Peter van Vliet, CEO, Migration Institute of Australia (MIA)
The May Federal Budget announced that the 2026-27 permanent migration program planning levels would remain at 185,000. A week later the Government published changes to the visa category allocations within that overall program on a page within the Department of Home Affairs website.
Most surprising in the subsequent announcement was the decision to more than halve a skilled migration program reserved exclusively for regional areas from 33,000 to 14,110.
These cuts include the 491 and 191 visa categories which are specifically reserved for regional Australia. They require visa holders to remain living in regional Australia for three years in order to qualify for permanent residency. Many visa holders stay beyond the three years after that time as they have established roots in regional communities and are happy to continue their residence there.
At a time when the migration debate is centred around complaints of overcrowding in our large cities, while in contrast regional areas continue to cry out for skilled workers, it was a bold policy decision.
The Government has yet to announce the policy rationale for the cuts but a clue might be a Grattan Institute report into immigration from 2022 which recommended shelving regional migration programs. This was on the basis that skilled migrants in the regions earn less money and pay less tax and so according to that report are therefore not as productive.
The Grattan Institute had been highly influential with the Government on migration policy and also recommended axing the Significant Investment Visa (which made a select few migrants invest millions of dollars into our economy) which the Government did much to the chagrin of Sydney’s investment community.
Another reason could be to reshuffle program places to the premium Employer Sponsored 186 visa which was increased and which has been facing large backlogs and waitlists after the Government opened up more pathways to this permanent visa from the temporary 482 visa program in December 2024.
The Government might argue the 491/191 program was a less successful program but why not reform or remodel the program rather than cut it? Is a successful migration policy just about higher income levels and taxation receipts for the federal treasury and key jobs in big cities? Does not filling jobs that are critical to regional business and communities and shifting migrants to where they are needed matter more than treasury revenue?
Governments can use migration policy levers to distribute migrants to where they are needed and where they place less stress on infrastructure and housing capacity. Regional visas are one way to do this. At a time when the migration debate is fixated on capacity and population pressures this seems a good thing to do.
Regional media have been picking up this story because in the regions the debate about migration is very different to the cities. Ageing populations and the lure of the big cities makes filling local jobs difficult for regional employers. Talk to any regional mayor, regional small business or agribusiness and they will tell you they find it hard to get skilled workers locally and migration is a critical component of their workforce strategy. Without regional migrants produce wouldn’t get picked and regional aged care facilities and hospitals would struggle to operate. Migrants can often be the glue that keeps Australia’s small towns and regions going.
Gold Coast Mayor Tom Tate said at our recent regional migration conference in May that he doesn’t care where migrants come from as long as they are willing to roll their sleeves up and get to work. His fast-growing region just needs workers to help build infrastructure.
Coolaman Shire Council in the Riverina have said migrant workers in the local Allawah Lodge have helped locals age in place. The meat industry and citrus industry rely heavily on migrant workers and the list goes on.
The cuts to the regional skilled migration program will make it more difficult to attract and recruit migrants to regional Australia: 18,890 less migrants next financial year to be exact. This may impact small businesses in particular who may not have the expertise to tap into other more complex skilled visa programs with their various expensive and elaborate sponsorship requirements.
In July 2024, the Federal Government released a discussion paper on Regional Migration entitled Supporting strong and sustainable regions: review of regional migration settings. The paper asks, “how we can build a cohesive migration system that better delivers for the regions?” Around two years on from that paper’s release new initiatives from the Government to strengthen regional migration settings in Australia would be welcome.
