Legislation will make it a criminal offence to coerce someone to breach their visa conditions, and prevent exploitative workplaces from hiring staff on temporary visas again.

Further reforms will also protect migrant workers from losing their visa because they were forced to breach working conditions, and give those on sponsored visas six months to find a new employer.

Associate Professor Laurie Berg, co-executive director of the Migrant Justice Institute, said the changes could be a "game-changer for stopping the exploitation of migrant workers in Australia".

"For the first time, migrant workers could safely address wage theft and walk away from employers who exploit them without risking their visa," she said.

"Dodgy employers will no longer be able to assume that international students and other migrants will suffer in silence if they're underpaid or abused."

The government will also commit $50 million in funding for the Australian Border Force to enforce these measures against workplaces.

Up to one in six recently arrived migrant workers are paid below the national minimum wage, a Grattan Institute report says.

The same report found recent migrant workers were 40 per cent more likely to be underpaid than long-term residents with the same skills and experience working in the same job.

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Professor Allen Fels AO, who co-chaired the Migrant Workers Taskforce, criticised previous governments for failing to take action against migrant exploitation over the last decade.

"It was really obvious 10 years ago steps like what the government is taking now should have been happening," he said.

"The problem is so widespread that strong comprehensive remedies are required. They would not have been required on this scale had the problem been tackled at the outset".

The Coalition government set up the Migrant Workers Taskforce in 2016 to help address migrant worker exploitation, after an explosive investigation by Four Corners and Nine newspapers found the systemic underpayment of 7-Eleven staff, many of whom were international students.

The taskforce made 22 recommendations, which the Morrison government accepted in-principle. Two recommendations - to criminalise migrant worker coercion and prevent exploitative workers from hiring those on temporary protection visas - were included in a 2021 government bill, which ultimately lapsed in Parliament after the Coalition lost power.

Mr Fels said while the Coalition government commissioned the taskforce, "they were not very enthusiastic about the strong medicine [required] and the fact that there was not a lot of employer support for it".

The Albanese government has also committed to consultation around future reforms to encourage migrant workers to report exploitation, including whistleblower protections for temporary visa holders and strengthening the firewall between the Fair Work Ombudsman and the Department of Home Affairs.

Ms Berg said more still needed to be done to address gaps in enforcing labour protections, including a comprehensive review of the Fair Work Ombudsman.

"It is clear that many migrant workers are not able to access its services and that many migrants who do come forward and report to the Fair Work Ombudsman are not given the assistance that they need," she said.

She also called for a review of the "complex, lengthy and difficult to navigate" legal processes vulnerable migrant workers can use to try and recover unpaid wages from employers.