13 May 2026
2026-27 Federal Budget
Key points:
- Welcome funding to better recognise the skills of people from migrant and refugee backgrounds.
- Spending on offshore detention and processing in 2025-26 was $971.6 million, $390.9 million higher than the funding allocated in the 2025-26 Budget. This was the seventh year in which there has been a major cost blowout, with cumulative spending since 2012 now totalling $14.35 billion.
- Despite forced displacement globally at unprecedented levels, Australia’s Refugee and Humanitarian Program will remain at 20,000 places, the level set in 2023-24.
- Additional resources for migration system reform are focused on concerns about the integrity of the protection system but little detail exists about ensuring safety needs are fairly assessed.
Read our full analysis below:
Refugee and humanitarian program
The Refugee and Humanitarian Program will remain at 20,000 places in 2026-27, the level set in 2023-24. The Government has allocated $910.9 million for Refugee, Humanitarian, Settlement and Migrant Services in 2026-27. While this allocation is $48.8 million higher than the $862.1 million allocated for 2025-26, estimated actual spending on Refugee, Humanitarian, Settlement and Migrant Services in 2025-26 was $1.119 billion – $256.4 million over budget. This means that the 2026-27 allocation is $207.7 million (18.6%) lower than estimated actual spending this financial year. The Government’s forecasts for spending on Refugee, Humanitarian, Settlement and Migrant Services are $750.9 million in 2027-28, $720.1 million in 2028-29 and $733.2 million in 2029-30.
Multicultural affairs and citizenship
The Department of Home Affairs estimates that it will spend $312.5 million on multicultural affairs and citizenship in 2025-26, an increase of $89.8 million (40.3%) on the allocation announced in the 2025-26 Budget. In 2026-27, spending on multicultural affairs and citizenship will be set at $301.1 million, a 3.6% decrease on actual spending in 2025-26 but a 35.2% increase on the amount allocated in the 2025-26 Budget.
Skills recognition
Focused on boosting productivity, the Government will provide $85.2 million over four years from 2026–27 to the Department of Employment and Workplace Relations for better recognition of migrant skills through faster, more flexible skills assessments including: $75.1 million over four years from 2026–27 for a new, modern skills assessment system for Trades Recognition Australia (TRA) to facilitate the integration of occupational licensing; $5.6 million over three years from 2026–27 for TRA to deliver a new program of skills assessments for onshore visa holders, ensuring their existing qualifications and practical trade experience is recognised for the purposes of gaining employment and meeting workforce shortages, and $4.5 million over four years from 2026–27 to strengthen the regulatory oversight of Assessing Authorities to drive better performance, greater transparency and clearer accountability, including by requiring every Assessing Authority to publish an annual Assessing Authority Performance Report from 2027. The Department of Employment and Workplace Relations will also consult on requirements for a skills migration commissioner, with costs to be met from within existing resources.
Migration system reform
The Government has allocated funds to “strengthen the integrity of the migration system”. These funds include $74.2 million over four years from 2026–27 to the Federal Court of Australia and the Federal Circuit and Family Court of Australia (FCFCOA) “to address misuse of the protection visa system by increasing the efficiency of the merits and judicial review processes, and to establish a pre‑filing pilot for a duty lawyer legal assistance service in the Sydney and Melbourne FCFCOA registries.” There is also $46.4 million over four years from 2026–27 to strengthen “systems capability” across the migration system; $27.0 million over two years from 2026–27 to continue information and education activities to improve migrant workers’ awareness of workplace safeguards, protections and compliance measures related to migration law, and $19.8 million over four years from 2026–27 to the Department of Home Affairs for “enhanced scrutiny of onshore and offshore student visa applications, ensuring the integrity of the international student visa system”.
Assistance for people seeking asylum
Estimated expenditure on payments for Asylum Seeker Support administered by Services Australia is $26.1 million for 2025-26 and will remain the same for the next financial year. This is an increase of 30% compared to the expected expenditure in last year’s Budget allocation of $20.2 million.
Onshore detention and compliance
The Government has allocated $1.256 billion to onshore compliance and detention in 2026-27, an increase of $9 million (0.7%) on spending in 2025-26.
Offshore detention and processing
The Budget papers reveal that spending on the Australian Government’s offshore detention and processing policy blew out by $390.9 million in 2025-26. The estimated actual spending this financial year will be $971.6 million – 67.3% higher than the $580.7 million allocated in last year’s Budget. This is the seventh year over the past 13 years in which there has been a massive cost blowout in spending on offshore detention and processing. These blowouts have totalled more than $2.5 billion.
The Government has allocated $605.2 million for offshore processing in 2026-27. This is 37.7% or $366.4 million lower than actual spending in 2025-26.
Since the offshore detention and processing policy was reintroduced in 2012, the Australian Government has spent $13.743 billion on this policy in the 14 years to 30 June 2026. With the $605.2 million allocated for 2026-27, this spending will increase to $14.35 billion over 15 years.
Border enforcement and management
The Government will increase spending on border management by $44 million (or 7.9%) to $600.0 million in 2026-27, having underspend its border management budget by 1% ($5.9 million) in 2025-26. The border enforcement budget for 2025-26 was $1.507 billion but actual estimated expenditure $1.629 billion. For 2026-27, the border enforcement budget has been set at $1.566 billion – $59.0 million higher than the 2025-26 allocation but $62.8 million below actual spending.
Employment and English language support
The Government will extend the Economic Pathways to Refugee Integration program with $7.7 million in 2026-27. The Government will also introduce changes to the Adult Migrant English Program (AMEP), including changes to program eligibility to “target clients most in need of formal English tuition”, and a new program model from 1 January 2029, with flexible tuition and student support to improve English language, employment and social cohesion outcomes for migrants. The Government indicates that this measure will be cost neutral over the four years.
Equitable health access
As part of its focus on preventative and equitable health access, $10.8 million over two years from 2026–27 was allocated to continue the Health in My Language program to provide community‑led health literacy education to refugee and migrant women.
Regional cooperation
The Department of Home Affairs will spend $101.5 million in 2026-27 on regional cooperation, a reduction of 7.4% on the $109.8 million spent in 2025-26. The regional cooperation budget includes relationships with partner governments to deter irregular migration, improve border management and respond to terrorism threats.
Response to antisemitism and support for social cohesion
The Government will provide $604.2 million over five years from 2025–26 (and $8.1 million per year ongoing) in response to the antisemitic Bondi terrorist attack on 14 December 2025. Measures include: $218.9 million over four years as an immediate response to support the victims of the attack, their families, and the broader community; $32.6 million in 2026–27 for public awareness campaigns to strengthen Australia’s national security and social cohesion; $20 million over four years from 2026–27 to the Department of Education to extend and expand the Together for Humanity program to address social cohesion, including antisemitism and racism, through face‑to‑face intercultural programs and educational resources for teachers, and $13.6 million over five years from 2025–26 (and $1.1 million per year ongoing) for the Department of Home Affairs to implement the migration elements of the Combatting Antisemitism, Hate and Extremism (Criminal and Migration Laws) Act 2026, including new visa refusal and cancellation grounds, and character test provisions under the Migration Act.
Australian Human Rights Commission (AHRC)
The Government reduced the total resources for the Australian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) by $9.425 million, down to $67.5 million. The reduction comes at a time when performance measures to deliver a fair and effective investigation and conciliation of human rights complaints are at risk.
Administrative Review Tribunal (ART)
The Administrative Review Tribunal (ART) staffing levels will remain relatively consistent at 1,227. Total resourcing of the ART will increase by 4% to $449.9 million.
Department of Home Affairs staffing and resourcing
The Department will see a 1.5% reduction in total staffing, from 15,750 staff in 2025-26 to 15,518 staff in 2026-27. Last year’s Budget papers show that the Department’s staffing in 2024-25 was 15,245. The resourcing of the Department of Home Affairs will total $9.101 billion in 2026-27, a reduction of $2.051 billion (or 23%) on 2025-26. The Department’s total spending of $11.152 billion in 2025-26 was $2.581 billion (30%) more than the $8.571 billion allocated in the 2025-26 Budget.
Migration program
The Government will set the 2026–27 permanent Migration Program planning level at 185,000 places and allocate 132,240 places to the Skill stream, with 52,760 remaining for the Family stream. Across both the Skill and Family streams of the permanent Migration Program, the Government will prioritise applications from onshore migrants, allocating 129,590 places to migrants already living in Australia, with an additional 300 places allocated to Special Eligibility. The Government has indicated that the remaining 55,110 offshore places will predominately be allocated to “high‑skilled migrants”.
Overseas humanitarian and development assistance
Australia’s baseline Overseas Development Assistance (ODA) funding will increase by $112 million (2.2%) in 2026-27 to $5.209 billion. The Australian Council for International Development notes that this increase is a decline in real terms which reduces aid funding to just 0.63% of the Government’s total budget. Within the aid budget, the allocation for spending on Humanitarian, Emergencies and Refugees will increase by 1.5% to $512.8 million. Core funding of key United Nations agencies has not been increased, with allocations for the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) remaining at $25 million and UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) at $20 million.
