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

I don't even know where to start with this, but I'll start with the Labor government. Everything the senator has said is completely inaccurate, because, after four days of hearings, no-one could tell us that the bill would in fact do anything to alleviate the housing crisis. It's not even in the methodology or the formula that has been developed to initiate the caps. This formula or methodology did not even consider integrity or quality, and it did not even consider how students would be forced to go into the different skills that the government says are needed in this country. So it is absolute and utter rubbish what the government is suggesting this bill will do. There has been no modelling done to even look at the impacts of this bill on universities, on job losses, on the economy—nothing. This is purely a political play in this horrible race to the bottom that Labor and the Liberals are running to see who can win and who can be the worst on migration. That's what it is all about. It is just a political smokescreen.

International students have suffered blow after blow from this government, starting with the secretive introduction of ministerial direction 107. Then what followed were changes to temporary graduate visas, changes to age eligibility, changes to onshore applications and changes to visa application processes without any consideration of the international students who had already commenced. If this wasn't enough, this was followed by a whopping 125 per cent increase in student visa fees. All of this has led many prospective students to reconsider their decision to apply for study here. International students are telling us that they feel unwelcomed and unwanted and they feel attacked in this country, and that is a disgrace.

On top of that, now there are these international student caps. Labor like to spout these lines about the importance of international education, but their actions completely belie what they say. These caps are going to decimate and crush the higher education sector. In those four days of hearings we heard again and again an almost unanimous opposition to this dog's breakfast of a bill. Not only is this bill a dog's breakfast, but the whole process that was undertaken to bring this bill to where it is now was completely chaotic. It's been called irrational and illogical, and that is absolutely true.

Before I came here I was in the higher education sector as an academic and a researcher for many years, and I can tell you that what the universities are telling us is the absolute truth. Today we heard that the decline in university rankings is yet another dire warning in the long list of warnings that we have heard over the last three months about the terrible consequences of these caps. If Labor had any sense, they would heed these warnings and scrap these caps. That is the reason why I have been unequivocal in my condemnation and opposition to these caps from the beginning and over the past four months. The chorus of voices, over those past four months, opposing these caps has only grown louder and louder.

The government have tried to insist—and they keep insisting because they have nothing else to say—that this bill is all about quality and integrity. But we know that these caps will do nothing for quality and integrity, so that argument has failed, as has every single argument that you have presented to support your bill. No-one believes a single one of those arguments.

I'll now come to this motion. I have to say, I'm very unclear, having read this motion, what Senator Pocock actually wants us to vote on, because to me it still seems to conflate international students with the housing crisis. Although Senator Pocock is using my line that the student cap bill is a migration policy disguised as an education policy, which is absolutely true, I haven't really heard from Senator Pocock whether or not he opposes these international student caps. So I have to say that I remain confused about where to go with this motion. But I can tell you this: the Greens will not stop doing every single thing we can to make sure that this bill never sees the light of day, because it is going to be damaging for Australia's reputation as a destination for international education, damaging for the sector and damaging for international students. It should be scrapped. (Time expired)