanson and Payman was one of the most dramatic and widely reported Senate exchanges during that parliamentary session.

Hanson had attempted to table documents relating to Payman’s citizenship in the Senate, to which the independent senator responded with a fiery speech.

Payman accused Hanson of racism and said she had spent years ‘spread[ing] hatred’ and ‘division’, adding that the One Nation leader was ‘vindictive, mean, nasty’.