TV interview with Minister Butler, Sunrise – 14 August 2026

Media event date: 14 August 2026 Date published: 14 August 2026 Media type: General public NATALIE BARR, HOST: The government is planning to send more immigration officers into the community to find and deport people overstaying their visas. The tougher enforcement push is part of Labor's proposed migration crackdown, which is still being considered by the Albanese Cabinet we hear.

But there are concerns the targeting of overstayers could be seen as an ICE-style, Donald Trump-like move in this country. Let's bring in Health Minister Mark Butler and Deputy Opposition Leader Jane Hume. Morning to both of you.

Mark, we know this isn't final and your migration policy is still being decided, we understand that. But is the government looking at more enforcement to target visa over stayers? MARK BUTLER, MINISTER FOR HEALTH AND AGEING, MINISTER FOR DISABILITY AND THE NDIS: Good morning, Nat.

Already, obviously, we've got net migration down by almost a half since the post-COVID peak. We've done that while being able to do important things like triple the number of construction visas, but we've also been clear we want that number come down further. We are going through a careful process of designing how we get to that number.

The number was published in the budget papers. I'm obviously not able to go through the detail of that, but I do want to say, obviously, we do have resources already going into enforcement for visa overstayers. They can be detained and then they can be deported.

Frankly, usually when they're detained, they realise the jig is up and they leave Australia and return home of their own volition. But visa overstay is a significant issue in the net migration number. There's no question about that.

Temporary migration is a good thing for our country. Jane’s state of Victoria, for example, the biggest export earner is international education. I can tell you, as the Minister for Health and Aged Care and Disabilities, those services rely very heavily on migrant workers.

It's a good thing, but we expect people to do the right thing. So visa overstay is a significant issue. : Yeah, and they're not, it is. So we've got, like, since you came to power, I think we've got over, about 11,000 more have stayed.

It's a problem, and what you're doing at the moment, would you say it's not working? Because it seems to be increasing. What are you planning?

Can you give us a hint? : No, I can't give you a hint, Nat, except to say we're going to be very careful about this. I mean, this is a product of people coming in and the number of people going out. We're looking right across the board, obviously, to get this right.

We've got a single target. We're going to have a single carefully developed plan, unlike what you saw over the course of the last few days from the Opposition. But there are already resources going into visa overstays.

They're not of the type you just showed in the United States, and I can't see our country going down that pathway - : So it won't be ICE? : They're more quiet, probably most of your viewers don't even know they happen. But there are detentions of visa overstayers. They are deported, although they usually realise the easiest thing is just to leave voluntarily. : Okay.

Jane, this report this morning says Labor is worried the crackdown may look like ICE agents in the US. They have to do it carefully, as Mark has just said. Does the Coalition support an American-style enforcement system?

How, what sort of system would you support, given that when you lost power, there were 67,000-odd unlawful citizens in this country, so you were having trouble getting them out too? SENATOR JANE HUME: Nat, now there are 77,000, more than 77,000. The number has blown out.

And let's face it, the government has missed its own migration targets every single year that it has been in power, every single year. And there are rules already in place, it's just that the government has chosen not to enforce them properly. We've said that we will crack down not only on those chronic overstayers, and there are a number of them, around 30,000 that have been extensive overstayers, but more importantly, we will also crack down on visa hopping.

These are people that start with one type of visa, potentially a student visa, then move to a visitor visa, then move to a graduate visa, then seek a protection visa. This form of visa hopping is essentially allowing people to abuse our system. Sometimes they do it using our legal aid to pay for it.

That's unacceptable. We want to make sure that that if you are a non-citizen, an unlawful resident in Australia, that you go home. There are systems in place already.

You've just got to enforce them. : Well and you found it hard too, because when the, a lot of the nearly 40,000 have been here for more than 10 years. Moving on, the Opposition Leader has pulled one of his shadow cabinet ministers into line, warning him against reflecting his personal views. Shadow Housing Minister Andrew Bragg suggested working holidaymakers as a potential immigration group to cut during his speech without agreement from his party.

Jane, Mr Bragg also stopped short of saying Mr Angus Taylor was safe as leader, didn't he? Is, when you've got shadow ministers speaking out of school here, he had to be dragged into the leader's office, Angus Taylor's approval rating isn't that great. Is Angus Taylor's tenure as leader in trouble? : Not at all.

What Andrew Bragg, the Shadow Minister for Housing, was talking about was our plan to fix the economy and to protect our way of life. He was talking about linking our migration policy to the numbers of houses built, something that we think is entirely logical, because as I said, Labor have let the migration program run out of control over the last five years and they simply haven't built the number of houses to keep up.

That's not fair on the number of people that we bring to our country. We should be able to house people that we bring to our country, but we should also make sure that first-home buyers have a chance to get into the market. This is a logical policy. : Jane, it must be frustrating, though.

It must be frustrating sitting there under One Nation and then you've got this guy going and saying stuff that the leader doesn't agree with. Sussan Ley got nine months. Angus Taylor's up to six.

Will he make Christmas? : Not only that, he's going to make the next election and win the next election, because we have the plan to fix the economy and to protect our way of life. And that's what all of our team are going out and speaking about every day, that's what Australians tell us that they want to hear, a responsive and responsible response to what is going on, to the fact that our economy has tanked, that our migration program has run out of control, that we don't have enough houses and that people that are coming here, the numbers are too high and the standards are too low.

That's what the Coalition in government will be addressing through our plan to fix the economy and to protect our way of life. And we'll be talking about that every single day right up into the election - : And not the leadership, nothing to see here - : Right up into the election under Angus Taylor's leadership. : Okay, there you've got it. Okay, thank you.

We'll see you next week. The Hon Mark Butler MP About the department Accessibility We acknowledge the Traditional Owners and Custodians of Country throughout Australia, and their continuing connection to land, sea and community. We pay our respects to them and their cultures, and to Elders both past and present. © Commonwealth of Australia