Health Minister Mark Butler has said the government’s cuts to backpacker visas are “pretty reasonable controls” despite concerns farmers would struggle to find workers to harvest their crops.
The new migration policy unveiled yesterday includes significant cuts to second- and third-year visas for working holiday makers, dropping from 57,000 to 45,000 in the second year, and 31,000 to 5000 in the third.
“We’ve had to do that to be able to focus our efforts and target workers, the skilled workers that are in very high demand in sectors like construction, in healthcare, those doctors and nurses, … in agriculture, in resources, and law enforcement,” Butler told Seven’s Sunrise this morning.
“That really was the plan that [Home Affairs Minister] Tony [Burke] laid out yesterday to get better balance in the system – a system that’s given this country just so much, our migration system – and also to improve the compliance. I think Australians recognise there’s too much visa hopping, there’s too many people overstaying their visas. So it was a very comprehensive package that Tony outlined.”
Butler pushed back on claims the government had not done enough to bring migration into line, saying it had reduced net overseas migration by almost 50 per cent since a post-COVID peak, and was putting additional funding into compliance measures to encourage overstayers to leave.
“This is a very broad package that we announced yesterday, and I think it’s the right balance for the country,” Butler said.
Read the full article here
