TRANSCRIPT - PRESS CONFERENCE - IMMIGRATION - WEDNESDAY, 15 APRIL 2026

E&OE TRANSCRIPT

PRESS CONFERENCE – SYDNEY
WEDNESDAY, 15 APRIL 2026

 SUBJECT: IMMIGRATION

TONY BURKE: I won’t spend long on responding to the opposition’s immigration policy that they put out yesterday. I won’t spend long on it because they clearly haven’t spent long on it, if you look at what the detail is. But there have been some requests that I give a bit of a response so that’s why I thought I’d come and do so now. If you look at Mr Taylor's speech, there's not one line in that speech that delivers an extra job, not one line that builds an extra home, not one line that actually makes us any safer.

In my time in the portfolio, there have been two tasks that government has been doing and has been doing successfully. We've been bringing the numbers down and we've been bringing the standards up and the data represent that that's exactly what we've been doing. The diatribe from Mr Taylor has nothing to do with the national interest and it's entirely about sending a message to One Nation. Whereas we have an immigration policy focused on the skills we need, the opposition have an immigration announcement focused on the votes they think they need from One Nation.

When you look at the different issues that they've raised, I still can't work out what the gap they're wanting to describe is between the powers that an immigration minister already has, the powers that I already have under the Migration Act and what they're wanting to add in terms of the character test. I still want them to provide the example of the person who we can't currently cancel or refuse a visa to, who they want us to be able to. And Mr Taylor's been asked a couple of times to provide this exact example and hasn't, simply because what they are wanting is a discussion and a meme. There is no policy attached to what they've announced.

In terms of English language, I think he underestimates the extent to which people, when they come to Australia, attend English language courses, do everything they can to improve their English and are proud as they improve their English. But I also think millions of Australians, on hearing the conversation that was sparked yesterday, will be looking to their parents as people who don't speak great English, but who are great Australians.

The other thing that he said that has really puzzled me, is this presumption that somehow, if you come from a country that is a liberal democracy, you are a more worthy Australian. Now, the evidence just doesn't stack up on that. We have many Australians, proud of their Chinese heritage, who have come from a nation that is not a liberal democracy. We have many Australians, proud of their Vietnamese heritage, who have come from a nation that is not a liberal democracy. We have many people who fled the USSR. Many of the Ukrainian community who, well the ones who I issued visas to, have come here from a democracy. But they have joined family members who came here much earlier, who when they left, were fleeing Ukraine, which was being then occupied by the USSR. This concept that somehow, somehow, you are more worthy if you come from a liberal democracy, is a view that I have not previously heard a senior Australian politician make. And there are moments in this that are jumps for votes. There are moments in this that are jumps for attention, but there is also a moment which we should never ignore when we make decisions about what sort of country we are. Australia is and should always be a country where we judge you by who you are, not where you're from. Effectively, that liberal democracy line is wanting to take Australia in a different direction. And that is not who we are. Modern Australia and multicultural Australia are the same thing. They're the same thing. And when people say they love Australia and I do, and almost everybody on this continent does, modern Australia is what they're loving, and we are a multicultural nation.

Without immigration, we would be a very different country. Since coming to office, we have tripled the number of people who come on work visas who work in the construction industries. Could you imagine had we not done that, where we would now be with respect to housing? Half of our doctors are born overseas, 43 per cent of our registered nurses are born overseas. 28 per cent of people working in building and plumbing trades are born overseas. And if I look at some of the worst examples I've had to deal with, probably the most horrific of all the protests that we have seen using antisemitic placards were the blatant placards that were used in front of the New South Wales parliament by a Nazi protest - an organisation that has subsequently disbanded because of legislation that we introduced to the parliament. I cancelled the visas of people who were at that protest. I might add, each of them came from liberal democracies. What matters is who you are, not where you're from, and effectively, if we forget the benefits to our nation and to our economy of having a smart tailored migration system, we end up with fewer homes, we would end up with a health system that would collapse. We would end up with an age care system that could not provide the care that it needs and that all Australians rely on. We are a good country and we should not be setting people against each other. Happy to take any questions.

REPORTER: Minister you’ve said just how important it is to dispute this policy. If it’s so important to do this, why didn't you do it when the policy was announced yesterday? Why didn't you stand up?

BURKE: The policy was announced yesterday. We had a number of people standing up yesterday. I don't run my diary around media engagements. I've stood up today. I put public comments out yesterday. My views on this have been clear for a very long time.

REPORTER: Just on the liberal democracy theme you touched on there, it looks like Angus Taylor's statement, more specifically referred to integration. And on that, I wanted to ask, do you agree with his statement that migrants from liberal democracies integrate with Australian values and society better than one drawn by fundamentalists, extremists, or dictators?

BURKE: Last year, we celebrated the 50th anniversary of the Vietnamese wave of migration to Australia. They were not fleeing a liberal democracy. Every single person who I met with at any one of the celebrations that were happening there last year for the Vietnamese community is a worthy person to be here in Australia. And at each of the people who come from the liberal democracy, whose visas I cancelled because of their involvement with the Nazis and antisemitism, were people who did not deserve to be here.

REPORTER: Minister, can you explain your government's decision to make taxpayer funded housing schemes accessible to non-Australian citizens? And is that something that you'd consider reviewing?

BURKE: The concept of permanent residents being eligible for a series of government entitlements is something that has been around in Australia for decades, and that particular policy has been completely consistent with how all of those other policies have run.

REPORTER: Minister, polling published by Capital Brief, and DemosAU this morning, found it significantly more Australians disagree that the US is a reliable military ally than agree. Given that, why would Australians trust the US to follow through the event of war in Indo Pacific?

BURKE: I'll leave the defence part of the question to Richard Marles, but let me just say this with respect to Home Affairs. So as you'd appreciate, as Australia's Home Affairs Minister, I deal with our Five Eyes partners every day, with situations where we keep people safe because of information sharing that happens because of our relationship with the United States. The United States is an incredibly trusted partner and obviously the nature of that sort of information, the nature of intelligence sharing, is such that you know, I'm not about to do the big reveal or anything like that. But I want to give people every assurance that regardless of governments at different times in the United States, the partnership between Australia and the United States, and indeed, with all our Five Eyes partners, with New Zealand, with Canada and the United Kingdom, is fundamental to our to our national security, and for different people at different times has been fundamental to their personal security. And I have the deepest faith that our relationship there is not something where we have to wait for a conflict before suddenly we have a benefit from our alliance with the United States. We have that benefit every day.

REPORTER:  Are you concerned that social license partnership of the US is being lost with the public?

BURKE: I've just made the comments I've made to give Australians a very specific assurance.

REPORTER:  Freedom of information requests showed that around 77,000 people are still living in Australia… they’ve overstayed their visas. Angus Taylor said that we need to do more to crack down on that, to deport these people. What is the government doing to, I guess, deal with that and what's going wrong here that so many people are overstaying their visas?

BURKE: We inherited a ridiculous backlog, a ridiculous backlog. Part of it was protection claims when there was a series of issues where we have been working through a backlog. The protection claims one is a classic one where we've been getting it down. And then we also had obviously the challenges following NZYQ, where we had to come up with a new arrangement for deportation because the previous governments effective operation had been to just keep them in detention forever, which the High Court overturned. And that's why we've now established the relationship with Nauru so that we do have a way of dealing with that. But in short, the government's position-- So we're working through the backlog and these numbers, you know, some of the backlogs, the figures you just quoted, some of these backlogs from when we came to office were in the order of 100,000. So we've been getting through it. We've been getting the numbers down. My simple message to anyone who thinks, what do you do when your visa runs out, you should leave. The position is really simple for this government. We have a bigger problem than I wish we had because of what we were left with, but we are getting through it, but people should be on notice. At the end of your visa, if you don't have another visa, you should leave Australia. That's how a visa system operates.

REPORTER:  Just to follow to that, if that's all right. Of that group, there are more than 25,000 people who've been here for more than a decade.

REPORTER:  Minister, as Angus Taylor has specifically noted, people from Palestine, how many have come since the ceasefire between Israel and Palestine?

BURKE: I don't have the number to hand, but it's significantly less than the number visas that were issued. For some of the visas issued, people would have found other countries to go to, some because they weren't able to get out. Some of the people who had visas issued to them would no longer be alive as well. You're dealing with a very specific number, I don't have it at hand. These numbers are routinely given out of at Senate Estimates as well. But can I say this with respect to what he said with the group from Gaza. In the first instance, in terms of security checks, there has never been a cohort with more security checks than this particular group. Everyone, before they had their first visa issued, was checked against the Movement Alert List, which is maintained by the Department of Home Affairs, and it's informed by information and constantly updated every 24 hours by ASIO, working with the partners, you would expect ASIO would work with. You then had two separate occasions where the entire caseload had a further direct referral to ASIO, in terms of making sure as to whether visas should be should remain on hand or whether or not they should be cancelled. You then have, as new visas are issued, fresh checks happen in that time as well. There has never been a cohort with more security checks than this particular cohort. But can I just refer, because members of the opposition have previously referred to when I went out to the airport to meet two people in particular. Two women, a mother and daughter, who had been hiding in the church where they practice. They had spent years prior to October 7, living in fear of Hamas, and then post-October 7, living in fear of bombs or sniper fire while they hid in their church. For them to be wrapped up in some sort of ‘you are not trustworthy, you are part of the exact regime that was terrorising you’ is just really ugly politics. Now, I give those two as the example because they're two people who I had previously had a conversation with on a phone where they were hiding in the church and I give it because I can illustrate that example really clearly. But there are countless Australians where that's the story of their parents. People who are living in areas which are being run by horrible people tend to want to flee. And a big part of the Australian story, whether it be people fleeing Eastern Europe, whether it be people fleeing Vietnam, whether it's been people who've come here as international students, have seen our democracy and have said, ‘I want to be part of that’ is a good, strong, positive Australian story, and that's also true of the people I refer to there.

REPORTER:  Just on the previous question of the 77,000 people here, overstaying their vases. You said you're working through that backlog. I mean, is that with a view of deportation and if so, how long does that take? And as you said before, it is a lengthy process. So Angus Taylor's statement that he wants to do deport more than 65,000 Australians, is that viable?

BURKE: There are many issues with deportation. And there are many different people within this cohort. So, for example, you will have some people who accidentally have overstayed a visa, so who need to go in, apply, or may have already applied and the new visa hasn't been issued yet. There are people within the group where there is a national interest in Australia that people will want them. There are other people who have played a game. And I will have more to say about this incoming months. But there are people who have played a game in terms of moving from visa to visa, where they are saying they are here for a temporary purpose, but are not planning to ever go back and effectively that’sthe group that we need to be able to target. We are always in battles with the court, the moment you are sworn into my portfolio, you become the most litigated person in Australia. That's me in this job, but it's been true of any of my predecessors. So I will have more to say about this, but effectively in the working through the backlog, I just start with the concept that we were confronted with something much worse than what Angus Taylor is complaining about now. For different people, there are different methods of dealing with all of them. But yes, there is an enormous task there and none of that changes the simple principle and resolve from this government. I think if you look at what I've done with Nauru, it's pretty clear how serious we are about this. If someone doesn't have a visa, they should leave the country.

REPORTER:  You said the people, that cohort of people playing the game, do you have any idea of how many that is as part of that 77,000 figure? I mean, how many people are doing that?

BURKE: We’ve basically broken down large parts of this, but effectively you’ll have some people who have come now, wanting to move from student visas and thinking that they will be able to find ways to be able to stay forever, where they will find that the time is up. But I'm not in a position to be able to announce more than that today.

REPORTER:  Minister, just curious as a practising Catholic, are you offended by Donald Trump's attacks on the pope?

BURKE: My view is I never support making fun of anyone’s religion. And I leave that as a general principle. I never support making fun of anyone’s faith.

REPORTER:  Minister would you be open to linking a target for net overseas migration to the number of new homes built?

BURKE: There are some visa classes where a link to housing makes complete sense. So I'm always wary with net overseas migration because net oversees migration, is the number that we all look at, but effectively of all the numbers, it involves a large number of factors that no government ever should control, including the movement of Australian citizens back and forth. So for example, one of the upward pressures on net overseas migration right now will be people who are expats in places like the United Arab Emirates who are making a decision -- do they want to stay there or should they now come back—and moments like that can cause people to have a decision to come back and sometimes that has a very significant impact on net overseas migration. But the concept of-- should you link some visas to housing is something where I do think there's a clear link that could be made, and that's exactly what we've done with student visas. So if you look at how Jason Clare and Julian Hill have been modelling, which universities are in a position to be able to take more student visas of which are no, you'll see a very direct link as to how they've been going with student housing. For the very simple reason that international education is one of the only industries we have where you have to find a home for every customer. And so therefore, to have a direct link there between whether they're pulling their weight on housing and whether you issue a visa is something that in that case, I think has really strong policy grounds. To do it generally with net overseas migration wouldn't actually give the housing industry the stability that you need as well because you've got some powers… some parts of net overseas migration are entirely and properly within the control of government. Some of them are based on decisions that citizens make themselves.

REPORTER:  Is Labor considering any new measures to further bring down net overseas migration? And do you not concede that, I think, overshooting immigration by 500,000 people over the last 3 years has placed significant strain on both sort of society and infrastructure?

BURKE: Be in no doubt that immigration numbers, when we first came to office, obviously got too high, they got too high. They were based on the immigration settings of our predecessors. Some of that net number, we need to remember though, it wasn't because of arrivals, it was because you didn't have departures. So if you think about what happened post the pandemic, effectively you had a long period where you had very few people arriving. And then when people arrived disproportionately, people on three year visas, for example, all arrived at once. So the next year, everyone's still got two years to go on their visa. And some of that normal rotation of visas that has departures, it keeps numbers down, didn't happen.  So that's a big part of the story as to why net oversees migration got so high. But it's also the case that we've been taking a series of measures, in particular, overseas students as classic one, to be able to get those numbers down. To be able to keep focusing on that is work that has not stopped and the nature - there has never been an immigration minister in Australia's history… I first became shadow in this portfolio, I think, back in 2005, I've been following it for a very long time. Every minister keeps having to tweak the system because we keep having new challenges based sometimes on bad actors and sometimes just on world events. So it's a target...

REPORTER: these are your targets…

BURKE: No, no, you're asking is the task finished, is there more to come and what I’m saying is there is always more to come.

REPORTER: Is Direction 110 working, considering a Perth child sex offender, used it to reinstate his visa through the administrative review tribunal.

BURKE: So I start with the process so that it's really clear. There will never be a direction put in place that doesn't have some decisions being overturned at merits review. Because the nature of it is the department make the decision on the direction, then somebody else makes a fresh decision based on the same direction, and sometimes that person will come to a different conclusion. So the only reason it got to the review tribunal was because under Direction 110, the department had cancelled the visa. That's the only reason there was something to appeal was because the department had cancelled the visa. I, if you look at my record on cancellations of that particular nature, you would not be surprised to know that I have asked for that particular brief to be sent up so the cancellation is able to be considered by a minister. And when a minister makes a decision, there can be no further appeal to the ART.

REPORTER: His visa was reinstated back in September. Why has it taken so long to be reconsidered again? And can you give any certainty as to when this will be up for consideration?

BURKE: I don't think you’ll have long to wait.

REPORTER: Minister you just said moments ago, you've acknowledged that when Labor first came to office, migration numbers were too high. You know, a common example we see of people with genuine migration concerns, the housing pressures, rental vacancy rates at record lows. You know, people go to these properties, they see these massive queues of people. It's kind of a visceral response. You know, parties like One Nation, the coalition's recent announcement. They're tapping into a sentiment that clearly exists. What is your response to those people who have those concerns, people who are genuinely concerned about migration numbers?

BURKE: The first thing is to say the facts of what the government's been doing. Because in a whole lot of the comments from Mr Taylor yesterday, it’s as though the numbers that occurred, what three years ago, four years ago, have continued. And they haven’t. We had post-covid and not surprisingly, post-covid, we had the sharpest increase. And since then, we’ve been having, with the exception of covid, the sharpest decrease. And we've been having that to make sure that the numbers get just sustainable levels again. That's really important. But you also need to make sure that in doing that, you don't wreck your health system. You don't slow down housing. You need to make sure that you don't wreck your aged care system. You need to make sure that we don't end up with our farmers, not being able to get people to pick their fruit. All of these things are essential to Australia's economy. And people are concerned about wanting to make sure that we pick up on housing supply. That really matters. But you cannot do it without making sure we've got all the trades that we need. And as I said, for those building and building and plumbing trades, for example, 28 per cent were born overseas. We've tripled the number. If you look at a time where we've been getting the total numbers down, we've actually tripled the number of people who are coming for those trades. So the immigration system being used is targeted and is making sure that we are dealing specifically with the issues that we have. Australians are not people who want to turn on their neighbour. That's not who we are. We are not that sort of country. People understandably want to say, ‘well, there's not enough houses, we want there to be more houses’ and what we need to make sure is if you say, ‘well, if we don't get the skills, we don't get to build the houses.’ We need to continue to have that proper conversation with people. My biggest concern about yesterday probably is that the story that was being told wasn't true. And I think Mr Taylor knew that. Thanks, everyone.