Curtailing procedural rights for asylum seekers will trigger more appeals and keep people “in limbo for years”, advocates warn, as the opposition weighs a hardline plan to speed up deportations.
The Asylum Seeker Resource Centre’s head of advocacy, Ogy Simic, implored the Coalition to heed the advice of experts “not the opinions of Pauline Hanson” as it develops an immigration policy that is designed, in part, to combat the political threat of One Nation.
The opposition leader, Sussan Ley, is expected to next week unveil the “principles” of the Coalition’s approach to immigration, which will commit to lower net overseas migration without setting a number of its own.
As part of the wider strategy, the opposition is exploring options to force visa holders to adhere to “Australian values” and to crackdown on universities with high proportions of international students.
An internal documents suggests it is also mulling new restrictions on foreigners purchasing properties, after a two-year freeze on existing dwellings was imposed in April.
Bleeding support to One Nation and under pressure from right-wingers in her own ranks, including Andrew Hastie, Ley has indicated she intends to quickly lay down markers on immigration to avoid a repeat of the months-long fight over a net zero target.
But it’s understood the tenor of the debate is causing angst inside the opposition, with Liberal MPs concerned the policy, and how it is communicated, risks further alienating migrant communities who have abandoned the Coalition at the past two federal elections.
Ley and the shadow ministers developing the plan, Jonno Duniam and Paul Scarr, have argued that Labor’s mishandling of the migration system, not migrants themselves, were to blame for problems such as housing shortages and traffic congestion.
“You’ll find common sense at the heart of this [policy]. I know Labor would love to say we’re racist and we’re divisive. Sorry, we’re not,” Duniam said in an interview with Sky News last month.
Coalition backbenchers debated the policy on Wednesday afternoon, ahead of a shadow cabinet meeting to endorse the principles before its announcement next week.
A discussion paper distributed to MPs, seen by Guardian Australia, accused Labor of overseeing a “broken” visa regime and failing to act against “bad-faith actors exploiting loopholes” in the system.
It referenced an “explosion” in the number of people who were yet to be deported after their protection visa claims were rejected. That figure has risen to more than 100,000 as of October 2025, Department of Home Affairs figures shows, but includes those who are awaiting appeal outcomes in the tribunal or judicial stages.
The opposition is understood to be considering options to curtail procedural rights for applicants, including by preventing them from submitting new evidence long after an appeal is launched, to clear the backlog, potentially paving the way for faster deportations.
‘It slows the system down’
Simic said stripping applicants’ rights “does not speed anything up”.
“It slows the system down, fuels more appeals, and keeps people in limbo for years,” he said.
“People seeking asylum do not want that. Front loading decision-making capacity is in everyone’s interest, strengthening both the integrity of the system and the safety of those who rely on it.
“We hope [the Coalition] base their decisions on evidence and by listening to experts, rather than on the opinions of Pauline Hanson.”
Daniel Ghezelbash, an international refugee law expert, said there are “no shortcuts to reducing Australia’s asylum backlog”.
“You can throw as much money as you want at [ramping up deportations] but it’s very hard to forcibly remove people from Australia, particularly when they have been living in the community for many years. We’re not an autocratic state, we have the rule of law and people have the right to judicial review,” he said.
“The only sustainable solution is fair and fast processing – the longer a person remains in limbo, the stronger the legal and ethical barriers to their removal become.”
The number of non-citizens deported each month of 2025 has fluctuated between five and 20.
A government spokesperson said the backlog in protection visa claims was a “signature problem” created under the Coalition.
The Coalition’s discussion paper also points the finger at universities with large numbers of international students, accusing them of forgetting “their primary mission is to educate Australian students”.
It asks what options should be considered to ensure an “appropriate mix” of domestic and international students on campuses, and what responsibilities universities should have for the “housing pressures” generated by international students.
The paper also said many voters were worried about the “influx” of foreigners “crowding” locals out of the housing market, and asked MPs to consider what restrictions should be imposed on non-citizens purchasing homes.
The government this year banned foreign investors from purchasing existing homes for two years after it adopted one of the Coalition’s own policies.
The numbers are small; foreign buyers only purchased 2,064 existing homes in 2023/24.
