September 4, 2026 — 4:50amPrime Minister Anthony Albanese is facing blowback from industry groups over his migration overhaul amid fears that regional pubs will shut down and food security will be compromised without enough foreign workers.As Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke scrambles to work out how to rein in migration without damaging the economy, junior international education minister Julian Hill has used new powers to kill a dodgy graduate diploma course being used by tens of thousands of international students to visa-hop and extend their stay by years.Prime Minister Anthony Albanese pours a beer during the 2025 election campaign.Alex EllinghausenLabor is aiming to bring net overseas migration from 300,000 down to its target of 225,000 after years of missed forecasts. A suite of changes to tighten up the system was abruptly delayed last month after ministers said the policy needed more work.One Nation and the Coalition are proposing large cuts to the inflow of migrants as fresh national accounts show the economy struggling to keep up with population growth.Separate to measures likely to be announced in coming weeks, this masthead revealed last month that Labor had quietly paused working holidaymaker visa applications from 24 countries.Two dozen peak bodies wrote to Albanese on Wednesday about those changes, which they said could hurt industries and test Australia’s arrangement with Asian nations to provide fertiliser in return for food. Backpackers make up around 44 per cent of the horticultural peak harvest workforce.“We are collectively calling for immediate clarity on your government’s intent concerning proposed reform of the [working holidaymaker] program, the extent and effect of current administrative actions, and a commitment to consult,” the industry chiefs said.Groups including the National Farmers Federation, Council of Small Businesses of Australia, Australian Restaurant and Cafe Association, and a range of agricultural groups said the backpacker scheme performed a dual role.As tourists, they argued, working holidaymakers spent more time in regional areas than other visitors. As workers, the letter said, “restaurants, cafes, hotels, pubs, catering operators, retail and the care sectors, including childcare and early learning, rely on [backpackers]”.“These are precisely the services that make a regional community liveable,” they said.The business groups’ decision to unite against changes to backpacker visas reflects the economic trade-offs involved in the migration debate. This masthead previously reported that ministers were concerned about the effect of proposed changes on the budget bottom line and labour shortages in critical industries.Australian Hotels Association chief executive Stephen Ferguson said pubs and clubs relied on backpackers and international students because the system for training locals was broken. He criticised the government for de-prioritising hospitality training even though the sector contributed $74 million to the Skilling Australians Fund.“If they helped us train our own, we’d be far less reliant on immigration at least as it relates to the kitchen, which is our chronic problem,” he said, noting it took nine months to a year to bring a worker into the country after their application was approved.Cathal Leslie, a former economist at the Productivity Commission, rubbished the concerns of big business on Thursday, writing that Australia could drop the ATAR score required to study to be a doctor, increase wages for aged care nursing to attract locals and stop using cheap labour instead of innovating.“Our lacklustre productivity performance has coincided with a migration program that is less skilled than advertised,” he said in the Australian Financial Review, arguing for net negative migration.Backpackers have proved a divisive issue. Both the Nationals and One Nation have pledged to protect the streams of visitors into regional areas.There is bipartisan support for moves to reduce the number of international students.Labor has been working behind the scenes to rein in student numbers, raising visa fees well above the peer nations to $2500 and rejecting a record-high 40 per cent of applications in the most recent time period.Hill used ministerial powers to cancel a graduate diploma course, the Graduate Diploma of Management, that has been used to game the visa system. His action on Thursday represented the first use of powers enacted by parliament last year.“The Coalition left behind a shocking mess in 2022, with unsustainably high growth in student numbers in the least reputable parts of the sector, and our high-quality student visa being degraded into a low-rent illegal work visa and misused by shonks,” Hill said.Nearly half of Australia’s 900 vocational education providers are now offering the course, which has no prerequisites. The government says its graduates add little to Australia’s skilled workforce. Nearly half of the people who enrolled in the course – 18,340 – did not study.The government’s statement of reasons claimed: “High non-commencement rates among international students, low completion rates, significant course transfer activity, high visa refusal rates, and rapid growth that appears disconnected from demonstrated skills demand.“Widespread non-completion of the course may undermine confidence in the quality, purpose and reputation of Australia’s education system.”There are more than 41,000 international students enrolled in the course. Students will not automatically have their visas cancelled but will need to prove to officials how they plan to satisfy their visa conditions.Cut through the noise of federal politics with news, views and expert analysis. Subscribers can sign up to our weekly Inside Politics newsletter.From our partners