Australia's Prime Minister is to hold talks with Andy Burnham this week about tightening the rules for British backpackers after a major surge in those heading Down Under.
Anthony Albanese said he wanted to close a carve out that allows UK citizens with Working Holiday Maker visas to avoid a requirement to head to dusty rural regions with labour shortages if they want to stay more than a year.
He said that instead of heading to the Outback to do jobs like harvesting fruit and veg they are 'staying at Bondi Beach or Coogee' city resorts, working in bars and restaurants and distorting the local jobs market.
The agreement, which came into effect in 2023, had previously been ruled out for reform by the Australian government. But that has changed as it seeks to cut the number of migrant workers in the country.
The agreement saw just over 47,000 Brits handed the working visas in the 2023-24 financial year. But that soared to just shy of 80,000 in the following year.
Ahead of a Commonwealth summit starting today in Antigua, Mr Albanese told MPs in Canberra: 'Unlike backpackers from other areas of the world who have to spend time in regional Australia, at the moment those UK backpackers are arriving in very large numbers, much greater than they were previously to that arrangement being in place.
Anthony Albanese said he wanted to close a carve out that allows UK citizens with Working Holiday Maker visas to avoid a requirement to head to dusty rural regions.
He said that instead of heading to the Outback to do jobs like harvesting fruit and veg they are instead 'staying at Bondi Beach (pictured) or Coogee', distorting the local jobs market
'That is just one of the areas in which we will put forward changes, that requires discussions and I will be meeting with Prime Minister Andy Burnham.'
In August, Mr Albanese said the deal with the UK was 'a separate agreement as a result of the UK free trade agreement which we are certainly honouring'.
But his government has now announced plans to introduce ballots for second and third-year Working Holiday Maker visas, limiting the number of extensions available.
The proposed ballots would offer 45,000 second-year places, compared with about 57,000 people who qualified in 2026, while third-year visas would be slashed from 31,000 to just 5,000. First-year visas would remain uncapped.
Regional work can include farming, construction and mining, as well as certain tourism and hospitality jobs in eligible remote areas of Australia.
The proposed changes have raised concerns in regional centres such as Cairns, where tourism operators rely heavily on backpackers to fill temporary jobs.
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