Mehreen Faruqi (NSW, Australian Greens) Share this | Hansard source

I rise to speak to the disallowance of the Migration Amendment (Visa Application Charges) Regulations 2024, and I associate myself with the comments made by Senator Shoebridge. It's another week in parliament and yet another week of this Labor government exploiting, while at the same time scapegoating, migrants and international students. It's not a surprise that the Liberals are on a joint ticket with them when it comes to squeezing migrants and international students even more.

What a cruel measure to be proposing at this time—jacking up visa application fees for international students by 125 per cent. And how are they doing it? They're doing it by sneaking it in in a routine annual amendment that increases all visas fees in line with the CPI. Well, the CPI is 3.8 per cent, so how on earth can they justify slugging international students with a 125 per cent increase? The truth is they can't. There is no justification, no matter what they say. These fee increases are entirely punitive and designed to stop people from coming here. This is not an education measure; this is a migration policy. They're trying to stop them from coming here unless they are willing to pay exorbitant amounts to do so. There is no end to how they will use international students as cash cows to fill government coffers.

This is a government that lacks courage to stand up to the coal and gas corporations who are destroying our planet. They can't stand up to the price-gouging supermarkets, the profiteering banks and the greedy property developers, but they're always ready to punch down on migrants and international students—and the figures back this up. Research from the Australia Institute, based on previous visa application charges, found that these charges earned the government nearly $3 billion more than the petroleum resource rent tax. That is disgraceful!

It is clear that Labor simply does not care about migrants and international students or their wellbeing. They don't care about the stress and anxiety they are causing to hundreds of thousands of people in this country. They don't care, because, conveniently for Labor, international students and visa applicants can't vote. To Labor, like the coalition, international students and migrants are political footballs to be kicked around when it suits them.

Two years ago, Labor and the coalition were desperate for international students to return to help revive the economy after the COVID lockdowns, and, after they had been disgustingly left completely high and dry, without any support, during COVID by the coalition government, they were actually told by the then prime minister Scott Morrison that it was time for them to go home, and now they're the scapegoats for the Albanese government's complete failure to tackle the housing crisis.

They think that we can't see what they are up to with their race-baiting and dirty tactics. Well, I'm here to tell you that we can see right through this terrible agenda. The treatment of international students is despicable. And millions of Australians see through you as well; that's why your polls are falling. We see these games that you are playing, using international students and migrants as pawns. We see you doing nothing to fix the housing or rental crises, because you're in bed with property developers, and we see the racist dog-whistling and shameful attempts to blame people of colour for your own policy failures—and we will call it out. We will call it out every single time, because the consequences of this dog-whistling are dire.

We saw just over the weekend a disgusting Neo-Nazi rally in Brisbane. No doubt, they were emboldened by the racist antimigrant riots in the UK. We've seen across this country a massive spike, though, in Islamophobia. We're seeing a rise in far-right extremism. So connect the dots. You should be able to see that the dog-whistling inflames racism and that it targets and smears migrants and international students and feeds white supremacy.

International students are being attacked from every angle. It was revealed in April that, because of ministerial direction 107, universities were rejecting applications from entire countries—entire countries!—namely, India, Nepal and Pakistan, because of concerns about the impact on the universities' risk rating. But in reality this is just unfair, harmful and discriminatory. That's what it comes down to.

The government has also made changes to temporary graduate visas, to age eligibility, to onshore applications and to visa application processes, leading to an environment for prospective and current students that is both uncertain and unwelcoming. Now, on top of all of this, we have a whopping increase in visa processing fees that more than doubles the current costs. These fees apply to students whether they come here for a two-week English cost or a four-year honours degree—or even if their visa applications are rejected.

The attacks on international students, though, don't stop there, because now we have the attempted introduction of enrolment caps for international students, from a government desperate to point the finger at anyone to cover up its absolute failure to address the housing and rental crisis. There is absolutely no evidence that links international students with the housing or rental crisis. Students have spoken to me about how that is making them feel, and I have heard that many students are already reconsidering their decision to study in Australia, given the uncertainty and unwelcoming attitude of the current government.

The President of the Flinders University Student Association, an international student himself, told the inquiry into the ESOS bill that the government's measures over the past 12 months:

… sends a strong message to the world that international students are not welcome here. Moreover, introduction of these caps, especially at public institutions, sends a message that genuine international students in Australia are a mere commodity.

… am I a commodity or a fellow human being with dreams and hopes, who just wants a fair go?

That's what international students are feeling—completely dehumanised.

International students pay astronomical fees, yet face bias and discrimination. The Labor government would be better off focusing on making our higher education system fairer and more equitable, instead of repeatedly targeting international students because of its policy failures. The government is determined to let international students and migrants be the scapegoats in its race to the bottom with the opposition leader on migration, and that is a real shame.

It is so hypocritical of the Labor Party to lecture all of us about social cohesion while making life harder and harder for so many migrants, people of colour and their families. You just want to silence us, don't you? You want us to put our heads down and do all the hard work that no-one else wants to do, but you will do nothing for us except squeeze us for more and more. Well, people have really had enough.

I know both the Labor Party and the Liberals have already indicated that they won't support this disallowance motion. Sadly, that doesn't come as a surprise to me. But I urge everyone else who thinks migrants and international students deserve better—and they do indeed deserve much better—to vote for this disallowance. Again I say that, sadly, in this chamber I don't hold out much hope.