Will British backpackers be sent back to the farms? - ABC News & Headlines – Australian Broadcasting Corporation
Anthony Albanese plans to raise the issue of British backpackers with UK Prime Minister Andy Burnham, after a 2021 deal let them stay up to three years without having to do specific work.
There were nearly 80,000 British backpackers last financial year, up from about 47,000 in 2024, while other working holiday visa holders must work in regional areas to extend beyond a year.
Tony Burke wants a cap and ballot for second and third year visas and the Coalition wants a fee for working in a city, so what would it mean for farmers?
David Coady: Australia was already a British backpacker hotspot, but the last year or two is seen a surge in travellers from old Blighty following a 2021 deal that allowed them to skip being sent bush.
Reporter: After years of talk, the deal was done over a dinner at Downing Street.
Boris Johnson, then UK Prime Minister: It will make it easier for British people, for young people to go and work in Australia.
David Coady: After the free trade agreement, the then Prime Minister Scott Morrison signed with UK leader Boris Johnson, British backpackers are allowed to stay in Australia for up to three years without having to do specific work. There were nearly 80,000 of them last financial year, up from about 47,000 in 2024. Other working holidaymaker visa holders must work in regional and rural areas if they want to extend their visas beyond a year. Regional businesses and farmers love backpackers being directed their way because they get a regular supply of workers for tough jobs like fruit picking. Now the Prime Minister Anthony Albanese plans on raising the issue with the UK's Andy Burnham. In Parliament he expressed some frustration with the sorts of travellers who set up shop in eastern Sydney.
Anthony Albanese, Prime Minister: Those UK backpackers are arriving in very large numbers and they are staying at Bondi Beach or Coogee or around particularly the capital cities and working in hospitality there. And that's placing enormous pressure because it's distorting the labour market in these areas as well.
David Coady: So why now? While the Coalition and One Nation want to keep backpacker visas for regional Australia, the government's under political pressure to get its net overseas migration number down. So suppressing the number of UK travellers would help to achieve that. And funneling more of them to farms and regional areas would allay some of the concerns that have been raised by the agriculture sector about slow processing of working holiday visas. Now the Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke wants to introduce a cap on the number of backpackers who can stay for a second year. It would be 45,000 and applicants would have to go in a ballot. They'd also have to work in the regions for 88 days. A third year would be restricted to just 5,000 people with six months working in the bush. The Coalition thinks it has a better plan. Nationals leader Matt Canavan explains you just need to charge backpackers a fee.
Matt Canavan, Nationals leader: Well, the Prime Minister just has to speak to us. We've got a solution on this front. What we would do is impose a fee on any backpacker seeking to get their second or third year by working in a capital city. That fee would help encourage people to get back to the regional work. You'd avoid the fee if you worked in the regions like here in central Queensland.
David Coady: So what would a crackdown on British backpackers in the city mean for the agriculture sector? Abul Rizvi is a former immigration department official.
Abul Rizvi, Former Immigration Department official: If we went back to requiring the 88 days, you'd probably see a fall in the number of working holiday makers from the UK, but you would see an increase in the number of working holiday makers from the UK working in agriculture.
David Coady: But he doubts the UK Prime Minister would be keen to get on board.
Abul Rizvi: The only way you can increase the number of UK working holiday makers doing that regional work is to renegotiate the deal with the UK. I can't see another way of doing it. The suggestion that you can somehow introduce work because it would be contrary to the free trade agreement.
David Coady: And he doesn't back the government's idea of a ballot system for years two and three either.
Abul Rizvi: The ballot will discourage the first working holidaymaker year of visas, of visa holders, from doing the 88 days in the first place.
David Coady: So it remains unclear whether time's almost up for the Bondi Beach British backpackers.
