Working Holiday Maker visa price hike for backpackers in Australia from July 1

Backpackers will have to pay an extra $130 for a working holiday visa raising fears overseas workers will be turned off from coming to Australia. 

The Working Holiday Maker visa will cost $640 from July 1 – up from $510 – making it one of the world’s most expensive.

The visa could also be restricted to one year, after a migration system review raised concerns about temporary visa holders being exploited.

Fruit and vegetable growers are struggling to recruit harvesters with unemployment at a low of 3.6 per cent across the country.

With rental markets tight across Australia, the Opposition said it appeared Prime Minister Anthony Albanese was targeting working-visa backpackers with Treasury expecting a record 400,000 new migrants to relocate in 2022-23

Australia’s 112,000 Working Holiday Maker visa holders comprise 80 per cent of the harvesting labour force.

But they are only a fraction of the 1.8million foreigners in Australia on a temporary working visa. 

Dan Tehan, the Opposition’s immigration spokesman whose Liberal Party electorate of Wannon covers south-west Victoria, said backpackers were being targeted as permanent and long-term immigration levels surged.

‘It’s unbelievable that Labor is even thinking about winding back the Working Holiday Maker visa when backpackers spend the most time in regional Australia, do the critical jobs that support farming and tourism, and go home when their visa expires,’ he said.

Under existing arrangements, a Working Holiday Maker visa holder – in the 417 or 462 categories – can stay in Australia for a year but they can apply for a second visa to extend their time in the country if they work in certain regional areas.

But this is now under review. 

‘Of greater concern, Labor is considering cutting the WHM visa to one year, which would devastate agriculture, tourism, and hospitality in regional Australia, leading to increased costs that are passed on to Australians,’ Mr Tehan said.

With rental markets tight across Australia, Mr Tehan said it appeared Prime Minister Anthony Albanese was targeting working-visa backpackers with Treasury expecting a record 400,000 new migrants to relocate in 2022-23.

In the five years to July 2027, 1.496million new migrants are forecast to move to Australia with backpackers the ‘scapegoat’ for a big Australia policy.

‘One-point-five million people are coming to Australia over five years when Labor don’t have enough houses for the people already here and Anthony Albanese’s only plan to curb the record arrivals is to target backpackers,’ Mr Tehan said.

The national rental vacancy rate stands at just 1.2 per cent but it’s slightly higher in regional areas at 1.5 per cent, CoreLogic data showed. 

Home Affairs Minister Clare O’Neill commissioned a migration system review which recommended cutting the Working Holiday Maker visa to one year, and told the National Press Club she was concerned about visitors working for little pay.

‘Each year now for a decade, a growing share of people entering Australia on temporary skilled visas are being funnelled into low-wage jobs,’ she said in April.

The Working Holiday Maker visa will cost $640 from July 1 – up from $510 – making it one of the world’s most expensive

Her review also recommended restoring the visa program so it was geared towards ‘cultural exchange and does not operate to tie migration outcomes to the performance of work’.

The Productivity Commission has also raised concerns about the effects on youth unemployment because the working holiday visa boosts the supply of low-skilled labour in areas outside the major centres.

The migration review also highlighted concerns about ‘widespread exploitation of other temporary visa holders’, including the Working Holiday Maker.

It allows visitors from 48 countries to work in Australia, including from the UK, Ireland, Canada, South Korea, Sweden and China.

Visa holders must be aged 18 to 30 but the cut-off is 35 for those from Canada, France, Ireland, Denmark and Italy.

Those visiting Australia can undertake short-term work and study of up to four months.

From July 1, the six-month work limit is returning, unless permission is sought from the Department of Home Affairs.

The  Food Supply Chain Alliance last year calculated Australia was 172,000 workers short, with the group including AUSVEG, the peak body for vegetable growers and the National Farmers Federation.