Sarah Henderson (Corangamite, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

That was an unfortunate contribution from the member for Kingston, who is in the business of scaring students and not sticking to the facts. Let me assure you that the contribution you have just made was reckless, it was untrue and it does not reflect the very strong commitment that we are fundamentally making. Under the previous government higher education international student revenues went from $19 billion to $15 billion over six years. You drove down international revenues by $4 billion. You do not understand that, currently, education is so important to our future. The third biggest export of our nation is education.

Speaking of education, I was delighted that foreign minister Julie Bishop visited my electorate last week. She visited two wonderful schools, Christian College Senior Campus and Belmont High. The students are very positive about their future and about the potential to go to university. I want to particularly thank Christian College principal Glen McKeeman and also Belmont High principal Gary Schultz.

We learnt about the wonderful cultural exchange programs, the wonderful work these students are doing and I want to commend them for the amazing achievements they are making in remote communities throughout the Asian region.