Burke flags backpacker backdown after backlash

The Albanese government is set to overhaul its crackdown on backpackers after a business backlash, Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke has confirmed, as he insists the number of British backpackers in the country needs to be reduced.

The government is also preparing to decide on a new terror alert level system as early as next week, flagging a busy period of policy changes before the end of the year.

Burke confirmed on Friday that he had been consulting industry groups on Labor’s backpacker policy, flagging he was prepared to introduce tweaks to allow businesses to “get the best possible use out of people, while they are here”.

Delaying the rollout of a ballot system for backpackers seeking to extend their stay until next year, lifting the cap on third-year visas and imposing longer regional work requirements on visa-holders are among the options under consideration.

“I am completely open to that,” he said.

The Home Affairs Minister stressed that he could not change the total numbers related to working holiday visas he announced at the National Press Club in September, but there was scope for changes within those parameters.

He added that Australia must find a way to reduce the number of UK backpackers arriving and staying in the country under a free trade deal introduced in 2023, which allows British citizens to live in Australia for up to three years without specific work requirements.

“We can find a way to bring that back to something more sensible and in the national interest, without jeopardising the other parts of the free trade agreement,” he said.

The number of British backpackers in Australia spiked from 47,238 in the 2023-24 financial year to 79,412 in 2024-25.

Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry chief executive Andrew McKellar said the government urgently needed to provide business with certainty as he called for Burke to scrap the planned backpacker ballot.

“We think that this is something that is causing huge uncertainty at the moment for thousands of tourism and hospitality businesses right around Australia, but particularly in regional areas,” he said.

“The clock is ticking, they need to act, they need to act now.”

Speaking at the same press conference as Burke, ASIO Director-General Mike Burgess indicated the government was homing in on a new system for categorising the risk of terror attacks the nation faces.

“We’re briefing the minister next week with Home Affairs, and I’m pretty confident we’ve got something,” he said.

Burgess has stated repeatedly this year that he believes the warning system, introduced in 2005, is too blunt and the current threat level of “probable” underestimates the true risk of a terror attack.

Any new system will require sign off from the states and territories, he said.

Burke said the weakness of the current system was there was no level between probable (meaning a 50 per cent or greater chance of a terror attack within the next year) and expected (meaning authorities have evidence of a specific attack).

“Effectively, what the review is seeking to work out is how can we have the simplest, most targeted way of being able to provide the community with accurate information,” Burke said.

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