Dean Smith (WA, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

I'm delighted, this afternoon, to make my contribution to what I think is an important motion from Senator Georgiou—a One Nation senator from my home state of Western Australia—but I'm going to be a little bit more gracious. I think what Senator Georgiou is trying to do is highlight the important plight of young Australians that are looking for work. I don't think it's a bad idea that Senator Georgiou, who is a new senator here in the Senate from Western Australia, has spent some time thinking about what could be the various causes of that problem, or that he has invited us in this place to sit down and discuss whether or not we think this particular cause has merit or whether or not other causes have merit.

What I'd like to do, in the brief opportunity available to me this afternoon, is to talk about why I don't think it is right to look at international students but how I do think that there are other opportunities to provide jobs growth, particularly in our home state of Western Australia. Of course, Senator Georgiou won't be surprised to learn that I'm putting my effort and consideration into reform of the GST system and why I think that will be a great opportunity, not just in Western Australia. I think I might have heard Senator Polley scoff at my idea of goods and services tax distribution reform in our country. I'm pleased to say, Senator Polley, that none other than the Productivity Commission itself, in its draft report into horizontal fiscal equalisation, says that there is opportunity for reform in our country of the GST system. I'm pleased that the New South Wales Treasurer has even endorsed reform. I'm pleased that the new Labor government in Western Australia—as the previous Liberal government did—has also endorsed reform. I'm delighted that my parliamentary colleague the Treasurer, Mr Morrison, embraced an idea—led by me and endorsed by other Western Australian Liberals—that said that the GST system needs review. I will come back to that in a moment, and why I think that Senator Georgiou's sentiment is correct, even if I don't necessarily agree with the first proposition that he has put forward this afternoon. But that doesn't mean we should dismiss it, because we know that things change and our economic conditions change. Indeed, the contribution that international students make to our country will continue to change over time.

But I'm one who believes that the existence and the participation of international students in our education system and in the broader Australian economy benefits our community and our cultural development as a nation and of course enhances our economic development. The economic benefits of international students in Australia are undeniable. Education is our third-largest import. It has contributed over $28 billion to the Australian economy in such a short time—in the period 2016 to 2017. Estimates by Deloitte Access Economics are that international education creates over 130,000 jobs across a range of sectors. As Senator Lines alluded to, it's certainly my ambition and my hope that the new Western Australian government—I had hoped it would have been an ambition of the previous government, but it wasn't to be so—will commit its time and its energy to doing more to attract international students to Western Australia.

We know that, once students are here in Australia, they are expected to focus primarily on their educational studies, which is why international students can only work 40 hours in every fortnight. A national student survey found that only 36 per cent of international higher education students reported working while studying, while 87 per cent of vocational education and training, or VET, students did. This equated to around 200,000 students: 90,000 higher education students and 110,000 VET students in 2016. We also know that less than 40 per cent of international students seek any kind of work in Australia and some of those are engaged in volunteering activities rather than in paid work. When they compete against Australians in the job market, research—specifically, from the Australian Council for Educational Research—demonstrates that it is usually the Australians who win, not the international students. Importantly, most international student employment is in jobs that employers find hard to fill, meaning that international students might have an interest, a capacity and a need to fill those jobs that Australian students—young Australians—might not be interested in filling in the first instance.

But I think it is worth just examining the evidence in a little bit more detail, before I do move on to what I think might be a better way to address the issue of employment and educational opportunities for young people. We also know that the ABS has recently reported that international education income has reached $28 billion in 2016-2017. Significantly, it is up 16 per cent from the year before. Of course, as one of our largest service exports, Australian international education is leading the transition of our economy, the Australian economy, from one that's centred on mining to a broader knowledge and services based economy. This is very important and leads me to my substantive point about the importance of GST distribution reform. I think the argument has been well made in this Senate by Western Australian colleagues of mine. We don't hear Labor Senate colleagues from Western Australia talking too much about GST distribution reform. In arguing for an independent, economically focused review of Australia's horizontal fiscal equalisation arrangements, which the Treasurer commissioned and which is the subject of the draft report that was released only in the last few weeks, what Western Australian Liberals have been arguing for is that GST distribution reform, while important to Western Australia, is not just limited to benefiting Western Australia and that, in fact, if we're going to have the macroeconomic reform that is needed in this country to propel it to the next stage of growth, the next stage of productivity, it is important that every element of the economy come under close examination—forensic examination, in fact. I would argue that the GST system has gone unchallenged for too long. What's been very, very valuable about the draft Productivity Commission report is that it has at least opened up the issue of horizontal fiscal equalisation and opened up the issue of GST distribution reform to make sure that that system is doing everything that it possibly can to support growth and to support productivity in our country.

A couple of months ago, with the support of the Parliamentary Library—and I am very, very grateful for the work that they were able to do on my behalf—it was revealed that, in the period 2000-01 to 2015-16, WA had contributed $186 billion to the rest of Australia. That is a big figure, and I'll be the first one to say that, when you go out into the community and talk about $186 billion, people don't know what it means. How do you digest what $186 billion means to your local economy? So I'm grateful for the help of the Parliamentary Library. They were able to turn that into an infrastructure loss figure but also an employment loss figure. As a result of that, we know that Western Australia lost $73.1 billion in possible infrastructure spending as a result of a flawed GST distribution system. And, more particularly relevant to Senator Georgiou's motion this afternoon, Western Australia lost, on average, 94,000 jobs over that period. It lost 94,000 jobs over that period.

So this afternoon I agree with the sentiment of Senator Georgiou that we should be doing more to make jobs available to young Australians, but I would argue that Senator Georgiou should join with me and other Western Australian Liberal senators in arguing for GST distribution reform, because it will deliver important infrastructure spending, and it will deliver important jobs growth. You're right, Senator Hanson—I saw you nodding your head. To your credit, Senator Georgiou is on the bandwagon and is on the campaign supporting GST distribution reform in Western Australia. It was great to wake up to headlines like this in Western Australia, because we know that reform of anything in our country takes time and takes energy, but the most important thing is that it's a demonstration that, unfortunately, the squeaky wheel gets the oil. I am pleased that Western Australian Liberal senators and members have been squeaking those wheels, and we are on the path to— (Time expired)