Labor is rewriting its backpacker crackdown after farms pushed back, but the British problem it was built to fix has not gone away

The Albanese government is going back over its backpacker visa crackdown, and the minister in charge says the problem it is really trying to solve is British.

Tony Burke said on Friday that the government was “very close” to settling the changes and that the way the scheme is carried out was open to “tweaks”. The numbers themselves are not, he said: the overall caps he announced at the National Press Club in September “cannot shift”.

He also said Australia needed to “find a way” to reduce the number of young Britons arriving and staying under the free trade agreement, and that “conversations with the United Kingdom continue”. Burke said he wanted a more sensible arrangement that did not put the rest of the trade deal at risk.

What did the government announce in September?

On 17 September Burke set out a crackdown aimed at meeting Labor’s migration forecasts, which the government now treats as targets: net overseas migration of 245,000 this financial year and 225,000 the next.

For backpackers from countries whose schemes require regional work, second-year visas would be capped at 45,000 and allocated by ballot, with 88 days of regional work needed just to enter the draw. Third-year visas would be capped at 5,000, after six months of regional work. About 57,000 backpackers stayed for a second year and about 31,000 for a third year last year, so the third-year cap alone would have cut that group by more than four in five.

Why are British backpackers treated differently?

Because of the free trade agreement signed in 2023. It lets British citizens live and work in Australia for up to three years, without the 88 days on farms or in regional towns that other nationalities must complete to stay beyond their first year.

The result has been a surge. Burke said in September there were about 17,000 British backpackers in Australia during the pandemic; the latest Home Affairs figures put the yearly intake at 79,412, up almost 70 per cent in a single year. Officials say they are concentrated in the big cities rather than in the regions the program was designed to help.

In August, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese ruled out forcing British backpackers into regional work, which leaves the government trying to cut their numbers through talks with London rather than a rule change of its own.

What could change?

The government has not announced its revised plan. Options reported to be under consideration include delaying the ballot until early next year, raising the third-year cap well above 5,000, and lengthening regional work requirements. None has been confirmed. Burke’s line is that whatever changes in the method, the totals stay.

Who is pushing back?

Farmers, tourism operators and hospitality businesses warned the September plan could cripple industries that rely on backpackers each summer.

Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry chief executive Andrew McKellar said there had been extensive discussions with the government and that the “clock is ticking” before summer. WA Farmers president Steve McGuire welcomed what he called a walking back of the changes but said more work was needed, and argued backpackers should not be counted in migration numbers at all. Independent MP Allegra Spender said the growing uncertainty and slow visa processing were already damaging businesses.

What does it mean for a farm or a café?

For employers in the regions, the second and third year of a working holiday is often the point at which a backpacker is trained and reliable. Fewer third-year visas means more staff turnover in the busiest months. For city businesses, the British cohort is the bigger factor, and that is the part of the scheme the government has said it cannot change on its own.

For backpackers already here, nothing has changed yet: the ballot has not started, and no new rule takes effect until the government announces it.