Pauline Hanson’s One Nation has unveiled its most detailed migration policy yet, proposing to reduce the number of temporary visa holders and unlawful non-citizens in Australia by more than 750,000 over three years, sharply restrict international student and graduate visas and temporarily drive net overseas migration below zero.
The policy would represent one of the most dramatic changes to Australia’s migration system in decades, and places further pressure on both Labor and the Coalition as immigration, housing and population growth become central political battlegrounds.
Under the plan released by Senator Hanson, One Nation says Australia’s temporary migrant population would be returned to roughly 2017 levels over a three-year “reset”, before net overseas migration was capped at 130,000 a year.
The party says the temporary visa categories targeted in its modelling would fall by about 766,000 people, although it has rounded the overall policy commitment to “more than 750,000”.
The distinction is important: the policy does not mean cutting annual immigration by 750,000 people. It proposes reducing the number of people already in Australia across selected temporary visa categories, bridging visas and people without a valid visa over three years.
One Nation says the reset would produce net-negative overseas migration during the three years, meaning more people meeting the Australian Bureau of Statistics definition of an overseas migrant would leave Australia than arrive.
After that reset, the party proposes a net overseas migration ceiling of 130,000 a year.
Australia’s official net overseas migration figure was 301,000 in the year to December 2025, down 8.9 per cent from a year earlier and more than 45 per cent below the post-pandemic peak, according to the ABS.
Senator Hanson said the policy was intended to ease pressure on housing, hospitals, infrastructure and living costs.
“I know Australians are doing it tough,” Hanson said.
“Families are competing with hundreds of people for rental accommodation. Patients are stuck in ambulances because there are not enough hospital beds.
Young Australians are being locked out of home ownership while wages and infrastructure fail to keep up.”
She accused successive Labor and Coalition governments of allowing temporary migration to become a pathway towards long-term settlement.
“A larger economy on paper means nothing if Australians are poorer per person and cannot afford a home, find a hospital bed or get ahead,” Hanson said.
International students would be among the groups most affected.
According to One Nation’s policy document, the number of people in Australia on student visas would be targeted to fall from about 589,923 to 350,000 over three years, a reduction of almost 240,000.
The party proposes limiting the main student visa stream to about 100,000 grants a year, while establishing a separate high-value postgraduate pathway focused on PhDs and selected research degrees in fields including science, engineering, frontier technology and healthcare.
The policy material indicates the combined annual student allocation could be around 115,000 when the proposed research stream is included.
Universities that provide accommodation for international students would receive priority, along with regional institutions and providers whose graduates demonstrate stronger post-study outcomes.
One Nation also proposes requiring new student visa applications to be made from outside Australia, apart from a transition arrangement for applications already lodged.
The policy would sharply curtail the ability of students to move from one temporary visa to another while remaining in Australia.
The party argues this would end what it describes as “visa hopping”.
Under the proposed rules, students would generally be required to leave after completing their studies unless they qualified for the new targeted graduate pathway.
Graduate visa holders could move into an eligible employer-sponsored skilled visa, but would not be permitted to obtain another graduate visa or switch back to a student visa from within Australia.
The scale of the proposal would be significant for the education sector.
Temporary students were the largest group of migrant arrivals in 2024-25, accounting for about 157,000 migrant arrivals, according to the ABS.
One Nation nevertheless argues Australia maintained a substantial international education industry before the recent migration surge and says universities should compete primarily on education and research rather than post-study migration opportunities.
“We should be exporting education, not selling migration,” the party’s policy document says.
The proposed changes to post-study work rights are even more dramatic.
One Nation says the existing subclass 485 graduate visa system would be replaced with a single graduate visa capped at around 20,000 grants a year.
The party’s target is to reduce the number of graduate visa holders in Australia from approximately 269,674 to 40,000 within three years — a reduction approaching 230,000.
The new visa would last 18 months and would not be renewable.
Priority would initially be given to graduates from the proposed high-value research visa, followed by applicants in areas such as science, engineering, frontier technology and healthcare.
One Nation argues broad post-study work rights have encouraged students to remain in Australia for years after graduating even where their employment bears little connection to their qualification.
Critics are likely to argue such a reduction could make Australia significantly less competitive against countries such as the United States, United Kingdom, Canada and New Zealand in attracting international students.
Skilled workers could come — but generally without family
One Nation would maintain an employer-driven temporary skilled migration program but sharply restrict visas for accompanying family members.
Its policy document puts the current temporary skilled visa population at about 263,489, including 123,042 dependants or family members.
The party wants that total reduced to around 160,000 over three years.
It says approximately 70,000 primary temporary skilled visas could continue to be granted annually depending on employer demand.
However, new secondary visas for accompanying dependants would generally end.
Existing visas would remain valid until expiry but would not be renewed under the same arrangements.
One Nation says exceptions would apply in limited circumstances, particularly for families attached to high-value research students.
The party argues temporary skilled migration should be targeted at genuine shortages, including nurses, aged-care workers and construction workers, rather than becoming what it calls a parallel family migration program.
Bridging visas targeted as part of crackdown
The proposal would also target Australia’s unusually large bridging visa population.
One Nation says the number of bridging visa holders could be reduced from around 412,533 to 300,000 over three years.
That would be achieved largely by preventing more temporary visa holders from making successive applications while remaining in Australia.
The Albanese government has itself identified the growth of bridging visas as a problem.
The cohort has risen to more than 400,000 people, roughly double pre-pandemic norms, and Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke has been preparing reforms aimed at reducing long-term temporary stays.
Three months to leave for people without valid visas
One Nation estimates there are around 80,000 unlawful non-citizens in Australia and proposes bringing that number to zero.
Under its plan, people without a valid visa would initially be given three months to leave voluntarily.
Those who departed during that period could potentially apply for another Australian visa in the future.
Those who refused to leave would face immigration enforcement and, under One Nation’s proposal, potentially a lifetime ban on returning.
The policy also proposes stronger penalties for deliberate overstaying, including a three-year re-entry ban for some overstays exceeding one month and a lifetime ban for more prolonged deliberate overstaying.
Employers found deliberately using unlawful workers would face stronger penalties and enforcement.
Backpackers and Pacific workers carved out
Despite proposing net-negative migration during the reset period, One Nation says the Pacific Australia Labour Mobility program and Working Holiday Maker program would continue.
That carve-out reflects the heavy reliance of farming, food processing and regional industries on those workers.
The National Farmers Federation nevertheless warned on Monday that severe migration reductions could create labour shortages and increase food prices.
NFF president Hamish McIntyre said about one in seven farm workers was a working holiday maker and warned farmers could decide not to plant crops if they could not be confident of finding workers to harvest them.
Hanson has responded that backpackers and PALM workers are not being targeted by the proposal.
Labor says plan would ‘smash’ construction and care sectors
The Albanese government has attacked One Nation’s proposal as economically dangerous.
Health Minister Mark Butler warned the reduction would hit sectors already experiencing severe labour shortages.
“This is going to smash industries like construction,” Butler said on Monday.
“It would devastate the health sector and aged care and disability.”
Labor argues that reducing migration too abruptly would deprive Australia of workers needed to build homes and care for an ageing population.
The government says it is already bringing migration down without imposing the scale of reductions advocated by One Nation.
Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke said in June that net overseas migration had fallen to 301,000 and temporary visa migration was down sharply from the post-COVID peak.
“We are bringing migration down with a sensible, measured approach to provide the skilled workers Australia needs, while addressing exploitation and rorts,” Burke said.
“The numbers of temporary visa holders and international students also continue to fall, as we prioritise the skills that we need to care for our sick and elderly and build homes.”
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has now described 225,000 a year by 2027-28 as the government’s net overseas migration target.
“We’ve finalised our numbers. We’re headed to 225,000 in two years,” Albanese said last month.
Treasury’s current forecasts put net overseas migration at 295,000 in 2025-26, 245,000 in 2026-27 and 225,000 from 2027-28.
The government has yet to publish the full package of measures it intends to use to achieve those numbers.
Albanese has previously accused the Coalition and One Nation of throwing migration figures around “like confetti” without explaining how the numbers would be achieved, while arguing skilled migrants remain necessary in aged care, agriculture and construction.
Coalition also wants lower migration — but rejects One Nation’s numbers
The Coalition is pursuing its own substantial migration reduction but has also rejected One Nation’s newly announced figures.
Deputy Liberal leader Jane Hume said on Monday that several years of net-negative migration would produce a major economic shock.
“Simply saying we’re going to have negative migration for several years, negative NOM, well, that would be a real shock to the economy, and it would make all Australians poorer,” Hume said.
“My concern here is that these numbers have simply been plucked out of thin air, that there isn’t any modelling behind them.”
She said migration policy needed to consider not only total numbers but the mix of workers entering Australia.
“Getting that right to make sure that you don’t push the country into recession is really important,” she said.
The Coalition’s own approach is to formally link migration to housing construction.
Opposition Leader Angus Taylor has pledged that a Coalition government would cap net overseas migration at no more than the number of new homes completed each year, with migration initially set “well below” that cap to allow housing supply to catch up.
The Coalition has not yet specified a fixed annual migration number because it says the cap should move with housing completions.
Taylor argues Australia’s recent migration intake has moved too far ahead of the country’s capacity to provide housing, roads, hospitals and schools.
The Coalition has also proposed tougher visa character requirements, more aggressive action against abuse of the visa system and a stronger emphasis on what it calls Australian values.
That leaves all three major political forces calling for migration to come down — but disagreeing sharply over how far and how fast.
Housing remains central to One Nation’s argument
One Nation has made housing the central economic case for its policy.
The party argues Australia cannot build homes quickly enough to accommodate recent population growth and says reducing demand is therefore necessary.
It rejects the argument that the answer is simply to build more housing.
The Coalition makes a similar connection between housing supply and population growth but proposes linking migration to construction rather than forcing net migration into negative territory.
Labor counters that Australia needs migrants working in construction to help increase housing supply.
That circular problem — migration increasing housing demand while also supplying some of the workers needed to build homes — is one of the central difficulties in the national debate.
One Nation points to Canada
Hanson has cited Canada as evidence that migration can be reduced sharply without collapsing the economy.
Canada has moved to substantially reduce temporary migration, particularly among international students and some temporary workers, after rapid population growth intensified pressure on housing and services.
One Nation argues Canada’s experience demonstrates economic activity can continue while population growth slows.
But Australian critics say the two countries’ labour markets, visa systems and industry structures are not identical and warn a sudden net-negative migration policy could have very different consequences.
A major shift from One Nation’s previously unclear policy
The document also represents an attempt by One Nation to clarify earlier confusion over exactly what its longstanding 130,000 migration figure meant.
Last month, One Nation MP David Farley suggested the party’s effective migration rate could be above 230,000 once skilled workers were included.
Hanson publicly corrected him, insisting 130,000 referred to the party’s proposed total net overseas migration target.
ABC analysis at the time noted there had been considerable confusion within the party over the distinction between visa grants, migrant arrivals, temporary visa holders and net overseas migration.
The new policy goes considerably further by setting out individual targets across student, graduate, temporary skilled and bridging visa categories.
Its table proposes reducing the selected visa populations from approximately 1.616 million to 850,000, a reduction of about 766,000.
That includes approximately:
- 240,000 fewer student visa holders
- 230,000 fewer graduate visa holders
- 103,000 fewer temporary skilled visa holders and dependants
- 113,000 fewer bridging visa holders
- 80,000 fewer unlawful non-citizens
The party says its broader objective is to reduce Australia’s total temporary migrant population to around 2.1 million to 2.2 million, roughly the level recorded in 2017.
Migration becoming defining political battle
The announcement comes as One Nation enjoys historically high polling support and immigration becomes one of the clearest points of competition between Hanson, Albanese and Taylor.
One Nation has recently recorded around 30 per cent primary support in some national polls, overtaking both Labor and the Coalition in individual surveys.
Labor is trying to demonstrate it has regained control of post-pandemic migration while avoiding cuts severe enough to damage universities, construction, agriculture, aged care and other labour-dependent industries.
The Coalition is trying to move substantially below Labor’s numbers without embracing One Nation’s net-negative reset.
And Hanson is now offering voters the most aggressive numerical reduction of the three.
The economic consequences would be substantial.
International education, healthcare, construction, hospitality, agriculture and numerous service industries depend heavily on temporary migrants.
At the same time, the rapid post-pandemic increase in migration has intensified political pressure around housing availability, rents, congestion and public infrastructure.
Official figures show net overseas migration has already fallen substantially, from a financial-year peak of 538,000 in 2022-23 to 306,000 in 2024-25 and 301,000 in the year to December 2025.
The argument is therefore no longer about whether migration should fall.
Labor, the Coalition and One Nation all say it should.
The dividing line is now how far Australia can reduce migration without creating a labour shortage, damaging universities or pushing the economy backwards — and whether lower population growth can deliver the housing and living-standard relief voters increasingly demand.
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