Insights

An important feature of Australia’s Family migration program is the Child visa. There are two forms of Child visas – the offshore subclass 101 Child visa, and the onshore subclass 802 Child visa. In the 2026-27 Permanent Migration program planning levels, 3000 places have been allocated for Child visas, including both onshore and offshore visas. It is listed as a footnote to the planning levels table that “Delivery of the Partner and Child visa categories are demand driven, with indicative planning levels only”. The reference to “demand driven” reflects the constraints of section 87 of the Migration Act 1958, which prevents a limit being placed upon the number of Child visas granted to dependent children each financial year, at least until the dependent child turns 20 years old.

On 17 September 2026 the Minister for Home Affairs, the Hon Tony Burke MP, announced in his address to the National Press Club that the Code of Conduct for Registered Migration Agents will be changed so that agents can be sanctioned and potentially deregistered for “encouraging” people to lodge non-meritorious Protection visa applications, which he (with considerable justification) characterised as “an unacceptable abuse of the system”.

In his speech to the National Press Club on 17 September 2026, the Minister for Home Affairs, Immigration and Citizenship announced that the Australian Government will be adding a new capacity to the points test so that “particular skills” will be awarded additional points. Minister Burke explained that the key purpose of this change will be to ensure that construction trades are prioritised under the points test.

The Minister for Home Affairs, Tony Burke, has announced a significant change to the Australian Visitor visa program, being that visitor visas will now be granted with Condition 8503 – “No Further Stay” attached. Minister Burke explained the primary purpose of No Further Stay conditions being placed on visitor visas will be to stop non-citizens from lodging Partner visas inside Australia, although the impact of this change will be broader.

On 17 September 2026, the Australian Government announced significant reforms to the Working Holiday Maker visa program to introduce ballot systems for second and third-year visa extensions and to substantially reduce the number of available places.

The Minister for Home Affairs, Tony Burke, addressed the National Press Club on 17 September 2026 with a major speech announcing the government’s proposed changes to the Australian visa system. The speech was entitled, “Who Comes. Who Stays. Who Leaves”.

In relating to the “who leaves” part of the speech, the Minister announced the government would invest in 100 additional Compliance Officers and 250 additional detention beds, with the government looking at the possibility of repurposing the quarantine facility in Melbourne, presumably a reference to Victoria’s Covid era purpose-built North Melbourne Mickleham quarantine facility that was closed in October 2022 and handed back to the Commonwealth government on 1 January 2023.

Historically, the right for an applicant to appear at an oral hearing and argue their case in person has been a critically important aspect of our merits review system at the former Administrative Appeals Tribunal (1976 to 2024) and Administrative Review Tribunal (current).

That changed with the passing of the Administrative Review Tribunal and Other Legislation Amendment Act 2026 which amended both the Administrative Review Tribunal Act 2024 CTH and the Migration Act 1958 CTH.