Star Metro - Backpackers fret over Australian visa crackdown

He's one of thousands that venture Down Under on so-called "working holiday visas" -- a chance to work, and play, in Australia for as long as three years.

But the future for some backpackers is now in doubt, following the government's announcement of plans to cut the number of visas issued -- and detain tourists who overstay.

"A lot of places you can't surf and work at the same time, so it's kind of perfect," Gibbs, 22, from near Croydon in London, told AFP.

"They're not really losing much by getting people to work in their country," he said, his surfboard still wet from an afternoon dip at Sydney's famed Bondi beach.

"I've done a lot of different types of work on the working holiday visa, and that helps out the Australians as well," he said.

"I'm not a harmful person. I'm only doing good."

As a Briton, Johnny is lucky; he's not affected by the changes thanks to an agreement between London and Canberra.

But many of his compatriots will be left waiting.

Interior minister Tony Burke said this week that a backlog of applications from the UK for working holiday visas would continue to be processed slowly after a record 80,000 applications last year.

For other nationalities, Burke said visas for a second-year stay will be cut to 45,000 places from 57,000 last year -- and applicants will be required to carry out 88 days of regional work.

Those that want to stay a third year will need to enter a ballot to stay -- with only 5,000 places available.

- 'It's good for Australia' -

Australia's ruling Labor party denies it is tightening visa rules in response to the rise of the far-right One Nation, now one of the country's most popular parties with pledges to drastically slash migration.

Graham Carson, 55, an Australian lawyer who was sunbathing with his family, told AFP the crackdown was "ironic".

"We send criminals back to England -- which you know in a way is quite funny, given that they were sending their convicts here," he said.

For some on Bondi -- long known as a backpacker's paradise for its chill vibes and carefree lifestyle -- the crackdown is a surprise.

"Maybe this was the wrong impression I had of Australia, but I thought they were very open," Stina Svensson, 27, from Gothenburg in Sweden, told AFP.

She and her friend Alva Johanssen are both in Australia on working holiday visas -- not working yet, but hoping to soon.

"People speak so highly of the working holiday visa programme. And I feel like it's also good for Australia," she said.

"Like we -- okay, not yet because we're unemployed -- but we would do the work that Australians don't want to do," she explained.

"We wanted to have, like, just a regular fun job at the beginning, but then do the remote work or, like, farm work, but, like, now we don't want to do that," she said.

"Because we don't know if we're even going to get a second year."

Her friend Alva said the new rules would likely mean she'll cut her stay short.

"We wanted to stay before this came up," Alva said. "But now I think I'll go home."

"I think we would rather just go to Southern Europe then, because that's just easier," Stina said.

Y.X. Gagnon--SMC