Luke Gosling (Solomon, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

Thank you, Mr Deputy Speaker, and it's great to see you in the chair! I want to thank the member for Sydney, the member for Moreton and the member for Perth. I agree wholeheartedly with everything that has been said to date. I want to talk about a couple of issues to do with overseas students and international education generally, as well as speak in particular about this bill, Education Services For Overseas Students (Registration Charges) Amendment Bill 2021, and the related bills. As we've heard from previous speakers, Labor does not oppose these cognate bills. The legislation is of course far from perfect; however, on this side of the House we're supporting it. As we have done through the pandemic and in general, the opposition is not in the business of opposing legislation for the sake of relentless opposition—as we've seen in past oppositions. But even when we extend support for legislation from the government it does not mean we abandon our scrutiny or refrain from criticising the government, where that's warranted.

It's always an interesting experience to rise and speak on legislation brought forward by the government that impacts universities and higher education. This government has a troubled track record when it comes to unis, and the sting from this track record is made much worse when we consider the size and contribution of this sector to our economy. I can inform the House that in my electorate of Solomon—that's Greater Darwin, Darwin and Palmerston in particular—Charles Darwin University has made an immense contribution to our life in the north: to our cultural life; obviously to our academic life; and to our economy. Nationally, before the COVID-19 pandemic hit, international education was the fourth-largest export industry in Australia. Students came to Darwin from all over the globe, looking for a world-class education, and to universities around the country. They were looking for those qualifications which would guarantee some employment and for the experience of studying and living in our remarkable nation.

These students enriched the quality of campus life at universities across Australia and of course they worked in a variety of roles in our economy, in small to large businesses. The revenue generated from this total holistic process was significant. International education contributed $37.5 billion in export earnings to the economy per annum, universities employed about 130,000 full-time-equivalent workers in academic and professional roles, and the sector supported over 250,000 jobs throughout our economy. So it was significant indeed and very much deserving of more attention and support that the sector has received from those opposite.

When the pandemic hit Australia, the sector was badly impacted by both the closure of borders and the inability of students to travel here. The sector needed support to cushion this impact and to make the bounce back to normal easier and quicker. What did this government do to support this large and important industry? Not only did they not do anything, their actions betrayed a cavalier disregard for the continuing viability of universities and higher education in this country. Anyone would think that they were blind to their own life story and to the role of universities to their current circumstances. The fact that they're sitting in the seats that they are is in no small part because of the university degrees that they received. But then, as is often the case with those opposite, once they achieve that position of power or influence, it must have been their own brilliance alone that got them to where they were, not the contribution of so many people in academic institutions that assisted their learning.

Let's not forget that this government changed the rules and requirements for JobKeeper three separate times to deliberately exclude universities. The fourth biggest sector in Australia, as I mentioned earlier, was treated like that when, we're well aware, there were big companies whose revenue and profits were going up and who received JobKeeper support but not our universities.

That once booming export sector will lose $3.8 billion in revenue across 2021. At least 17,300 workers employed by universities lost their jobs last year, and the job losses have continued this year. Those losses are in critical areas of research and expertise, which, apparently, we hear from those opposite, are important to them, and research and expertise apparently is pretty important in the future of work, the pandemic that we face, and our want to leap ahead when it comes to high-value, high-tech items to export and to manufacture. We need those critical areas of research and expertise, and these losses which have taken place across disciplines and faculties constitute a serious hit to the intellectual capacity of our nation. So it is hitting intellectual capacity, hitting the economy and hitting the R&D that we hear those opposite understand are important to our future.

This lack of support has led to 7,000 research positions effectively disappearing. The people who occupied those positions will either go overseas or, unfortunately, leave research altogether. The tragedy of this is that, once removed, that capacity is very difficult to replace. This loss of research and teaching capacity can even be found in the discipline of Asian studies. Who would have thought that Asian studies would be important in the Asian century? Universities across Australia have cut back on Asian studies, including the teaching of Asian languages. That is just dumb. It is dumb, but universities have to make hard decisions when they're faced with such a lack of support from a dumb government that doesn't seem to connect the dots between our future in this region and the need for our universities to be training people of all ages, not only in Asian languages but in Asian studies in general.

Let's have a think what that defunding means for languages here in Australia. We are living through some of the biggest changes ever experienced in our region. It is an era of complexity, and we hear that often. The challenges that we face in Indo-Pacific are significant. What we need is obviously the ability to defend ourselves from any threats and we need to be able to protect Australia and her interests. What we also need is for really smart people who will become the diplomats of the future to be able to speak languages, to be able to understand intimately our region so that they can effectively apply that trade craft in order to secure Australia and our interests. We want to equip the next generation with the language and knowledge needed for that understanding. It's absolutely critical. So the government needs a plan to deal with this looming knowledge crisis, and I call upon those opposite to act immediately to properly fund our universities, including those Asian studies programs.

International education in Australia may have taken a mighty battering from the pandemic and the indifference of those opposite, but the industry survives, and we must look to the future to restore and resuscitate this important sector to our economy and to our future. I don't know if this legislation will achieve this; I doubt it. The backbone of this sector was always international students themselves, and we need to bring them back. And I should stress that I am not calling for international students to be brought back at the expense of Australians stranded overseas. That's another major failure of this government. Had they acted quickly last year, all stranded Australians could have been evacuated home by now. Had those opposite built a national network of effective quarantine facilities, as they were advised to do in advice that they themselves sought, these evacuated Australians would have had somewhere to safety quarantine upon returning home. But I digress.

The future viability of higher education in this country rests on being able to bring international students back to Australia, and we can do this, but we need somewhere for these students to quarantine when they arrive here. But that's not hotels—to the geniuses opposite—because hotel quarantine leaks. We've counted about 28 leaks so far; maybe there have been more. But hotel quarantine leaks. We need dedicated quarantine facilities, because those hotel quarantine leaks are costing our economy billions—that's with a 'b', billions.

One such place suitable for a dedicated national quarantine centre is the Top End. Those opposite would know that Howard Springs has been providing a wonderful service to our nation in getting stranded Australians home. The Olympians are there at the moment, and Australians who need to travel to the Northern Territory will continue to quarantine there. We've also got another facility, called Bladin Point. It can take 1,500 people per fortnight. I've written to the Home Affairs minister about the centre. I understand that she has visited it recently. I hope she very much enjoyed her visit to the Top End and I hope she saw how effective Bladin Village could be in quarantining international students so we can get those international students back into our universities—because we are being done like a dinner internationally. Other countries' governments that are being smarter than our current Australian government are making sure that international students know they're loved, know they're welcome back, and have got avenues through which they can quarantine and resume that relationship with their universities.

Last year in October, when the Prime Minister received advice on standing up more dedicated quarantine facilities, if we had stood up Bladin Village, as one example—but there are others, as we know, in Queensland and in Victoria, or near any capital city—we could have got tens of thousands of stranded Australians home and we could have started to get many more international students home.

Currently, we've got half the Australian population in lockdown, some due to leaks from hotel quarantine. So I stress again, for those opposite, that bringing international students back into Australia has got to be done safely. That means dedicated quarantine facilities. We've got that facility up in Darwin, and I encourage them to use it.

The COVID pandemic has in many ways changed the world and the way we live. Some of these changes will be with us forever, but others will be transitory. I'm glad the government has put this package of legislation to the House. However, it does not go far enough towards rebuilding the international education sector, so I call on the government to put politics aside and act to save our universities and our international education sector.

No great nation treats its tertiary education sector this way. Compared to our competitors, we are losing big time. Other nations are making headway, and we are totally squandering our competitive advantages in attracting overseas students. I encourage those opposite, the current Australian government, to do better. Listen to the advice you were given a long time ago, pull your finger out and secure pathways to Australia for international students. As I mentioned, in Darwin we have a dedicated quarantine facility that has been largely unused. Get the international students in and give them the jabs that they need, if they haven't already got them. They will have a great education in the Northern Territory, where we are COVID free—touch wood! We have a great record when it comes to dealing with COVID. Let's get the international students home.

See this speech in context