The regional visa dilemma facing Pauline Hanson

Pauline Hanson's biggest problem is that regional Australia depends on the migration she opposes, writes Dr Abul Rizvi.

OVER THE LAST 30 plus years, successive governments have developed numerous visa arrangements to help employers in regional and remote Australia to access labour from overseas. Given regional and remote Australia is also Pauline Hanson’s voting base, will she demand these visa arrangements be abolished or retained?

On average, regional and remote Australia is significantly older than the capital cities. At the end of June 2024, the median age in regional Australia was 42 compared to 36.9 in the capital cities combined. People aged 20 to 44 years made up 38% of the combined capital city population, compared with 30% of the population in the rest of Australia. People aged 55 years and over made up a smaller proportion of the population in capital cities (26%) than in the rest of Australia (34%).

A median age of 42 and rising, together with a very low fertility rate, means that in many regional and remote towns, deaths already exceed births. With young Australians continuing to move away from most regional towns to the cities, immigration is often the only means for these towns to survive, let alone have enough health and aged care workers to look after the elderly. Would Hanson’s supporters prefer their towns not to survive at all than to keep relying on immigration?

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Hanson has consistently said she will reduce overall migration to Australia but to what level and how remains unclear, even after this interview with Hanson’s Chief of Staff, James Ashby. But let’s assume she would also cut if not abolish all regional visa arrangements to please her supporters.

Which regional visa arrangements could she target?

Designated Area Migration Agreements (DAMAs)

According to DHA:

DAMA head agreements are between the Australian Government and a Designated Area Representative (usually state or territory governments or regional bodies such as Chambers of Commerce, Regional Development Australia offices, or local government councils). They contain a range of occupations as well as agreed terms and concessions to skilled visa eligibility criteria, as negotiated between parties. Once a DAMA head agreement is established, businesses in the region may seek individual DAMA labour agreements under the head agreement terms and available concessions.

There are currently 13 DAMAs covering areas such as regional SA, East Kimberley, the NT, Orana NSW, Townsville, Goldfields WA and Far North Queensland.

Hanson could argue for all of these to be abolished and employers in these regions would then rely on the standard arrangements for employer sponsored entry (to the extent those survive in a Hanson Government).

Skilled Work Regional (Provisional) Visa

This visa is part of the formal migration program. It allows for stay in Australia for up to five years; and after 3 years living in a designated regional area to apply for permanent residence subject to meeting key conditions.

To secure the provisional visa, the applicant must:

be nominated to apply by a state or territory government agency, or an eligible relative must sponsor you;
have an occupation on a relevant skilled occupation list;
have a suitable skills assessment for the occupation;
be invited to apply; and
satisfy the points test.

Every year, each state/territory government is given a limited allocation of nominations they can make. In 2025-26, these allocations were reduced significantly leading to strong complaints, including the WA Premier writing an open letter of complaint to the PM. The top five occupations for this category in 2024-25 were accountants; software and applications programmers; industrial, mechanical and production engineers; chefs and civil engineers.

Abolition of this category would attract the ire of state/territory governments, regional employers and industry bodies but that may not be an issue for Hanson.

Working holiday makers (WHMs)

Since around 2005, policy has been to encourage WHMs to spend more time living and working in regional Australia. Most of them also spend much of what they earn on tourist attractions, accommodation and so on, often in regional Australia.

In recent years, WHMs have contributed significantly to net migration so have to be a target for any Hanson immigration policy.

Abolition of this category would require relevant agreements to be re-negotiated with a very large number of countries as these agreements operate largely on a reciprocal basis (that is, these provide opportunities for young Australians to live and work in other countries). It would take many months, if not years, to re-negotiate these agreements.

A decision to abolish these WHM agreements would attract criticism from both tourism industry operators as well as farmers. The biggest source nation for these visas is the UK. Hanson may or may not care about that.

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Pacific Australia Labour Mobility (PALM) visa

The PALM visa is designed largely to assist farmers with their labour needs. Over the past 30 years, fewer and fewer Australians have wanted to provide labour on farms. It’s hard work, in hot conditions, for low pay.

The Labor Government abolished the Agriculture Visa established by David Littleproud. It has, however, retained the PALM visa, even with all its flaws.

Given concerns about high rates of exploitation, death and injury, as well as workers absconding and applying for asylum, Hanson may use these arguments to abolish the PALM visa. As Australian farmers have come to rely on this visa, there would be strong push back from farming bodies.

Response of Hanson supporters

Most Hanson supporters in regional Australia are likely to applaud abolition of these regional visa arrangements. That would be at least until they see the impact on regional businesses, economies and services such as health, aged care and education.

Dr Abul Rizvi is an Independent Australia columnist and a former Deputy Secretary of the Department of Immigration. You can follow Abul on Twitter @RizviAbul.