Immigration Reform Now | SBSI
Before Australia Breaks

Immigration Reform Now

The numbers are out of control. The standards have collapsed.

Australia is importing people at more than double the rate that built this country and it's crushing housing affordability, overwhelming hospitals and schools, and fracturing social cohesion. These were deliberate policy choices that put the interests of developers, university bosses, and cheap labour ahead of Australian families.

Australia is now running at more than double the historic half-percent norm. Net Overseas Migration (NOM) hit 1.107% of Australia's population in 2024–25. That's 305,569 extra people in one year. 837 new arrivals every single day fighting for the same houses, roads, and services you rely on.

NOM in 2024–25 305,569 That is a net increase of roughly 837 people every day.
Historic benchmark 0.5% The proven sustainable benchmark. The level SBSI wants restored.
Annual cap we want 138,072 What a responsible 0.5% cap looks like for the 2024–25 numbers.

Parliament has lost control. Bureaucrats and vested interests are deciding Australia's future without your consent. It's time to take it back. Join the thousands of Australians who refuse to watch our country be transformed without a say.

Every signature makes it harder for politicians to ignore us.

Sign the petition

The Petition

To the Honourable the Speaker and Members of the House of Representatives, and to the President and Senators of the Senate in Parliament assembled:

We, the undersigned citizens and residents of the Commonwealth of Australia, say that Australia’s immigration intake has been too high for too long. The standards governing who is admitted and on what terms have been too low. Excessive net overseas migration has placed unsustainable pressure on housing, infrastructure, essential services, and social cohesion. The migration system has become insufficiently selective and has failed to serve the national interest.

We therefore ask the Parliament to:

  1. Substantially reduce net overseas migration and legislate a clear, binding cap of no more than 0.5% of Australia’s population each year;
  2. Restore migration to a level consistent with Australia’s actual housing supply, infrastructure, and service delivery capacity;
  3. Adopt a more selective migration program focused on clear economic contribution, strong character, and Australia’s long-term national interest;
  4. Strengthen security screening, character requirements, visa compliance, and enforcement across the entire system; and
  5. Ensure immigration policy promotes social cohesion, commands public confidence, and serves the wellbeing of the Australian people first.
Take action now

Add your name

This petition is a direct public call for Parliament to cut the numbers, lift the standards, and restore control. A strong signature count makes it impossible for Canberra to ignore.

To help ensure the petition is valid, please enter the postcode of your primary residence as it is on the Electoral Roll.

By signing, you support SBSI's call for immigration reform that prioritises national capacity, higher standards, stronger enforcement, and social cohesion.

The case for reform is now overwhelming

Immigration policy must serve the Australian people and the national interest. For most of the period from 1972 to 2006, net overseas migration averaged roughly half a percent of population. That was the disciplined, sustainable approach that allowed Australia to grow without sacrificing housing affordability, infrastructure capacity, or social cohesion.

We have abandoned that discipline. The result is a system that has become too large, too loose, and too disconnected from the country’s real capacity to house, serve, and absorb new arrivals.

Australia does not merely need sustainable migration. It needs better migration.

For too long, Canberra has treated migration as a volume game rather than a national-interest test. The result is a system that is now too big, too indiscriminate, and fundamentally at odds with the interests of existing Australians.

SBSI’s position is clear and non-negotiable:

Australia must admit fewer people overall, demand higher standards of character and contribution, and reconnect migration policy with housing supply, infrastructure, public services, and social cohesion.

Just as importantly, net overseas migration must be governed by a clear, binding, population-based rule: no more than 0.5% of Australia’s population in any given year.

This is not radical. It is the responsible, nation-first approach that built modern Australia.

  • 1
    The numbers are too high. At 305,569 in 2024–25, net overseas migration reached 1.107% of population which is roughly double the long-run sustainable benchmark that prevailed across most of our modern history.
  • 2
    The standards are too low. Australia needs stronger screening, firmer compliance, and clearer expectations of civic respect and economic contribution. Weak screening and low selectivity undermine public confidence.
  • 3
    The system is not selective enough. Migration should be reserved for those who strengthen and add to Australia not those who strain it. Volume without quality is a recipe for long-term decline.

Why this matters

When migration exceeds national capacity, the consequences are not theoretical. They are visible in the daily lives of ordinary Australians:

  • Higher rents and house prices that lock young families out of home ownership
  • Overloaded roads, public transport, hospitals and schools
  • Growing pressure on wages and working conditions
  • Declining faith that the system is being run in the public interest

This is why the SBSI campaign is not anti-migrant. It is pro-Australia.

A serious country sets limits. It enforces standards. It expects migration policy to serve the nation — not overwhelm it.

Lower numbers Higher standards Stronger screening Real selectivity
Net overseas migration 2024–25 305,569

Equivalent to about 837 additional people every day.

NOM as share of population 1.107%

That is more than double a 0.5% population-based cap.

Historic norm, 1972–2006 0.534%

Across that period, NOM averaged roughly half a percent of population.

What 0.5% means today 138,072

Using the 2025 population, that would be around 378 net additions each day.

NOM as a share of population, 1985–2025

The chart below shows the break from the old half-percent norm to a much higher modern intake. The dotted rule marks the SBSI benchmark of 0.5%.

Source: Australian Bureau of Statistics.

The scale of the shift

This is the central point of the campaign: Australia has moved from a disciplined migration norm to an intake that often approaches or exceeds one percent of population.

1985–2006 average 0.534%

That is roughly the historical population-share norm that prevailed before the step-up in the late 2000s.

2007–2025 average 0.924%

Across the later period, the average was materially higher — and the post-pandemic spike was far higher still.

2023 peak 2.019%

The recent peak was not a marginal variation. It was a major departure from the long-run historical pattern.

Annual NOM: the long-run step-up

Measured in people rather than population share, the same pattern appears: a sharp lift in the modern era, culminating in the extraordinary post-pandemic spike. The bars are coloured by whether Labor or Liberal was in government.

Source: Australian Bureau of Statistics.

What the campaign is asking

SBSI is not asking for drift, spin, or cosmetic adjustment. It is asking Parliament to legislate a rule that restores discipline to migration policy.

2025 population 27,614,411

That is the population base used to calculate a contemporary 0.5% cap.

0.5% cap in 2025 138,072

That would be a controlled annual ceiling — around 378 net additions per day rather than 837.

Reduction required 167,497

That is the difference between current NOM and a half-percent cap using the 2025 population.

What Parliament must do

This campaign is not a complaint without a remedy.

It is a concrete national demand for an immediate reset of Australia’s immigration system, including a binding cap that returns net overseas migration to no more than 0.5% of Australia’s population each year.

Parliament has a choice: continue the current policy of drift and denial, or deliver the disciplined, nation-first system Australians deserve.

Cut the numbers

Substantially reduce net overseas migration and legislate a clear, binding rule that keeps it at no more than 0.5% of Australia’s population each year. No more record-breaking intakes. No more excuses.

Lift the standards

Strengthen security screening, character requirements, visa compliance, and enforcement across the entire system. Weak standards have undermined public trust. That ends now.

Restore selectivity

Prioritise migrants who make a clear and lasting economic, civic, and social contribution to Australia. Migration must serve the national interest not the other way around.

Link intake to capacity

Set migration levels with explicit regard to housing completions, infrastructure, and service delivery. Australia’s population growth must never again outrun our ability to house and serve our people.

Reduce temporary volume

Scale back the sprawling temporary migration system that has become a major backdoor driver of population pressure. Temporary visas must be temporary not a permanent workaround.

Rebuild public confidence

Make migration policy fully accountable to the national interest, not to bureaucratic drift or political evasion. Australians have lost faith in the system. Parliament must earn it back.