Sarah Henderson (Victoria, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Education) Share this | Hansard source

I rise to firstly place clearly on the record that the coalition vehemently disagrees with the Greens about the need for caps on international students studying in Australia. I also have real issue with the way you've characterised the Liberals, Senator Faruqi—the reference of the word 'racist' is appalling—and I would ask, through you, Chair, that you consider withdrawing such a slur on the Liberal Party, because we have a very proud history of supporting international education in this country. We have a very a proud history of supporting a great multicultural country, but the capping of foreign student numbers is critical to fixing Labor's immigration chaos.

Since Labor was elected, the number of foreign students has increased from 336,000 in March 2022 to well over 800,000. This has fuelled a housing crisis, particularly in large metropolitan centres. As we heard during our Senate inquiry into the bill, 500,000 foreign students have been forced into the private rental market. In the suburb of Glebe, near the University of Sydney, where foreign students now number 52 per cent of all students, rents have gone up by 17 per cent in just 12 months. In Clayton, which is the home of Monash University, rents are up a staggering 20 per cent in 12 months. By bringing in 1.6 million migrants into Australia over five years, Labor's 'big Australia' policy has completely failed to safeguard the national interest, including the right to find an affordable home, see a doctor and access other essential services.

But I will agree with the Greens on this. The government has made a complete mess of its proposal to cap international student numbers, and I am disgusted. I share Senator Faruqi's disgust with the way in which the government has treated this parliament and the higher education sector. In the Senate hearings that we have had into the bill, the government has done everything it possibly can to keep the actual student caps provided to each higher education and VET provider a secret. Even last Friday, after we said very strongly that we opposed the way the government was treating the parliament and the sector, they were still keeping all the separate international student caps secret from the Senate committee. That is completely unacceptable. Labor has made a real mockery of the Senate inquiry process. What we do know is that, of the provider caps that have now been given to the sector, the total allocation for universities has gone backwards by one per cent. But we understand that across the private higher education and VET sectors it has gone back by 28 per cent. So we are seeing gross discrimination at play.

The minister, when he announced these caps, said this was a win for the regions. We've now learned, through the Senate inquiry, that this is not a win for the regions. A number of regional universities have done very badly out of these caps, because the government have basically gone about imposing these caps without any transparency and have been doing deals behind closed doors.

We are, as a committee, seeking to extend the reporting date of the committee. We're also seeking to reopen submissions and have another public hearing, because the way the government is treating this whole issue, including the sector, is absolutely not good enough.

The coalition will implement a hard cap on the international student program in consultation with the higher education sector, which is what has been missing. International students contribute to the Australian economy. They provide valuable labour by working in casual and part-time jobs. However, the vast majority of international students are housed off-campus. This is placing enormous pressure on housing. There is a housing crisis courtesy of this government. That is not good enough. We need a system that manages this properly. (Time expired)