Steven Ciobo (Moncrieff, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

I am pleased to rise to speak on the Education Services for Overseas Students Legislation Amendment Bill 2010. Following on from the member for Cook and others in this debate, it is for me as a representative—together with the member for McPherson, who is here at the table—a pleasure to speak about an industry that all of us on the Gold Coast are passionate about. We are passionate about the education of overseas students. It really comes down to two motivations. Of course, part of the passion is that there are opportunities to play a role in indirectly educating young people from abroad about Australian culture and, more directly, about the kinds of professional standards of education that we are able to offer as a country.

The second, and I would argue perhaps even more important motivation from an entirely domestic point of view, is that the education of overseas students is a significant export earner for this country. On the Gold Coast we are quite comfortable with the notion of being a services exporter. As Australia’s sixth largest and one of its fastest growing cities, we have been exporting services to foreigners for many years. It is the story of the Gold Coast to speak about how, through both tourism and more recently education, we have been able to sell our part of the world all around the world. In that vein I have been pleased over a number of years now to work closely and speak on an ongoing basis with education providers as well as tourism providers in my seat of Moncrieff and more broadly across the Gold Coast.

As someone who was educated locally for my tertiary studies at the Bond University, there was even at the time I was a student there—which is now too many years ago for me to even care to admit—a large contingent of overseas students who were studying at the university. At Bond University, at Griffith University to its north as well as at an array of other universities that have campuses located on the Gold Coast, there is a very large contingent of overseas students who choose to come to our city, who choose to come and study in Australia, and in doing so make an incredibly valuable contribution.

But it is more than just tertiary education; it is also the VET sector. A number of colleges and campuses across the Gold Coast are also providing crucial education exports in this area. They are driving thousands of jobs; they are driving millions and millions of dollars of export income. To the extent that this bill, with its bipartisan support, goes towards addressing some of the concerns that we have arisen in recent years, we welcome it as members of the coalition.

Can I say though that, like any implementation issue and like any piece of policy designed to improve resources generally and more broadly improve the integrity of the export of a service like education, it is crucial that the government’s left hand operates in unison with the government’s right hand. Whilst I welcome a number of aspects in this bill that go to the very core of tightening the framework that applies to education service providers, at both a VET level and a tertiary level, the inescapable fact is that, although this is a step forward by the government and supported by the opposition, there is unfortunately a very big step backwards being taken by this same Labor government. I am talking about an issue that has been of central concern to education exporters on the Gold Coast and to me for some time now, and that is the decision by the Rudd now Gillard Labor government to close the immigration office on the Gold Coast.

It seems extraordinary that in Australia’s sixth largest city, with a population of some 500,000 people, a city for which I have fought for additional federal government services for many years, we have a federal Labor government that is closing the immigration office. This is not a small immigration office; this is an immigration office that handles some 32,000 clients a year and processes thousands of visa applications. Yet the Labor government is closing the immigration office. It is extraordinary that members opposite would stand up and profess a great love for education exports and would say there are so many economic benefits that flow from education exports, but then in the very same decision turn around and put a red line through the Gold Coast immigration office. From my perspective it is a great problem that requires significant effort to overcome.

It is true that the Gold Coast is not the only education export location in Australia. There is a rich framework of education suppliers and stakeholders across the length and breadth of this country that cater to the hundreds of thousands of students who take decisions to come and study in Australia. But, that notwithstanding, for the thousands of people employed in this industry in my city, for the jobs that it creates, for the investment income that it drives and for the export of the tourist dollar that flows alongside the export of education services—there is no single bigger threat to the whole industry in my city than this government’s decision to close the immigration office.

I have campaigned on this for some time. It was an issue in the last federal election. I raised it with the immigration minister, who indicated that, that notwithstanding, it was the Labor government’s view that they would redirect people just up the road to Brisbane. The trip supposedly ‘just up the road’ to Brisbane actually involves at least a 1½ to two hour commute. By public transport it would probably take even longer, and that is what the majority of overseas students would be required to do. They would be required to resolve these matters by travelling up to Brisbane and then taking a two-hour commute back to the Gold Coast later on in the day. It smacks of a government that is one of two things. It is either ignorant of the realities of life between the Gold Coast and Brisbane and the distance that is involved or, secondly and more concerningly, it is a government that simply does not care and is being flippant in its response to those students who seek to study on the Gold Coast. My concern is that this government is actively making the Gold Coast less competitive when it comes to the export of education services. This government through this decision is putting at risk thousands of jobs in the education sector. Those people, as a consequence of the historically strong education services export industry, will now have their livelihoods threatened.

There is also a downside with respect to the tourism industry. As a number of previous speakers have outlined, one of the benefits that flow with a strong education services export culture is that it generally also attracts a large number of tourists. You have what they call in the industry VFR, visiting friends and relatives, those people who take the decision to come and visit their son or their daughter or their aunt or their uncle, whatever the relation may be. They choose to come and visit and stay in Australia for some time whilst they visit their loved one. Those people also may not come. It is of concern to me that the Gold Coast is going to directly lose any competitive advantage we have because of this bureaucratic and frankly ignorant decision by the Labor government.

The reality is that this government needs to get real. It needs to get real about maintaining not only the Gold Coast’s but Australia’s position with respect to the export of education services. It needs to get real about not closing essential government services like the department of immigration office in Australia’s sixth largest city. It needs to get real about maintaining that presence, an office that provides some 32,000 clients every single year with the services that they need in order to ensure that the Gold Coast continues to be a competitive education exporter. For that reason, I put it to the parliament that the government needs to dovetail with this bill a reversal of its ill-founded decision to close the department of immigration office in Southport. It is simply too important a service to go about closing it.

Education more broadly is, as other speakers in this debate have outlined, Australia’s fourth largest export, contributing just over $17 billion to the export earnings of Australia. It is our fourth largest after coal, iron ore and gold. It means so much to our country. Some of the significant concerns that we have needed to overcome in recent times have gone to the integrity of the export of education. Some of the charges levelled have been that some service providers were duplicitous, perhaps in the best light, or in the worst light downright dishonest with respect to the export of education services. It has generally been within the VET sector that the charges have been levelled. There are a large number of high-quality VET providers that provide services to overseas students. In this vein I want to acknowledge that this bill will take some steps towards improving the integrity of the system to ensure that overseas students are not at risk when it comes to their decision to study in Australia. This is crucial because, if we are going to maintain a competitive position as a nation in a world in which our education services have become more expensive as a direct consequence of the appreciation of the Australian dollar, we need to recognise we must also address the credibility issue.

Unfortunately, the reality is that in recent years we have been under sustained attack because we have let house standards drop. We have not done enough to ensure that overseas students feel comfortable within Australia. Steps need to be taken—indeed some have been taken, and this bill is another step in that journey—both to ensure that overseas students get an education that is substantive, internationally recognised and comparable with our peers who are seeking to operate in this market and also to recognise that we need to make them feel welcome. In that sense I would like to commend the work that was done by the former federal member for Cook, a good friend of mine, the Hon. Bruce Baird, with his report Stronger, simpler, smarter ESOS: supporting international studentsthe very report which, effectively, forms the backbone of the bill that is before the chamber today.

I commend this bill. I acknowledge that it will make some substantive improvements to the integrity of service providers and in particular put increased pressure on those that operate at the shadier end of the spectrum. I think everybody would welcome that. We need to recognise that there are two things we can be competitive on. The first is price, which is difficult with an appreciating Australian dollar. The second of course is integrity, and this bill does address the issue of integrity. But I put a very large caveat on my support, and that caveat is that this must be taken in tandem with an actual rollout of essential government services. I cannot stress enough that the decision by this government to close in Australia’s sixth largest city, a city of 500,000-plus people, the office of the department of immigration and to simply fob it off and say, ‘Well, students will simply have to go up the road to Brisbane,’ underscores that this government has lost its way when it comes to meaningful assistance being provided to overseas students. It is not good enough, as far as I am concerned. It is not good enough for the many people who have signed the petitions I have had running. It is not good enough for the shadow minister, who supports me in my call to have the office remain open, and it certainly is not good enough for the thousands of people who earn their livelihoods in this sector. Millions of dollars would flow into the Gold Coast but for this ridiculous decision by the Labor government.

Taking all of that into context, I support the bill but call upon the government to reverse its short-sighted decision with respect to the Southport office of the department of immigration.

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