Alan Eggleston (WA, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

I very strongly support the Higher Education Support Amendment (Asian Century) Bill 2013 because I believe in the value of education exchanges with Asia—in bringing foreign students to Australia and helping our students go to Asian universities. Such interchanges, it is said, foster better relationships between people and countries, and I believe that is very true.

My home capital city of Perth has long had educational links with the countries to our north—with Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore and Hong Kong—and with countries as far away as the Middle East. From the 1930s and into the fifties and sixties, a couple of ships, the Gorgon and the Charon, used to sail between Singapore and Fremantle twice a year bringing students to Perth from what is now Malaysia and taking them back at Christmas. That is why, among other reasons, Perth has such a close connection with South-East Asia. Since the 1930s, people have gone to school with Chinese and Malay students and have developed strong links which have continued after school as business and professional links.

In modern times, I have seen this from the other side. In 2003, as part of a delegation to Indonesia, I attended a meeting in Surabaya of the Australian alumni association, which included people who had come to Australia under the Colombo Plan in the 1950s all the way up to recent graduates from universities in Australia. The value of this kind of exchange was shown by the depth of knowledge they had about Australia and Australian affairs. The impressions of Australia they had were good and this helps to build good relationships. I was told at that meeting in Surabaya that at that time there were four graduates of Australian universities in the Indonesian cabinet. That is a marvellous outcome from the perspective of building understanding and helping Australia to be accepted as part of the Asian region.

As Senator Mason alluded to, the coalition, in its policies for this election, does have a program of proposed student exchanges with various Asian universities. I think that will go a long way towards building very important bridges between students at our universities and young people in Asia. Over the time ahead, I believe that will pay marvellous dividends in international cooperation.

I have only had a short time to speak, but I know that Senator Back also wishes to make some remarks about this very important matter, so I will now conclude and hand over to him.