Business and miners back Labor's migration policies, but farmers angry

Business groups, miners and the housing industry have welcomed the federal government's changes to the migration system.

But farmers and the hospitality and tourism industries say the government's crackdown on working holiday visas will hit the economy and make labour shortages worse.

Data show Australia's population grew by 392,700 people in the past year. The government's policies could see that number drop to roughly 325,000 a year.

Tony Burke, the minister for immigration, announced Labor's much-anticipated migration policy reforms on Thursday.

He said Labor wants to push net overseas migration (NOM) down to 225,000 people a year, from 292,000 where it currently sits.

He also wants to tighten visa rules for international students and backpackers, and to increase efforts to remove visa overstayers from the country.

His announcement came days after One Nation unveiled plans to push NOM into negative territory for three years before imposing an annual cap of 130,000, and as the Coalition finalises plans for a policy that is expected to pursue NOM of between 150,000 and 170,000 people.

"We are now walking straight into an argument," Mr Burke declared on Thursday.

"We have people who will be going to the next election effectively arguing that in regional areas you'll have large-scale hospital closures and doctors that you just can't find.

"It means a whole lot of aged care just won't be available for elderly relatives, if they were to implement the sorts of numbers they're talking about."

But while the mining industry has welcomed Labor's policy announcement, farmers are furious, and the hospitality industry is not happy.

Labor plans to introduce a ballot system for the Working Holiday Maker program, and to set processing times for applications for the program to three months.

It wants to introduce a No Further Stay condition to all visitor visas to ensure that they are only used by genuine visitors and not as a pathway to extending a stay in Australia.

And it wants to improve the integrity of student visas by stopping visa hopping, among other measures.