As Australia’s federal election looms, the Coalition promises – if elected – to reduce the country’s permanent migration intake by 25% and looks to shrink the number of international students studying at metropolitan universities, the party’s leader has announced.
“I want no Australian to be left wondering what the Coalition stands for. So today, I will outline our key priorities to get Australia back on track,” said Peter Dutton on January 12, speaking in the Victorian electorate of Chisholm.
Dutton said that “rebalancing” Australia’s migration program and “fixing the housing crisis” are priorities for a Dutton Coalition government.
“Labor has opened the migration floodgates. A record one million migrants have arrived in Labor’s first two years. That’s 70% more than in any previous two-year period. It’s put pressure on housing, infrastructure and services. With only 350,000 homes built over the same period, demand has far outstripped supply.
“The Coalition will take action. We will impose a two-year ban on foreign investors and temporary residents purchasing existing Australian homes,” said Dutton.
We will work with major metropolitan universities to set stricter caps on foreign students to relieve stress on city rental markets
Peter Dutton, Coalition
He added: “We will reduce the permanent migration program by 25% for two years – from 185,000 to 140,000 places. In years three and four, we will return to a sustainable 150,000 and 160,000 places. And we will work with major metropolitan universities to set stricter caps on foreign students to relieve stress on city rental markets. Using these levers, we will free up more than 100,000 homes over five years.”
Australia’s overseas migration figures for 2023/24 revealed the number of student visa holders arriving in Australia fell by 25% – from 278,000 in 2022/23 to 207,000 in 2023/24. Despite the drop, international students are the largest group of migrant arrivals.
The figures showed that international students accounted for 39.5% of Australia’s net overseas migration, representing their lowest proportion (outside the pandemic slowdown of 2019/20) since 2016/17.
Dutton had previously banded together with the Greens to block the current Labor government’s plans to cap international student numbers under the ESOS Amendment Bill, believing the measures – which looked to cap international enrolments at 250,000 in 2025 – did not go far enough to reduce migration.
Current education minister Jason Clare was shocked when Dutton “got into bed” with the Greens to block the Bill, with the Greens strongly opposing the Bill’s measures for very different reasons.
Following the Bill’s failure to gain enough support to pass through Senate, the education minister instead chose to introduce new visa processing directive Ministerial Direction 111 (MD 111) on December 19 2024, tied to the individual provider caps previously assigned to institutions.
MD 111 will see departmental officials prioritising student visas for each provider until they reach 80% of their cap figure, also known as their net overseas student commencement number, which was handed down under the government’s thwarted enrolment caps, also known as the National Planning Level, for 2025.
After an institution reaches this point of its allocation, it will be placed at the end of the queue, giving priority to universities that have not yet reached 80% of their cap.
