Simon Birmingham (SA, Liberal Party, Assistant Minister for Education and Training) Share this | Hansard source

What we see from the state government in relation to their new work ready policy is great inconsistency when it comes to the announcement they have just made that they want to try and reinvest in international education. International education is a huge industry. It is our fourth largest export industry, our largest services industry, and is worth nearly $1 billion to the South Australian economy alone. But at the same time as saying that they want to reinvest—they have backflipped on previous cuts there—they are implementing a policy that will dramatically harm choice in relation to domestic students. By shutting out many domestic students you harm the existence of those training providers. Without a strong domestic market we simply will not have quality providers there to compete for those international students. Eighty-five per cent of international VET students choose a private provider, but those private providers will simply lose their domestic base under this new policy regime.