Canavan's Working Holiday Visa Claims Exposed: Contradicting ABS Figures
National Party Leader Matt Canavan recently made statements about working holidaymakers in Australia that have been widely criticized as inaccurate.
Canavan claimed that changes to working holiday visa programs were not a reason for the surge in migration, but data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) shows that working holidaymakers are actually one of the main drivers of net migration in recent years.
In fact, between 2021-22 and 2024-25, the number of working holidaymakers increased by over 30%, with this group now representing 17.5% of net migration.
The Coalition Government made several changes to the program that contributed to this increase, including increasing the minimum age for working holiday visas from 30 to 35 and introducing a third working holiday visa for people who work in regional Australia.