Australia news LIVE: International students forced to consider their future after Labor’s migration overhaul; University bodies, charities slam Burke’s plan

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By Emily Kaine

Hello and welcome to our live coverage of national news this Friday, September 18. Here’s what is making headlines today.

In an address to the National Press Club yesterday, Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke revealed sweeping changes to Australia’s migration system that will ram up deportations, close partner-visa loopholes, and introduce stricter rules to curb visa hopping. Burke said the plan would help the government’s reach its net migration target of 225,000.
In response to the changes, One Nation leader Pauline Hanson suggested that both Labor and the Coalition had started to see that they’ve “done the wrong thing by the country”, while Greens senator David Shoebridge accused Labor of following One Nation’s lead.
Net overseas migration for the March quarter was 101,005 – a 6 per cent fall on the same period in 2025 – according to Australian Bureau of Statistics figures released yesterday. But Coalition parliamentarians, including Matt Canavan and Andrew Bragg, said the figures were still too high.
Thousands of high school and university students across the country held a second wave of national protests against Pauline Hanson yesterday, following a similar walkout in major cities in August.