WA Warns Visa Reforms Could Strip 4,500 Peak-Season Hospitality Workers

Western Australia could lose 4,500 tourism and hospitality workers during peak season under proposed Working Holiday Maker visa reforms — that is the headline figure in a joint letter sent to Federal Home Affairs and Immigration Minister Tony Burke by Premier Roger Cook, AHA(WA) CEO Bradley Woods AM, and Tourism Council WA CEO Evan Hall.

The reforms, announced on 17 September, would cut the number of places available under the working holiday maker visa for travelers seeking a second or third year in Australia. They would also introduce a ballot system for allocating those places.

For WA operators, the math is straightforward. Perth sits isolated from the eastern states, and the state's regional tourism destinations are dispersed, relying heavily on seasonal labor. Second and third-year working holiday makers are the workers who already know the conditions and the rhythms of a regional season.

What does this change for operators?

Woods frames the risk in operational terms, not rhetoric. If hospitality employers cannot retain and recruit the workers they need, he says, the consequences will be very real: reduced operating hours, reduced service capacity, and potential temporary business closures during peak tourism periods.

"Western Australia is particularly exposed because of Perth's isolation and our dispersed regional tourism destinations which rely heavily on seasonal labour," Woods said. "Working holiday makers fill seasonal and location-specific roles that often cannot be filled locally."

The industry position is not outright opposition. Woods says the sector is seeking a practical solution rather than simply rejecting reform.

"We believe there is a workable way forward. At a minimum, Western Australia must receive sufficient second and third year visa places to meet demonstrated regional workforce demand. Those prepared to commit to even further regional service should also be exempt from the ballot."

That gives the Federal Government two concrete levers: a floor on WA's allocation of second and third-year places tied to demonstrated regional demand, and a ballot exemption for workers who commit to extended regional service.

Why the sector leans on repeat visitors

The letter is explicit on the labor-market logic. The sector will always look to employ locals first, it states — but the roles at stake are seasonal and location-specific, and the experienced second and third-year cohort arrives already familiar with regional conditions and seasonal operations.

"This workforce is critical to ensuring Western Australia's tourism and hospitality sectors can continue to provide quality experiences for Western Australians, as well as interstate and international visitors," the letter says.

"We simply cannot support changes to the working holiday maker visa scheme that could have such a significant negative impact on regional Western Australia."

The joint front is notable in itself: a state premier and two competing industry bodies — accommodation and hotels on one side, tourism operators on the other — signing the same letter to Canberra. That alignment signals how sharply the 17 September announcement landed in a state where the labor pool is thinner and the distances longer than anywhere else in the country.

The ball now sits with Minister Burke. If the reforms proceed without a WA-specific carve-out, regional operators will head into their next peak season planning around fewer hands — shorter trading hours, leaner service capacity and, in the sharpest cases, closures during the very weeks the visitor economy depends on.