FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Mass migration has made Australians worse off
Revive Australia unveils ten reforms to limit migration to four pathways, make it cheaper to hire an Australian than a migrant, and keep homes and farmland in Australian hands
Under our ten-point migration plan, released today, employers would pay a levy of up to 30% of each foreign worker’s salary, citizenship would require ten years as a permanent resident, and sending $100 overseas would cost $130.
Australia’s population grew by 412,500 in 2025, more than 1,100 people a day, with nearly three-quarters of that growth coming from overseas. Yet GDP per person has gone backwards: in March 2026 it was still below where it stood at the end of 2022.
“Australians have been told for years that mass migration is good for the economy,” said Brian Marlow, Founder of Revive Australia. “It might have made the economy bigger, but it has not made Australians better off. Rents keep climbing, the cost of living is out of control, and Australians were never asked whether they wanted their country transformed this quickly.”
Under our ten reforms:
Migration is limited to four pathways: genuine international students, highly skilled workers, spouses of Australian citizens and restricted working holiday makers.
A student visa is no longer a work visa, and international students are capped at 10% of each institution’s new enrolments.
Employers pay a levy of 10% to 30% of each foreign worker’s salary, with the money collected used for training Australians.
Marriage to an Australian citizen is the only path to permanent residence, and parent visas end.
Guest worker schemes close, and working holidays go back to being holidays, with one visa per lifetime.
Every working visa holder gets a tax file number tied to their visa, and sponsors are fined for overstays.
People with no right to be here are sent home, and any non-citizen sentenced to prison loses their visa, permanent residents included.
Benefits start at citizenship, not on arrival, and citizenship comes only after ten years as a permanent resident.
Money sent overseas pays its share on the way out, through a 30% levy.
Australian homes and farmland stay in Australian hands, with permanent residents and other foreign buyers banned from buying them for good.
Today, a large company that sponsors a worker from overseas pays a training levy of $1,800 a year. Under our plan, the levy on a worker earning $146,717, the lowest salary a skilled visa would allow, would be about $14,700, $29,300 or $44,000 a year, depending on how many foreign workers the business already employs.
“Why would a company spend years training an apprentice when it can bring in a worker from overseas and pay a training levy of less than $35 a week?” Mr Marlow said. “Big business has every reason to keep the current system going. Our reforms make it cheaper to hire an Australian than a migrant, and the money raised goes into training Australians.”
Every year, an estimated $24.4 billion to $38 billion leaves Australia in personal remittances, according to World Bank and industry figures. Under our plan, senders would pay a 30% levy on top of what they send.
“That is $67 million to $104 million a day leaving the economy,” Mr Marlow said. “Spent here, that money would circulate through local businesses and pay GST on most of what it buys. Sent overseas, it does neither. The money leaves, and the costs stay behind: crowded roads, stretched hospitals and queues down the street at rental inspections. It is money generated by the Australian economy, and Australia should keep a share of it on the way out.”
“It does not have to be this way,” Mr Marlow added. “Our goal is not radical. It is what most Australians once took for granted: a decent wage, a home they own and the means to raise a family.”
ENDS
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Revive Australia
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