People living in Hong Kong will be able to access extended Australian visas with a pathway to permanent residency.

The move was announced today by Australia's Acting Minister for Immigration Alan Tudge, in the wake of China's sweeping new security law for Hong Kong.

Current and future students from Hong Kong will be eligible for a five-year temporary graduate visa once they complete their studies.

Former students already on a graduate visa will also receive five years from now.

Hong Kong residents who fit the skills shortage criteria will also be able to access a five-year temporary skilled visa.

READ MORE: Australia suspends extradition agreement with Hong Kong

Mr Morrison said the government had also suspended the Australian extradition agreement with China.

"The other issue that we are addressing is one that, as a result of changes that have occurred in Hong Kong, that there will be citizens of Hong Kong who may be looking to move elsewhere," Mr Morrison said.

"To take their skills, their businesses and things that they have been running under the previous set of rules and arrangements in Hong Kong, and seek that opportunity elsewhere."

The package falls short of the UK's pledge to extend millions of visa opportunities to Hong Kong residents, but the Australian initiatives are likely to provoke further backlash from Beijing, which has already issued threatening warnings about international actions favouring Hong Kong.

Mr Morrison made the announcements in a national press conference today, where he laid out his response to China's crackdown.

"In our view - and this is not just our view, it's a shared view of many countries - that it undermines the One Country, Two Systems framework, and Hong Kong's own basic law and the high degree of autonomy guaranteed in the Sino-British Joint Declaration that was set out there," said Mr Morrison.

"That is a matter of public record from Australia's point of view."

Under the agreement by which the UK pledged to sign over governorship of Hong Kong to China in 1985, Beijing promised to uphold Hong Kong's existing autonomy, rights, freedoms and legal system.

Recent attempts by China to erode those liberties have sparked massive protests in the island territory, culminating in the new law.

Source: 9News https://www.9news.com.au/national/china-hong-kong-security-law-australia-pm-scott-morrison-announces-visa-measures/99e24b1f-4541-4fb1-b3d1-f24443a70f85