Immigration Minister Tony Burke has proposed cutting secondary student visas as the Albanese government desperately searches for ways to bring down migration figures.
News24.com.au has confirmed that Mr Burke’s plan includes axing so called “secondary student visas” – for partners or family members of people on student visas.
There are 67,000 such people in Australia at the moment with more than 100,000 applications.
It comes as the Albanese government searches for ways to bring net overseas migration down from 300,000 a year to its target of 225,000.
The government has not yet revealed the full package of measures that Mr Burke has been working on after he was forced to cancel a major immigration speech.
News24 understands Mr Burke’s promised announcement will not proceed this week, with no clear indication on when it will take place.
Defence Industry Minister Pat Conroy declined to confirm whether Mr Burke was looking to axe secondary student visas on Sunday.
“You will know what our migration policy is when Minister Burke announces it,” he told Sunday Agenda.
“I’m not going to get ahead of him or front run the minister. I respect him too much, and I respect cabinet processes too much.”
He added that there were no divisions in cabinet over migration after Mr Burke failed to get his policy proposals approved.
“Absolutely not. We run a good cabinet process where everyone gets to have their say around the cabinet table,” Mr Conroy said.
Earlier this week, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese intervened to overrule Mr Burke on a proposed reduction to the annual refugee intake.
Speaking at the News Corp Bush Summit, Mr Albanese rejected suggestions that Labor was preparing to abandon its commitment to a larger humanitarian intake.
“Well, no, not necessarily. Don’t believe everything you read in the (Australian Financial Review),” Mr Albanese said when asked whether the refugee intake would be cut.
The AFR reported that the annual refugee intake would be cut by a third — from about 20,000 to 13,750.
Asked whether a reduction would amount to a response to the rise of One Nation and a sacrifice of Labor’s previous position, Mr Albanese rejected the suggestion.
“No, we’re responding to the national need, something that we’ve said before,” he said on Thursday.
“We started lowering the numbers well before (the rise of One Nation), because we recognise that we want to get that right to assist the Australian economy.”
Mr Albanese subsequently confirmed annual humanitarian intake would remain at 20,000 places, and sit alongside “strong border security measures”.
The intervention created an awkward moment for Mr Burke, whose office had earlier confirmed that the government was considering reducing the intake.
Mr Albanese’s intervention prompted claims from the Coalition that Labor was divided or had never seriously intended to make the refugee cut.
Shadow energy minister Dan Tehan questioned whether the proposed reduction had ever been genuine.
“My view is they probably never had any intention of doing it (making cuts to the refugee intake),” he told News24 on Thursday.
He argued the sequence of events allowed Mr Albanese to distance himself from the proposed reduction while presenting himself as the politician who had stopped it.
“What we’ve seen is the Prime Minister just let it be leaked out that it was him … he was the one who said, make sure that this never happened,” Mr Tehan said.
“It seems they’re completely at sixes-and-sevens as to how they’re going to address it. They have no plan and they seem to be making it up as they go along.”
The Coalition has separately promised to reduce net overseas migration below 200,000 a year and has proposed reducing the humanitarian intake to 13,750 places.
However, shadow immigration minister Jonno Duniam recently said the Coalition would not be releasing its complete immigration policy this year.
Mr Duniam said the Coalition was deliberately taking its time to ensure its policy reflected the economic and social conditions Australia could face in 2028.
Labor, the Coalition and One Nation have all struggled to shore up their immigration figures, and the issue shapes up to be a major election battle.