Australia will bar most foreign students from bringing partners and children to accompany them during their studies and will require international students to move up the qualification scale to renew their visas, as part of a broader package of migration reforms announced Thursday by Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke, according to a Reuters report.

The changes come amid mounting political debate over migration levels in Australia, after the hard-right One Nation party, which has been gaining in opinion polls, said this week it would seek to cut the number of temporary migrants by 750,000 over three years.

Burke rejected suggestions that the government's reforms were driven by that political pressure. "It's simply demonstrably wrong to suspect that somehow this is a recent bit of work done to deal with a political climate — it's not," he told reporters, according to Reuters.

Under the new rules, secondary applicants — such as spouses and children — will no longer be permitted to join international students on most student visas, Reuters reported, though some students from Pacific Island nations and Southeast Asia will retain the ability to bring partners and children. Spouses and partners of international students currently in Australia are allowed to work, with permitted hours varying by course of study.

The reforms also introduce a ballot system for backpackers seeking to extend working holiday visas, and will require all visitor visas to carry a "no further stay" condition, preventing holders from remaining in the country to apply for another visa category such as a partner visa, according to the report.

The measures are expected to bring Australia's annual net migration down to about 225,000 by 2028 — broadly in line with pre-pandemic levels — from around 300,000 currently.

International education contributed A$53.6 billion ($38 billion) to the Australian economy in the year to June 2025, making it the country's fourth-largest export sector. Despite this economic contribution, foreign students have remained a central focus of the centre-left Labor government's efforts to reduce migration, according to the report.

Student visa application fees have risen by nearly 300 percent to A$2,500 over the past four years, while English-language requirements and minimum savings thresholds for graduate visa applicants have also been tightened.

Migration to Australia surged after the country reopened its borders in February 2022 following nearly two years of COVID-19-related closures, driven largely by international students, backpackers and temporary workers. Net overseas migration has since been declining, standing at 306,000 in the year to June 30, 2025 — with international students accounting for more than half of that figure — down from a peak of 518,000 in 2023, according to the report. — Reuters