One Nation's Plan to Cut Temporary Migration by 750,000, Explained

One Nation says it will cut Australia's temporary migrant stock by more than 750,000 over three years. The detail was published on 13 September The Guardian.

The stock is the number of temporary visa holders here at any one time. The cut targets international students. It also targets family members of skilled migrants. One Nation says the plan would return temporary visa numbers to 2017 levels. It says net overseas migration, which is arrivals minus departures, would be 130,000.

One Nation describes the plan as a net-negative arrivals rate for the first three years. Pauline Hanson is the leader of One Nation. Hanson says the policy would "reset Australia's immigration system".

The plan keeps the Pacific labour mobility (Palm) scheme for agriculture in place. That scheme lets workers from Pacific islands and Timor-Leste take seasonal farm jobs. It would remove the ability of temporary skilled migrants to apply for visas for family members.

On enforcement, One Nation says migrants here illegally would be given three months to leave. Those who left voluntarily in that time would keep the ability to apply for visas in future. One Nation says those who remained unlawfully after the three months would face immigration enforcement and a lifetime ban from re-entering Australia.

Labor says the plan would damage construction, health care, aged care and disability sectors. Health Minister Mark Butler says cutting temporary visas by 750,000 over three years would "kill critical industries" The Guardian.

Deputy Liberal leader Jane Hume says Hanson "plucked the number out of nowhere" and "has no modelling to back it up". The criticism is about costings and method. No competing target has been put forward by the Coalition in the material cited here.

One Nation says its proposed 130,000-per-year arrivals cap is 570,000 per year lower than Labor's record numbers Pauline Hanson on Facebook.

On 6 September 2026, One Nation proposed a pension shake-up to boost take-home pay Reuters. A Roy Morgan survey of 5,248 people in November put support for One Nation at 14% nationally, the highest since 1998 Reuters.

The broader context here is how Canberra has lined up. Labor wants voters to hear workforce risk. Its talk of construction, hospitals, aged care and disability is deliberate. It is meant to force One Nation to name who fills those shifts if student and family numbers fall sharply. The Liberals want voters to hear doubts about seriousness. Querying the modelling lets the Coalition distance itself from Labor without owning the 750,000 figure.

In my view, the detail to watch is stock versus flow. Think of stock as water already in the bath and flow as water coming through the tap. A cut of more than 750,000 to the stock over three years is a different administrative task from holding yearly net migration at 130,000. The Palm exception shows where One Nation sees its regional equities. Removing family reunion rights would change the offer Australia makes to mobile workers. The three-month departure window and lifetime ban raise questions about compliance, enforcement resourcing and legal challenge if the policy ever moved from pamphlet to legislation.