“Once again, the latest official government data shows that the most recent full financial year saw a record breaking intake of net permanent and long-term overseas arrivals into Australia” said Dr Kevin You, Senior Fellow at the Institute of Public Affairs.
Today, the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) updated its Overseas Arrivals and Departures data series, with the reference period June 2026. IPA analysis of the data shows:
- Net permanent and long-term overseas arrivals in June 2026 were 27,030.
- Net permanent and long-term overseas arrivals between January and June 2026 were 275,810.
- In the 2026 financial year, net permanent and long-term overseas arrivals were 476,870, higher than at any other financial year on record.
“Australia is being subject to the largest mass migration program on record, which has been smashing our economy and is dividing our society,” said Dr You. high number of internal migrants from Sydney and Melbourne,” said Dr You.
Chart: Net permanent and long-term overseas arrivals by financial year
IPA analysis of ABS data also shows:
- Housing approvals in the financial year ending 2026 totalled 205,249. This was 14 per cent lower than a decade ago in the financial year ending 2016.
- Over the same period, annual net permanent and long-term arrivals rose by 96 per cent from 243,900 (in 2016) to 476,870 (in 2026).
“Migration has become a national emergency, and urgent, dramatic corrective action is required if confidence in the migration system is to be restored.”
“Migrants are not to blame for wanting to share in the prosperity and freedom that the Australian way of life has to offer. It is up to the federal government to ensure that the flow of overseas arrivals is properly planned, has the consent of the community, and is targeted towards areas of economic need. The federal government has failed on all three counts,” said Dr You.
Related IPA research can be found here.
Note on research methodology:
While ‘net permanent and long-term arrivals’ (NPLT) and ‘net overseas migration’ (NOM) are different measures, they remain closely related. The latter, in effect, is an adjustment to the former to incorporate the 12/16 rule, whereby an arrival counts as an overseas migrant arrival if the person stays in Australia for 12 of the following 16 months.
The Treasury’s Centre for Population stated, in its publication, Fundamentals of Migration in Australia, that the “primary” use of arrivals and departures data is to be an “early indicator of future migration flows”. Furthermore, it noted: “Border crossings data are more timely than other migration flow data releases, meaning they can be used as a potential leading indicator for NOM”.
The ABS stated, in December 2024, that arrivals and departures data are what it uses to produce NOM figures: “To produce NOM, the ABS uses border crossing data collected by the Department of Home Affairs via electronic immigration systems at the border and from incoming passenger cards. Traveller durations in Australia are calculated using the 12/16 month rule to identify which border crossings qualify as migrations”. The ABS further stated: “This border crossing data, which is the input data for NOM, is also published by the ABS in Overseas Arrivals and Departures, Australia”.
