Background to Tony Burke's pending immigration announcement

When Tony Burke talks about reducing temporary immigration, one useful number for understanding the scale of the issue is the number of people physically in Australia holding temporary visas.

At 31 December 2025, that number was 3.03 million.

That is not the same thing as annual immigration or net overseas migration. It is a stock measure: a snapshot of how many temporary visa holders are in Australia at a particular point in time.

The category is also much broader than temporary skilled workers. At the end of 2025 it included about 709,000 New Zealand citizens on Special Category visas, 661,000 visitors, 478,000 international students and 413,000 bridging visa holders. There were also around 226,000 working holiday makers and 216,000 temporary skilled visa holders.

The total increased by 122,500, or 4.2 per cent, during 2025.

Interestingly, international students were not responsible for that latest increase. Student visa holders fell by about 44,000 over the year. That was more than offset by increases in temporary skilled workers, bridging visa holders, visitors and working holiday makers.

The longer-term trend is more revealing.

Immediately before COVID, Australia had about 2.2 million temporary visa holders. Border closures subsequently pushed the number down to around 2.0 million by June 2020.

It then rebounded rapidly as international movement resumed. There were about 2.46 million temporary visa holders by March 2023, 2.91 million by December 2024, and just over 3.0 million by December 2025.

Relative to Australia's population, the change is also noticeable. Temporary visa holders were equivalent to roughly 8.6 per cent of the population in December 2019. The ratio fell during COVID, but had risen to approximately 10.9 per cent by December 2025.

That ratio needs one qualification: some temporary visa holders, particularly short-term visitors, are not counted in the ABS estimated resident population. It is therefore best understood as a simple comparison of the two totals rather than saying that 10.9 per cent of Australian residents are temporary migrants.

But the trend is clear: Australia now has around one million more temporary visa holders than it did during the pandemic trough, and substantially more than immediately before COVID.