Sharon Bird (Cunningham, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I endorse the comments of the member for Fisher about the amazing efforts of Jessica Watson. I think a lot of young people are interested in following her journey and are inspired by it. I want to talk today about an event that I attended in my local area during the past non-sitting week of the parliament. The University of Wollongong has a very significant intake of international students each year. It has a great reputation, and I would be a bit biased in saying that that is, by and large, a result of the fact that we are such a wonderful part of the nation. For students coming from overseas it is a city without being a place where you can get lost, like you can in the big cities. Certainly Wollongong has proved very attractive to international students for quite a long time.

This is the third year that the university has put this function on, and I put on the record my great commendation of those at the university’s international student centre who organised this. It is called a welcome to Wollongong event for international students, and it has a twofold effect. Firstly, it makes those students and their parents or family who are there with them at the beginning of their studies feel welcome and confident that the students, who have come so far to study in Australia, will be part of and valued in the community where they are studying. Secondly, it also enables the community to get to know these young people and to feel comfortable and confident that these young people are bringing real value, interest and diversity to our community.

I was invited to address the event, which was held at the Illawarra Performing Arts Centre. It is about a 500-seat auditorium and it was full. It was just wonderful to look out and see young faces from around the world, in all their diversity, coming into our area to study, full of hopes for their future and dreams of what their qualifications will allow them to do with their lives. It was a really good event. The event itself was not only for students of the university, although it had facilitated it; it was also for students who are coming to study at our TAFEs and indeed for some students who are coming to study in our schools. So it was across all the sectors for international students in our region. I spoke to them about why I am so passionate about international student engagement in Australia. When I gave the speech the report of the Baird review into vocational sector issues had not been handed to government, but it has since and I recognise the efforts of Mr Baird, a former colleague on the economics committee of this House during the period of the past government, in that critically important area.

Not only is there the economic issue. These young people come to a region like ours to study and they spend money in the area, but the interest that they create in their home country amongst their families and friends, encouraging them to visit as tourists, is really valuable. Decades ago, post World War II, many countries in the West started scholarships and programs to encourage people from developing countries to study in their country. The principles that lay behind those schemes at the time are just as relevant in today’s world—that is, the more we know each other the less we fear each other. It is a really important component of international peace and friendship. When people travel to another nation, with a different culture, a different language and a different religious base, and they form friendships, they go away with a positive feeling about that place, and that contributes to a much happier world across all the challenges that we face in modern times. I challenge young people—as their parents and their teachers would be telling them—to not only study hard and get a good qualification but also make friendships, learn about the place they were and become lifetime ambassadors about world peace and understanding of difference and diversity.

It was a wonderful event. We went from the hall to the open area. There were stalls, dancing, music and food. I commend the organisers of the event. It is a great initiative. I reaffirm my great commitment to the importance and value of international students studying in Australia and our value of their work.

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