Pauline Hanson posted the policy on X on 5 June 2026. Temporary visa holders and foreign citizens living overseas would have two years to sell any Australian residential property they own to an Australian buyer. The reaction from the press was instant. The reaction to the policy itself, less so.

Since the policy went up, the coverage has been dominated by a Sky News interview and a difficult 2GB grilling. The policy detail has barely been explained by the mainstream media. So here it is, and it's very simple to understand.

The policy, in plain English

Three moving parts.

  • Temporary visa holders and foreign citizens living overseas who currently own Australian residential property get a 24 month window to sell to an Australian buyer.
  • If they don't sell, the property is repossessed by the federal government. The existing FIRB framework already does this case by case under section 69 of the Foreign Acquisitions and Takeovers Act 1975.
  • International students, non permanent residents and non citizens would be blocked from buying any future Australian residential property, including new builds.

This is not a brand new position. Hanson set it out on the Senate floor on 26 November 2024. Her words: "We must stop foreign ownership of housing indefinitely and give foreign owners two years to sell up so we don't suddenly flood the market. If the property is not sold, it should be repossessed by the federal government."

The 5 June X post is the same policy, more crisply written.

Who actually gets affected, and who doesn't

Permanent residents are exempt. Andrew Bolt on Sky News on Thursday 4 June put the figure at around 400,000 permanent residents who own homes in Australia. None of them are touched by the policy.

That carve out has been repeatedly blurred in the press. Deputy Liberal Leader Jane Hume said on Sky News on Friday: "If their policy is to kick people out of their homes, I think that that should set off alarm bells for millions of Australians, because that is a very new development."

Hanson clarified within hours that permanent residents remain in their homes. The policy targets two specific groups: temporary visa holders, including international students after graduation and 482 visa holders, and foreign citizens who own Australian property while living overseas.

Hanson also stated reasoning for the carve out is that permanent residents live in Australia, work in Australia, pay Australian tax, and are usually on a pathway to citizenship.

The 40,000 figure

The Australian Taxation Office records show about 40,000 residential properties in Australia are foreign owned, around 0.03% of total housing stock. Critics have used the figure to argue the policy is too small to shift the market.

The same figure also undercuts the argument that the policy is catastrophic. 40,000 homes is close to a full year of new dwelling completions in NSW, which ABS data put at 45,552 in the 12 months to December 2024. It's not a price reset, but it's 40,000 families who could be in those homes, paying off Australian mortgages.

Hanson has framed the policy as a principle rather than a price intervention. "Australian homes should be prioritised for Australians," she said in her 5 June statement. "One Nation makes no apologies for putting Australians first."

What other countries already do

The press framing has positioned the policy as radical. The international comparison says otherwise.

Australia, at present, has no equivalent restriction on continued foreign ownership.

Labor's already on the same page

Treasurer Jim Chalmers and former Housing Minister Clare O'Neil banned foreign persons, including temporary residents and foreign owned companies, from buying established dwellings in Australia from 1 April 2025. The ATO website lists the ban as running through to 30 June 2029, following the extension in the 2026 27 Budget.

The Coalition supported the ban. Peter Dutton initially proposed it in his 2024 budget reply. The principle that foreigners shouldn't be purchasing Australian residential property is now bipartisan.

The One Nation policy extends the same logic: if foreigners shouldn't be buying Australian homes, foreigners who don't live here probably shouldn't keep the ones they've already got.

The two year window

Existing FIRB divestment orders typically run 12 months. One Nation's policy gives 24 months, twice as long. Owners get time to time the market, find a buyer, and complete settlement.

The Sky News and 2GB stumbles

The press has run hard on two interviews where One Nation members struggled with the policy detail.

Barnaby Joyce, on The Bolt Report on Thursday 4 June, said permanent residents would also be forced to sell. He made phone calls during the recording break and re-recorded his answer. "On further investigation and discussions with One Nation, no, we are not going to be kicking permanent residents out of their house," he said in the second take. Andrew Bolt observed on air that the party appeared to be "literally making up policy as it goes along".

NSW Senator Sean Bell, on 2GB the next morning, could not answer host Mark Levy's question about what happens if a property isn't sold within the two year window. Levy ended the interview early, describing it as a "train wreck".

Pauline Hanson's 5 June clarification on X confirmed the policy as written and as she set it out in her 2024 Senate speech. Joyce joined One Nation in December 2025 after resigning from the Nationals on 27 November 2025. Bell was elevated to the Senate in September 2025. Neither stumble changed the substance of the policy.

How the policy would actually work

This is the operational detail that's been missing from the coverage. Most of the machinery already exists under the Foreign Acquisitions and Takeovers Act 1975.

  • If the property isn't sold in two years. Under section 69 of the Foreign Acquisitions and Takeovers Act 1975, the Treasurer already holds the power to order forced disposal. The cleanest implementation is compulsory acquisition at independent market valuation, with the net proceeds paid to the foreign owner, and the property sold on to Australian buyers.
  • How they find the properties. The Foreign Ownership Register of Residential Land, run by the ATO, already exists. The Foreign Ownership Register of Agricultural Land has been operating since 2015. Every foreign owned title is already on file.
  • Free trade agreement risk. Real estate is one of the standard sectors that can be reserved out of national treatment provisions in every FTA Australia has signed. Canada's foreign buyer ban survived under USMCA. New Zealand's ban was structured around CPTPP, which Australia has also signed.
  • Dual citizens. Australian citizens are Australian. Anyone holding an Australian passport sits outside the policy regardless of any other citizenship.
  • Family trusts and corporate structures. Section 4 of the Foreign Acquisitions and Takeovers Act 1975 already defines a "foreign person" as including trusts where 20% or more of beneficial interest is held by foreign persons, and companies where foreign persons hold 20% or more of voting power.
  • Implementation timeline. A 12 month notification period from passage of the legislation, with the ATO notifying every owner on the register, followed by the 24 month sale window. Three years from royal assent to enforcement.
  • Farmland. Hanson has said the same regime applies. About 13% of Australian farmland is foreign owned per Department of Agriculture data, with British, Chinese and Canadian interests the largest holders. Same register, same divestment mechanism.

The wider platform

The forced sale rule sits inside a broader One Nation housing platform, also published on the party's website.

  • Cap annual visas at 130,000, a reduction of around 570,000 from current Labor settings.
  • Restrict negative gearing to a maximum of two investment properties. About 90% of Australian property investors already hold one or two dwellings per ATO data (71.5% with one, 18.9% with two), so the policy primarily affects larger portfolios.
  • Allow superannuation to be used for the purchase of a primary residence.

Whether or not voters agree with every element, One Nation has the most complete published housing platform on the table heading into the Victorian state election cycle. Labor's response so far has been to extend a foreign buyer ban it initially borrowed from Peter Dutton. The Coalition has called the One Nation policy "a slogan". Neither has explained why a policy with parallels in New Zealand, Canada and Switzerland would be unworkable in Australia, where the legal machinery already exists under a 50 year old Commonwealth Act.

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