AHA’s ‘red button’ ad warns of empty pubs and cafes if migration cuts go ahead

The Australian Hotels Association (AHA) has launched a tongue-in-cheek advertisement showing what a country without migrant workers could look like, as Labor, the Coalition and One Nation all push to cut immigration.

The ad opens with a man approaching a giant red button beneath a sign reading “Press button to run Australia without migrant workers.” Once he presses it, baristas and bar staff walk out of cafes and pubs, an aged care worker farewells a lonely resident, and supermarket fruit and vegetable shelves run bare.

AHA CEO Stephen Ferguson told 7NEWS.com.au the campaign aims to put the economic fallout of the cuts into the conversation. He said “no one is talking about” the “knock-on effects” of losing workers.

“I understand Australians are anxious about migration and we completely understand that,” he said.

“But in all the conversations going on about migration, no political party is talking about the knock-on effect of losing workers out of the economy, whether that be workers out of hospitals, aged care, abattoirs, fruit picking, you know, across the whole economy.

“Every Australian business wants to hire Australians first. But where we don’t have those workers, we’ve got to look to people from overseas.

“We need to get them from somewhere else.”

What the parties are proposing

One Nation is leading the push, flagging a cut of 750,000 people over three years that would send net overseas migration into negative territory. Its recent polling success has prompted the major parties to tighten their own positions.

The Coalition has proposed cutting a third of annual overseas migration in the first year and reducing temporary visa holders by 650,000 over four years. It would also halve the humanitarian intake and cut working holiday maker visas by 23,700.

Labor wants net overseas migration reduced to 245,000 by July 2027 and 225,000 a year thereafter. It also plans to limit second-year working holiday maker stays to 45,000, down from 57,000, and cap third-year stays at 5000, down from 31,000.

Seasonal hospitality at risk

Ferguson said working holiday makers are critical to seasonal hospitality and agricultural work, particularly in northern Australia.

“Working holidaymakers help us is in seasonal areas. So that might be in some of the northern parts of Australia during the colder months. The working holidaymakers are fantastic because they’ll go to places like Cairns, Cooktown, Broome, Darwin,” he said.

“They’ll work up there in the hospitality industry and they’ll also work up there in the agricultural and horticultural industry.

“And then when it gets too hot in the northern part of Australia, they’ll flood down to places like Melbourne and to Northern Tasmania and they’ll fill work that’s needed down there.

“They’re just a mobile, motivated workforce.

“The government wants to chop that by 40,000, and we’re saying, well, how are we going to do without 40,000 workers?”

Jonathan Jackson, 12th October 2026