Louise Pratt (WA, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

We have, in the international education sector, an economic and social contribution to our nation that is incredibly important. It's important for those students in their future lives abroad and indeed for those who might progress to migrating to Australia. But we are progressing reforms, as a government, to strengthen the integrity and sustainability of international education in our nation.

I've got many dear friends all over the world who I met as international students, and they form such a firm foundation for government-to-government and community-to-community relationships right around the world. But, following the pandemic, when international students were in grave strife, often trapped without incomes et cetera, we had to work hard to come back from that. But international students have indeed voted with confidence in Australian education and have come back stronger than anyone expected. We have about 10 per cent more in our universities and almost 50 per cent more in our VET sector. But when we look at what the government is actually doing now—at the new limits that have been set out transparently to university institutions, for example—we'll see 23 of our 38 universities set above the 2023 student numbers and, for 34 of the 38 universities, above the levels of student numbers that they had in 2019.

What we don't want to see is what has happened, which is that the growth of the sector post the COVID pandemic has lured back unscrupulous providers, who are motivated by profit, not quality. It has lured students to Australia who seek to work in Australia, not to study. We are as a government determined to commit ourselves and continue to remain committed to the integrity of the sector, strengthening the sector and ensuring it retains and maintains a social licence so that we can confidently invite international students here and know that they will be welcome. We need this experience to benefit students and our partners overseas but also Australians. We need reform to ensure sustainable growth into the future. So, subject to the passage of legislation before the Senate, we are intending to set a national planning level for overseas student commencements at a rate of 270,000 for the calendar year of 2025.

The NPL will support a managed international education system designed to grow sustainably over time. We can't have a system of international education that sets housing economies and employment markets completely out of whack. We need to be careful about how we balance higher education and VET sectors, for example. For publicly funded universities, the managed-growth approach, in aggregate, will result in around 145,000 new overseas student commencements in 2025, which is very close to last year's number. For other providers, in aggregate, their new overseas student commencements in 2025 will be around 30,000. That is about the same as student numbers were before the pandemic. That is where they should be, because that is where a quality VET service to international students was seen. We've got to cut out sham providers and people seeking to come to Australia simply to access the labour market. We will, though, see around— (Time expired)