One Nation has intensified its campaign for a major overhaul of Australia’s international student visa system, arguing study visas are being used by some migrants as a pathway for entire families to relocate to Australia and gain access to the labour market rather than for genuine education.
The renewed push comes as international students and their dependants become an increasingly contentious part of the national migration debate, with fresh analysis showing almost 385,000 secondary student and graduate visas were granted to family members over the past four financial years.
One Nation leader Senator Pauline Hanson has called for international student numbers to be substantially reduced and restrictions tightened on family members accompanying students and temporary graduates.
In its latest intervention, One Nation said the system “as it stands is open to abuse”, arguing some people were using study as a “backdoor way for whole families to relocate to Australia”.
“The focus for these people has often been low-skilled work, not study,” the party said.
“The ‘study’ has often been a tick box to get them into the country. Some in the education sector have been more than happy to play along with this.”
One Nation said it continued to support genuine international education where students travelled to Australia for a limited period to undertake serious study, but argued the migration benefits attached to student visas had distorted the original purpose of the program.
Under the party’s proposed approach, graduates would generally be expected to leave Australia after completing their courses unless they could demonstrate skills Australia needed and independently qualify for an appropriate skilled visa.
“Once someone on a student visa has completed their study, they should only be allowed to stay if they have the skills we need and are able to secure a skilled visa,” One Nation said.
“This should be at the discretion of the Department of Home Affairs, which should have strict standards.”
The latest comments build on a broader One Nation policy to close what it describes as student visa loopholes and stop international students from using education as a route to permanent residency or low-wage employment. The party’s published immigration policy also calls for restrictions on foreign students bringing family members to Australia.
The numbers now attracting political attention are substantial.
An analysis of Department of Home Affairs visa data reported this week found 2.22 million student and Temporary Graduate visas were granted between 2022-23 and 2025-26, including 384,735 secondary visas for family members.
Of the approximately 1.66 million student visas granted over that period, 217,337 — around 13 per cent — went to secondary applicants. Temporary Graduate visas showed a larger proportion, with 167,398 of 559,896 visas, or almost 30 per cent, granted to spouses or dependent children.
Separate figures reported this month showed Australia had 271,191 Temporary Graduate visa holders at June 30, including 73,897 secondary applicants, meaning family members represented more than a quarter of people in the graduate visa cohort.
Current Australian rules do allow international students to include immediate family members in their applications, but the definition is narrower than the expression “whole families” might suggest.
Students can generally include a spouse or de facto partner and dependent children under 18. Family members must satisfy health and character requirements, and applicants must demonstrate they have sufficient funds to support their dependants. Parents, siblings and other extended family members cannot ordinarily be added as dependants to an adult student visa.
Student visa holders themselves can currently work up to 48 hours a fortnight during study periods, with unlimited work permitted during scheduled course breaks. Research students undertaking masters by research or doctoral programs have different arrangements.
The debate becomes more complicated after graduation.
International students who complete eligible Australian qualifications can currently apply for a Temporary Graduate subclass 485 visa, allowing them to remain and work in Australia for a further period if they satisfy the visa requirements.
Depending on qualifications and circumstances, graduates can generally remain for between 18 months and three years, while some groups receive different entitlements. Under Australia’s Economic Cooperation and Trade Agreement with India, for example, eligible Indian graduates can remain for up to two years after a bachelor’s degree, three years after certain STEM honours or master’s qualifications, and four years after completing a doctorate.
One Nation wants a much clearer separation between international education and migration.
Senator Hanson has previously argued that students who drop out of courses should be required to leave Australia rather than receiving bridging visas that allow them to remain while pursuing further study applications or appeals.
In June, she accused some providers and students of exploiting “course-hopping”, claiming people were enrolling, dropping out and moving through new courses and visa applications while continuing to live and work in Australia.
One Nation proposed preventing students who abandon their courses from receiving bridging visas and removing access to the Administrative Review Tribunal for appeals in those circumstances.
The Albanese Government acknowledges there have been serious integrity problems within parts of international education, but rejects Hanson’s characterisation of the industry as fundamentally broken.
Education Minister Jason Clare said on Monday there were “shonks” and dodgy providers attempting to profit from international students, but insisted the international education system itself was not a “farce”.
“It is not a farce. But it is important that we protect the integrity of the system,” Mr Clare said.
He pointed to reforms including banning commissions paid to education agents for moving students between providers and measures aimed at stopping people enrolling in one course only to switch after arriving in Australia.
The Government has already gone further this year.
From May, it imposed a 12-month suspension on new applications by private vocational education and English-language providers seeking registration to teach international students, as regulators investigate integrity risks and market saturation.
The Government said the suspension was aimed particularly at poor-quality or non-genuine new providers and would give the Australian Skills Quality Authority greater capacity to scrutinise potential entrants to the international education market.
Other reforms include tougher provider registration requirements, cancellation of dormant registrations and a ban on agent commission payments for onshore student transfers.
The Government has also significantly increased visa costs.
The student visa application charge is now $2,500, with Mr Clare acknowledging this week that the fee had increased from around $700 over recent years. He said some of the additional revenue was helping fund measures aimed at increasing university participation among Australian students.
But Labor is not proposing the scale of reduction advocated by One Nation.
Australia’s National Planning Level for new overseas student commencements is 295,000 in 2026, 25,000 higher than the 2025 level. The Government has frozen that number at 295,000 for 2027 rather than allowing another increase.
Government figures show international student commencements in 2026 are nevertheless tracking below the planning level, down about 8 per cent compared with the same period in 2025 and 13 per cent below 2019 levels.
There were 680,582 international students studying in Australia during the January-to-May 2026 period, according to Department of Education data.
Mr Clare has also pushed back against suggestions international students routinely become permanent migrants.
“Most international students go home, full stop,” he said this week.
He argued Australia should retain the option of keeping graduates with qualifications the country needs, pointing to doctors and nurses as examples where allowing an international graduate to work after completing an Australian education could benefit the country.
That position puts the Government and One Nation closer on one point than their rhetoric might suggest: both say the migration system should increasingly favour skills Australia needs.
The disagreement is over how students reach that point, how many should be allowed to remain after graduation and whether their partners and children should be able to accompany them.
The economic stakes are considerable.
International education generated almost $55 billion in export income in 2025, including $24.4 billion in tuition fees and $30.4 billion in goods and services. Higher education accounted for more than $40.8 billion of the total.
India was the second-largest source associated with Australian international education export income in 2025, accounting for about $9.38 billion, behind China.
Universities and education organisations argue that drastic cuts would therefore have consequences not only for institutions but for employment, research, accommodation, hospitality and other sectors servicing international students.
One Nation maintains those economic benefits should not override concerns about migration, housing and visa integrity.
Senator Hanson has repeatedly attacked universities for what she describes as an “addiction” to international student revenue and has said she is prepared to accept financial consequences for the sector if migration is reduced.
Her party’s position is also being sharpened around family migration.
One Nation has proposed restricting secondary applicants on student and graduate visas, while recent media reports indicate the party wants undergraduate international students prevented from bringing family members and wants secondary applicants removed from Temporary Graduate visas.
The Government has not adopted those proposals.
Official Australian guidance continues to state that eligible students can bring partners and dependent children, provided they are declared and meet visa requirements.
There is also some confusion around One Nation’s broader migration target.
The party’s published material calls for immigration to be dramatically reduced and refers to a cap of 130,000 visas a year. However, Senator Hanson clarified in an ABC interview this month that the 130,000 figure applies to permanent migration rather than overall net overseas migration, which also includes international students, working holiday-makers and other temporary residents.
The current permanent migration planning level is 185,000.
What is increasingly clear is that international education is moving from an education policy issue to the centre of Australia’s wider argument over population growth, housing, skills and migration.
Labor says the answer is tighter regulation, tougher visa assessment and managed student numbers while preserving an industry worth tens of billions of dollars.
One Nation wants a more fundamental reset: students arriving primarily to study, fewer accompanying family members and no automatic expectation that graduating from an Australian institution should provide a pathway to staying in the country.
As political pressure over migration continues to grow, the question of whether an international student visa should be principally an education visa — or also the first stage of a potential migration journey — is likely to become one of the most contested parts of Australia’s immigration debate.
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