This article examines how migration law and policy is being used in two jurisdictions to address the labour needs of the care sector. Both Australia and New Zealand have distinct regulatory approaches when it comes to determining how labour supply challenges are met in the care sector. New Zealand uses its Essential Skills visa to allow the temporary entry of care workers, whereas Australia has historically eschewed specific visa pathways permitting low skilled temporary labour migration and has only provided a limited temporary migration pathway restricted to the highest skill care occupations through its 457 visa programme. Instead, Australia has relied on a mix of temporary migrants on partner visas, international students and working holiday makers to meet labour supply challenges in the care sector and to supplement the local workforce, which includes many long-term permanent migrants. However, there is mounting pressure on the Australian Government to provide a dedicated temporary labour migration pathway for care workers. Recent reforms such as the introduction of a Designated Area Migration Agreement for Northern Australia, the Pacific Micro States trial and changes to the work rights of working holiday makers provide new opportunities for temporary migrant care workers to come to Australia and work in the sector. Both New Zealand’s revolving door of temporary migrant care workers and Australia’s de facto low skilled migration pathways present regulatory challenges with regard to the protection of these workers in the labour market, their claims to citizenship in receiving countries and their opportunity to realise the ‘triple win’ promised in the temporary labour migration literature. The increasing reliance by Australia and New Zealand on temporary migrant care workers to meet the labour supply challenges in the sector also masks a range of other endemic employment relations problems in the sector (in particular, low pay) and may lead to a permanent demand for temporary migrant workers at the expense of local care workers.