Australia's migration row and the shortage behind it: what people in the UK planning a move should know

News · 2026-09-11 · 4 min read

Four tradespeople in hard hats work together on the timber frame of a new home at a sunny Australian building site.

Follow Australian politics from the UK for a week and you could come away thinking the country wants fewer newcomers. Politicians in Canberra are arguing hard about migration totals. Yet on building sites, farms, aged care homes and in restaurants and bars, the problem employers keep raising is the opposite one: they cannot find enough people.

If you are thinking about a move, it helps to separate the noise from what is actually changing. In short, the picture is more mixed, and in places more hopeful, than the headlines make it sound.

The real shortage is homes and the people who build them

One state premier has argued that Australia's problem is not too many migrants but too few houses, and too few tradespeople to build them. Electricians, carpenters and other construction trades are scarce in almost every state. Each skilled worker who does not arrive means a longer wait for the homes the country needs.

For UK tradespeople, that matters. Trades and jobs linked to construction look likely to stay high on the list for state and employer sponsorship, even if other visa types become harder to get.

Working holidays are where the squeeze is felt

The federal government has already started slowing the processing of working holiday maker visas. Farms, hospitality venues and tourism businesses lean heavily on these visa holders for seasonal and entry-level work. The national farmers' body has objected strongly, saying the decisions were taken with little consultation and without enough thought for food production and regional economies.

If you are a younger person in the UK planning a gap year or a working holiday in Australia, this is the part of the story to watch. UK citizens can apply for these visas up to an age limit, but you should apply early and allow for a longer wait than friends may have had a few years ago. The rules are set out on the Department of Home Affairs visa listing.

States are speaking up for migrant workers

What stands out this time is who is pushing back. It is not only farmers and business chambers. Premiers from the governing party in several states, including Victoria and Western Australia, have publicly disagreed with their colleagues in Canberra. Victoria's leaders have called migration essential to the state's prosperity, naming healthcare, labour and farm workers, and have warned about the risk to international education, the state's biggest services export.

This matters because states run their own nomination programmes for skilled and employer-sponsored visas. When state leaders are this vocal about needing workers, it is reasonable to expect their nomination streams to keep pressing for more places, even if federal settings tighten elsewhere.

Look past the headline figure

Net overseas migration was close to 301,000 in 2025, above the pre-pandemic norm of roughly 210,000 a year. That gap is behind opposition calls for a cap as low as 170,000. Business groups argue that the single total hides what matters most: the mix of students, temporary workers, skilled migrants and family visas that makes it up.

The practical point for you is that change is far more likely to come through eligibility rules, processing speed and caps on particular visa types than through one sweeping cut to everything.

A quick guide by situation

If you are...	What the current mood suggests
A qualified tradesperson	Demand linked to the housing shortage looks set to continue
Planning a working holiday or seasonal work	Most exposed to slower processing, so apply early
Looking at a state-nominated skilled visa	May hold up better than federal streams while states argue for workers
A nurse or care worker	Health and aged care are repeatedly named by state leaders as sectors that cannot afford fewer staff

Reading the noise from the UK

The argument in Canberra will keep producing headlines about migration numbers. Underneath them, the economic story is steady: serious trade shortages, a housing crisis that needs workers to solve it, and state governments lobbying for more people. For many people in the UK weighing up the move, that is a more encouraging picture than the politics suggests. Browse current roles on our jobs page to see which employers are hiring now.

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