Linda Reynolds (WA, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I inform the Senate that, at 8.30 am today, six proposals were received in accordance with standing order 75. The question of which proposal would be submitted to the Senate was determined by lot. As a result, I inform the Senate that the following letter has been received from Senator Georgiou.

Pursuant to standing order 75, I give notice that today I propose to move "That, in the opinion of the Senate, the following is a matter of urgency:

The Government within a month, reports to the Senate, on the number of jobs which would have been available to Australians but were taken by individuals on international student visas."

Is the proposal supported?

More than the number of senators required by the standing orders having risen in their places—

I understand that informal arrangements have been made to allocate specific times to each of the speakers in today's debate. With the concurrence of the Senate, I shall ask the clerks to set the clock accordingly.

Peter Georgiou (WA, Pauline Hanson's One Nation Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I move:

That, in the opinion of the Senate, the following is a matter of urgency:

The Government within a month, reports to the Senate, on the number of jobs which would have been available to Australians but were taken by individuals on international student visas.

Why is it that almost a third of our youth are either unemployed or underemployed? I'm talking about kids between the ages of 15 and 24. And that stat isn't anything new. These figures have been around since the global financial crisis. I do note that our labour participation rate this year, which is around 62 per cent, is the highest it's been for around five years, and I hope it continues to grow, but I am surprised to learn that last year over 343,000 international student visas were granted. The department of immigration and citizenship does know this figure. How many of these students work, where do they work and do they get paid in cash or report it to the ATO? Apparently, around 100,000 young people on student visas work up to 20 hours a week. That's great. What happens to the other 200,000 people? We don't know. How is this possible? Meanwhile, we've got 273,000 local kids between the ages of 15 and 24 who are struggling, not working, and could be contributing to our local economy. I think it's important that we discover just how many jobs out there could have been taken up by young Australian people but instead were taken up by individuals on international student visas.

Lee Rhiannon (NSW, Australian Greens) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

This motion, while it suggests that there's a concern from One Nation about levels of unemployment, is again a dog-whistling attempt to divide Australians, pit people against each other and turn Australians and people who live in this country against international students. We need to be concerned about underemployment, unemployment and the pressure that they're putting on people. The economy is not working for so many people, but attacking international students is not the way to go. International students actually are a source of cheap labour in this country. I congratulate the unions, who have taken a very fine lead here. They're working with many people from overseas, many of them students, who end up being so exploited. Often they're being paid between $10 and $14 an hour. Many of us would be served by these people when we go to cafes and restaurants, when we buy petrol and in convenience stores. It is a very serious problem, but not in the way it's defined by this motion. This motion is, in fact, very divisive and a real setback. As I just said, I congratulate the unions, who have been working to assist international students who are being exploited. Sometimes these companies are pretty ruthless. They often go belly up because they just want to reinvent themselves as phoenix companies, and the former workers are left with no money—and this can happen overnight. They even lose the meagre weekly income that they have.

There is the Fair Entitlements Guarantee scheme. That scheme was set up to step in when workers are left with nothing. What we find, though, is that they only provide support for people who cannot recover their entitlements and are Australian residents. Again, this is where these international students are so hard done by. They are paid appalling wages, and working conditions are absolutely shocking. Often there's a bit of racism on the side. Often they end up out of work, and there's nobody there to defend them. But, again, some unions have stepped in to fight for their conditions, even though they're often not members of the union.

Their situation with regard to unemployment and underemployment is very serious in this country. And this is what we should be concentrating on: ensuring that there are well paid jobs that are unionised and have good working conditions for everybody. The Unemployed Workers' Union is doing some fine work in this area. From their analysis of the figures, there are more than 725,000 people unemployed and 1,059,000 underemployed. And this is very characteristic of Australia, as it has been for about the last 10 years.

International students are an easy target for One Nation, and that is another disgraceful example of their tactics. There are more than half a million international students in this country—at our universities, at our TAFEs, at the private vocational schools—and many of them need to work. They're legally allowed to work for 20 hours a week. And they have to work, in many cases, because the cost of living is considerable in this country, and it is going up all the time. We know how tough it is to find rental accommodation at any reasonable price—many either have to, because of some of the private colleges they're at, or feel they should pay up-front fees. And so they do get caught up in illegal work. You've got the legal aspects of the work that many of the international students get involved in, and there's the illegal employment market as well.

We depend on these international students. Remember the huge revenue that they bring into our country. And there has been some shocking racism. There was a tragic situation with some Indian students. How we were treating these students here became a very big issue in India in terms of racism when they were studying and how they were treated at work. For the federal parliament to be debating a motion with this type of wording is destructive. It's more than unhelpful. It sends a very bad message not just to the international students themselves but to their communities and to the countries that they come from about what sort of country we are and what sort of people we are. It says that we're not really welcoming here.

Clearly many of these people need to find work. And I want to emphasise that that work should be paid according to award wages. They should have decent working conditions, they should be able to join the union and they should be respected at work. They should not become just a cheap source of labour that allows so many of these companies to profit and to really boost their profits in such a shocking way. They take advantage of the fact that these students, many times, are very concerned that they'll get caught out and so they don't complain. This motion is a destructive, divisive motion and clearly should be defeated.

Simon Birmingham (SA, Liberal Party, Minister for Education and Training) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I welcome the opportunity that this motion provides to refute some of the misconceptions that exist in relation to international students and the role they play in Australia. This motion propagates some of those misconceptions; indeed, there are others, including some that Senator Rhiannon just spoke of. There are a number of misconceptions. Importantly, it is critical in the first instance to highlight that international students studying in Australia make an enormous net positive contribution to Australia in a number of ways. They make an enormous net positive contribution to the Australian economy, to education in Australia, and, indeed, to employment in Australia.

The growth of international education provision in our universities, in non-university higher education institutions, in our vocational education and training institutes, including TAFEs, across our schools and across English language providers, has been a remarkable success story of modern Australia. It is perhaps the most significant example of the way in which our economy has transitioned to create jobs and export income through a knowledge based services economy.

The numbers are quite stark now. International education is the third-largest export earner for Australia. It generates an estimated $28 billion in activity in Australia. That's students, and their families and friends who visit while they're here, spending on accommodation in Australia, on restaurants and services in Australia, on travelling and touring in Australia and, yes, on their education while in Australia. All of those different activities stimulate, of course, jobs and other opportunities for Australians. Deloitte Access Economics estimates that international education underpins now and supports some 130,000 Australian jobs.

So, contrary to the notion put in this motion, it is very, very clear that international education is stimulating jobs and opportunities elsewhere across Australia. As an area of earning export income into Australia, it's now our third-largest international earner—the third-largest export earner for Australia—such is the role it's played in the transformation of our economy, and, of course, it is the largest such earner in the services sector.

It's important to appreciate that there are strong protections and frameworks within which international education operates. Only providers who are registered can offer international education services to foreign students. Those providers then have strong safeguards put around their operations. There are protections for those international students, but there are also protections for Australians in terms of what those international students can do whilst they're in Australia.

There are limits on the number of hours the international students can work whilst they're in Australia. Indeed, they are limited to working 40 hours a fortnight. But, notably, most don't do that. In fact, estimates predict that only around 36 per cent of international higher education students, or around 40 per cent of overall international students, seek any kind of work whilst they're in Australia. The significant majority are here to study and to live and learn the Australian experience, and that's precisely what they get on and do. And they do that while spending their money, often their parents' money or their country's money, here in Australia, creating jobs and opportunities for Australians.

We are proudly now the world's third most popular destination, after the United States and the United Kingdom, for students to come and study in. Even with limits on their work rights whilst here, and even with limits on their work rights post graduation, we still now stand, for the vast majority of students who come here, as their first-preference destination. They choose to come here, knowing that we limit their work rights, because of the quality of education and experience that we offer to those students.

In doing so, it's not just our economy that they enhance. They also enhance our educational institutions and, within that, the experience of domestic Australian students as well. They enhance our educational institutions because, yes, they are a significant additional revenue source for those educational institutions, which can enhance other activities, such as research undertakings by Australian institutions and, indeed, other investments that they put into universities and those other educational institutions. But, as I said, they also enhance the opportunity for domestic students whom they're studying alongside, because in the end they create a richer study experience—exposure to foreign cultures and different business approaches, language approaches or otherwise—which, importantly, ensures that Australian graduates get a more rounded education.

Again, those safeguards apply. Just last week the Turnbull government took steps to enhance those safeguards by ensuring that, in terms of the English language skills the international students have when they're completing an English language program prior to commencing a tertiary level of study in Australia, there are clear, required assessment processes in place to guarantee that they are able to fully participate. We do that to make sure that it's fair to those international students so that they get a quality education; to the domestic students, whom they're studying alongside, to make sure that everybody in their classes can fully and equally participate; and, of course, to the teachers in institutions at which they're studying, to make sure that they are able to give the best-quality educational experience possible.

Senator Rhiannon spoke with some negativity about the experience international students have in Australia. That's another misconception I'd like to refute. Surveys indicate that more than 90 per cent of people who study in Australia report an overwhelmingly positive experience of their studies. Work has been undertaken by the Fair Work Ombudsman and others to make sure that there is not exploitation of international students, and I would urge international students, who we now work closely with through our international education strategy, to engage with appropriate authorities such as the Fair Work Ombudsman if they have any concerns about workplace practices. Australia overwhelmingly provides a positive study experience, a positive lifestyle experience and some work experience for those who choose to take it—but a very positive, high-quality experience overall.

Recently, I note, there has been some more media commentary about the impact that international, and particularly Chinese, students may have on the operation of some Australian universities and providers. Our government has been very clear in the view that the academic integrities and freedoms—freedom of expression—at Australian universities are of paramount importance. They should be defended at all costs. Nobody should question the reality that freedom of expression exists at our universities, and everybody should fully expect to have their thoughts and ideas challenged. Equally, I'd say, in relation to misconceptions, that it's unhelpful sometimes when media outlets, in particular, decide to frame stories in a way that suggests there are profound problems, with little evidence in the stories to back up those suggestions. Just as we expect that students from China or elsewhere embrace the freedoms at Australian universities and campuses while they are here, we should acknowledge that whilst they are here they are free to gather to celebrate appropriately their national days or their national traditions as they choose and see fit.

Overall, Australia has an education system that is the envy of much of the world. That's why people vote with their feet and come here. It's a system whose contributions to our economy and to the experience of Australian students are enhanced by the international students who come here. Contrary to the impression that this motion gives, far from undermining Australian jobs, the international education industry with its $28 billion contribution creates some 130,000 Australian jobs, as I have said in estimates.

We in the Turnbull government remain resolute in our commitment to work with international education providers to give the best-quality educational experience to all possible and to continue to grow these opportunities because of the positive contribution they make to all of Australia.

Sue Lines (WA, Deputy-President) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I too rise today to oppose this urgency motion on international student visas put forward by One Nation. At the outset, I have to say it seems to me that this is another attempt by the One Nation party to grab a cheap headline at the expense of the truth, playing on elements of racism and a version of the 'other', of someone who is different to me, through a motion which expressly goes to the issue of international students. This motion is an absolute contradiction, because it's not that long ago in this place that One Nation, along with a few of the other crossbenchers, supported the government's ABCC legislation. That legislation prohibits unions from negotiating to limit the number and use of overseas workers with building companies who tender for government contracts. I don't know how they missed that, but they clearly did. The One Nation party, with the government, expressly put in place a limit on a union's ability to limit in an enterprise agreement the number of overseas workers in a company engaged in government tendering. What a contradiction. They also went to limit rostered days off, limit the ordinary hours of overtime and so on and so forth. But the standout feature is we have this so-called urgency motion today on international students and yet we have a party that absolutely voted with the government to say to trade unions: when you're negotiating with building companies who tender with the government, you will be restricted in outlawing overseas workers. That's exactly what One Nation did.

The other surprising feature for me about this urgency motion is that Senator Georgiou like myself and, indeed, like you, Acting Deputy President Reynolds, is a Western Australian. We know in Western Australia we have, I think, three One Nation upper house members in the state parliament. So I can only assume that Senator Georgiou didn't talk to them; otherwise, they would have been able to tell him that the McGowan government has, indeed, put forward a very bold plan in partnership with the universities in Western Australia to make Perth a destination for international students to bolster our economy because, as Senator Birmingham pointed out, international students add to our economy. So once again we have this contradiction between what the One Nation senators in this place think and perhaps what their colleagues in the Western Australian state parliament think.

We also know that international students are not the problem with our job market. Twenty hours a week is what they work, as Senator Birmingham explained to the parliament. But we know that what's happening in our economy right at the moment is it's not the international students; it's the low wages growth. Low wages growth is now starting to have a real impact on our economy because, obviously, when families and individuals don't have decent wage growth—in the private sector it's been as low as 1.8 per cent; the lowest it's been in at least two decades—that impacts spending power, it impacts the way that households are able to meet their expenses and it also impacts on employment. So this furphy around international students is nothing but a cheap headline, another attempt by One Nation not backed up with any kind of facts or figures, trying to scapegoat international students, when, as I said at the outset, One Nation, by voting with the government, sought to restrict our unions' ability to limit the use of overseas workers in their enterprise agreements.

And who could forget the words of the Reserve Bank Governor, Philip Lowe, a couple of months ago, when he called on workers to demand higher pay rises? He said workers need to demand higher pay rises amid a wage growth crisis. When you look at all of those who analyse our labour markets, no-one of any competence is talking about international students; they are talking about low wages. We've seen the disgraceful way the government has failed to acknowledge its own public service and give public servants a decent wage rise. From the day that Mr Abbott was elected Prime Minister, there has been a war on our public servants. Very few of our public servants have had wage rises, and that policy has continued under Mr Turnbull. So we've seen very low or no wage growth in the public sector. We've seen an absolute stalling of wages in the private sector to the tune that analysts and the Reserve Bank governor—hardly a friend of workers—have started saying it's time that workers demanded a wage rise. That's the issue in our economy. It has nothing to do with picking on and scapegoating international students, many of whom have come here from near neighbours who are also often scapegoated by the One Nation party. They had obviously not bothered to talk to their colleagues in the WA parliament, because they would have certainly told them that we are very, very clear and committed to making Perth a destination for international students. Perhaps Senator Georgiou doesn't know this because he's a fairly new senator, but, nevertheless, he's a Western Australian senator and he gets a lot of staff, so he could have done the background work on this. Perth was the No. 1 destination for international students. We've lost that status, and we want to get it back, because we do appreciate that international students make our economy stronger. They bring a lot of wealth. They pay rent, they buy services and they sometimes work—they're limited in their ability to work to 20 hours—and that's the sort of growth that we want to see in Western Australia.

The government hasn't always done the right thing by international students. We've seen the appalling rip-off at 7-Eleven. I presided over a visa inquiry when I was the chair of the Senate Education and Employment References Committee and, quite frankly, I was shocked by the level of exploitation of those students that I saw. They were working for minimal wages and they were being forced to pay back wages. Instead of trying to, wrongly, demonise international students, One Nation and the government should be making sure that we never, ever again see the exploitation that we saw of these guests in our country. Most of them are here for a short time. They come in and take advantage of our good education facilities, and yet, at the same time, they get treated in a way that none of us would stand for as workers in this country. No-one is convinced we have seen the end of that rip-off at 7-Eleven. It's probably still going on. In fact, I think it's definitely still going on, as I speak. We know most of those workers in the 7-Eleven stores are international students who are often forced to work more than 20 hours, forced to work for free and forced to pay back wages. They don't get their proper entitlements and they have never seen a penalty rate and so on.

If you want further proof, we also know that in the Western Australian state election this year One Nation gave its preferences to the Liberal Party that wants to reduce wages, that doesn't stand for penalty rates and that has presided over critically high unemployment in Western Australia. That's the party that One Nation chose to support in the recent state election: a party that doesn't support a minimum wage and that thinks workers can be ripped off on the weekends and not get penalty rates. I don't know where this concocted notion about international students comes from; it's completely wrong. One Nation should have taken a better look at the bills it supported in the past were it specifically outlawed overseas workers. This should be dismissed. It's nothing but a headline grabber.

Dean Smith (WA, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to 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)

Anthony Chisholm (Queensland, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise to speak on this matter as well. When I first saw this, this morning, I thought, 'Maybe One Nation are going to express some concern for foreign workers that have been exploited.' We've seen various examples of that over recent years. But, no, I think what we've got with One Nation is just another dog whistle. We know that Senator Hanson has attacked foreign students in this country as early as in February this year, where she said: 'I was told—and I was just gobsmacked at this—that we had 400,000 foreign students in Australia, going to our universities. No wonder our kids can't find jobs. I think it needs to be addressed.' So what we see today is just a continuing attack on foreign students in this country and the importance of them to the economy of Australia and particularly regional economies.

If you'd spent any time in regional Queensland, you would understand the importance of foreign students to those universities and the fact that they add diversity to them, let alone the role that that plays in the broader Asia-Pacific and within the world. There are some Queensland issues that I want to come back to that I think just show you how out of touch Senator Hanson and her team are with what is happening in Queensland and indeed throughout Australia.

I know many other senators here have raised the importance of this to the national economy, but it's broader than that. You only have to spend any time in Brisbane to understand the economic boom that Brisbane has gone through as a result of foreign students wanting to come and study at our universities. We have seen high-rise buildings get built and we have seen students come and use that accommodation. We have seen that the resulting economic benefit has been substantial. This has been replicated throughout Queensland and throughout Australia. It shows the ignorance that we have seen from One Nation. They fail to understand the economic importance of this to our country. They say it's a bad thing that we have 400,000 international students studying right here in Australia. I see that as an opportunity. They get an education. Australia has so many universities ranked in the top 100, and our regional universities are doing particularly well. We're an attractive destination, and this is a great thing.

When they come, they also obviously want to work. They need some employment to keep it going. Quite often they are doing the jobs that some other people don't want to do, but we can't let them be exploited when they are doing that. There have been examples of that throughout regional Queensland, and I am sure there are examples throughout Australia as well. But One Nation don't want to put a focus on that. Every time they've had an opportunity to vote for antiworker or anti-union legislation, they've put their hand up as quick as a flash. If they actually wanted to protect international workers and vulnerable workers, they would vote to strengthen labour laws, not diminish them, and they would actually vote to strengthen the role of unions in the workplace who can protect these people. But we see from One Nation a consistent theme: the opposite. It just shows how dysfunctional they are. They come in here and pursue what is basically a dog whistle to parts of Australia to say, 'We don't want more foreigners coming in.'

The economic devastation that would follow from this would be unprecedented. As we know, there are 400,000 international students studying right here in Australia. We know that they are spread throughout Australia and that they include regional universities as well. The international education sector in Australia is valued at $28 billion. Our education system is our nation's third-highest export. This is how important it is. You only have to talk to a vice chancellor or a regional vice chancellor for them to extol how important it is for their university and their ability to offer courses for Australian residents as well. It should be a source of pride and something we should be talking about in a positive light—about the benefits that this brings and the expansion that it has enabled our universities—but One Nation want to put a negative light on it. It is really disappointing that they want to talk down regional universities and Australian universities, all to have a dog whistle for their supporters.

This urgency motion once again shows that One Nation simply don't understand how the economy works and the broader benefits that this brings, as I said, around construction and the spending power that these people bring to regional economies, particularly when we look at the state of Queensland. I look at examples like we have in Cairns, Townsville, Mackay, Rockhampton and the Sunshine Coast, which are home to universities like James Cook University, Central Queensland University and the University of the Sunshine Coast. If their foreign students numbers were to be cut, it would have a devastating impact on those local economies. James Cook University, in particular, has almost 2,000 international students studying on campuses in Townsville and Cairns. At the University of the Sunshine Coast there are 1,600 foreign students enrolled. It is estimated that the international student enrolments at the University of the Sunshine Coast inject $60 million into the local Sunshine Coast economy. These are significant numbers that have a real benefit for regional communities, particularly when you look at Townsville and Cairns. We understand that from time to time those economies do it tough. Townsville, in particular, has high unemployment at the moment. So the benefits of having those international students would be significant to boosting those local economies.

We also understand that there is an important role that our regional universities—particularly those in Queensland—play with our neighbouring nations such as Papua New Guinea and Indonesia. They rely on regional Queensland universities to educate their next generation of leaders. So this is providing a really vital leadership role in the Asia-Pacific region for students from other countries to come here and study, further their leadership abilities and then take that to their local communities to benefit their people as well.

Due to those links, there's the indirect benefit which our international students provide to our communities. For example, Townsville is now the beneficiary of direct international flights to Port Moresby, partially as a result of the number of Papua New Guineans studying at James Cook University. Due to James Cook University's strong links to Singapore, there is even talk that Townsville could benefit from stronger social and economic ties to Singapore. We potentially see that with the deal that the Singapore Army have done to do further training. That obviously has a direct link to Townsville, as part of that will take place there. I think this just goes to show you that, in the longer term, international education can also improve our links and relations with our regional neighbours, such as Singapore, Papua New Guinea and other important partners to Australia. These links are enhanced by international students coming to study in our region.

On top of the contribution that international education injects into our economy, the education system employs over 900,000 people, and 128,000 of those jobs are supported by the investment that is made by international students. If One Nation really cared about protecting jobs, imagine what such a stunt would do to existing employment levels at universities. If, all of a sudden, foreign students were taken out of the system, what an impact that would have! But, again, we don't see One Nation focusing in on the issues that we have seen around exploitation. We don't see any concern for the way that those workers have been treated. Instead what we see is just a scare campaign and a dog whistle. If they really cared about Australian jobs, they wouldn't be so hell bent on getting rid of an industry that provides a $28 million windfall for the economy. They would be happy to close the doors of the universities to foreign students, and that would have a devastating impact.

So I say to One Nation that they really need to get an understanding of the importance of universities to Australia. Maybe they could spend some time at a regional university in Queensland so that they could learn the important role that foreign students play and the economic benefits that are brought to those regions because of this. You only have to talk to a mayor from any of those regional towns, from Cairns, Townsville or Mackay, for them to talk about the benefits of having international students, the cultural diversity it brings, the importance of the financial contribution it adds to those economies and also the growing trade links that can happen as a result. I've mentioned the benefits in Townsville. I've seen the benefits in Cairns. There are so many students who want to come and study in Cairns because it is such an attractive lifestyle there and because of its vicinity to the Great Barrier Reef as well.

In conclusion, I think what we've seen from the efforts of One Nation in this debate really is nothing more than a dog whistle from them. They will stop at nothing to target xenophobia in Australia, and the damage that it does to the economy and to regional economies is absolutely a second thought that they have no regard for.

Pauline Hanson (Queensland, Pauline Hanson's One Nation Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Well, I'm gobsmacked again. I cannot believe the response to this urgency motion to question jobs in Australia that international students may be taking from Australians. I won't deny international students bring a lot of income—actually the third-highest income into Australia, by all means. The Department of Immigration and Border Protection granted 343,035 international student visas in 2016-17, and these visa types are growing at a rate of 10 per cent a year.

I have to say, in relation to a lot of these universities in Melbourne and Sydney, that I was at a meeting just recently and a student from down in Melbourne got up and was talking to me and she was actually crying. She said, 'I feel like a foreigner in my own university.' That's what she said, with no prompting—nothing. She wasn't the only one; another one said that to me. So this is actually how they're feeling in their own universities; they're feeling like foreigners in their own universities.

The vast majority of these international student visas have a work right of up to 40 hours a fortnight during the term and unlimited work rights at other times. Let me repeat that: unlimited work rights at other times. When they get the visas to come into the country they should prove that they are self-funding—that they really don't need to work. And it's true: we estimate that about 30 to 50 per cent of the international students with a work right do work. But it's ridiculous that no-one in government knows which students work, how much they work, where they work or whether they report their earnings to the ATO. So are we getting tax from them? Who knows? We don't know that.

What we are saying is that at the point in time they are granted visas to Australia, those foreign students should be applying and getting a TFN so that when they go to work we know what income they're making and that they pay taxes in this country. The whole fact is that if we have changed to having backpackers pay tax from the first dollar they earn, and at 15 per cent, why shouldn't international students do exactly the same thing instead of just being out there taking the jobs? This is the case.

These questions could be answered if the government routinely linked administrative data and cross-matched it with census data. We know from a study published this year, based on the 2011 census, that international students are employed predominantly in 10 occupations: hospitality; cleaners and laundry workers; sales assistants; food preparation assistants; food trade workers; personal carers; checkout operators; tertiary education teachers; automobile, bus and rail drivers; and packers and product assemblers. They don't need education; there are a lot of people out there who can do those jobs. These occupations are predominantly lower-skill jobs which could be done by Australians—in particular, by young unemployed Australians.

Listen to the Labor Party, who is supposed to be for the worker. Yes, they parade their unions around and say that the unions are fighting for the rights of the workers and all the rest of it, but what about the rights of the youth and unemployed? What about them? Why aren't they addressing that? It is One Nation with an apprenticeship policy: in the first year the government pays 75 per cent of the wage, in the second year it pays 50 per cent of the wage and in the third year it pays 25 per cent of the wage. Let's get apprenticeship schemes going in this country.

Government Senator:

A government senator interjecting—

Pauline Hanson (Queensland, Pauline Hanson's One Nation Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

What have you done about it? Absolutely nothing! Let me tell you about some of the youth unemployment rates in these areas. Youth unemployment was a big problem in the year ending August 2017. In the 15 to 24 age group, 35 per cent are unemployed in Australia.

Senator Chisholm talked about James Cook University in North Queensland. In Townsville there is a 46.4 per cent unemployment rate for those aged between 15 and 24. Let's go to the Sunshine Coast: 37.1 per cent. In Brisbane, we're looking at an average of 43 to 45 per cent. These are people who are looking for jobs. These are our kids, Australian kids. They can't get jobs.

You're more concerned about international students. I'm not knocking them coming here; yes, it makes us a lot of money. But why don't you get out and look at what they're doing in this country by us giving them work visas? They should be supporting themselves. If we talk about housing: international students can buy established housing. But the fact is that their parents buy the houses for them, so the parents own them. They are supposed to sell that house before they leave the country. They don't; they actually then have a house in Australia. So therefore we've got another market out there. They're paying all the rent, are they? Well, a lot of them are actually in houses bought by their parents.

The whole thing is that it needs to be looked at. Are they paying taxes in Australia? How many jobs do they actually have? A lot of it is under the counter; they're being paid cash in hand. We need to look at this with international students. My concern is for Australia and Australian kids. They are who I am concerned about. They are who should be getting these jobs. As I said, 343,035 international student visas were allocated in 2016-17. That is in one year. How many foreign students do we have in this country now? Can anyone tell me? Is it up to a million students? How many jobs are they taking? No wonder we've go so much unemployment, underemployment and casualisation of jobs in this country. Where are the unions speaking up about this?

I've seen both sides of politics in here. This has been escalating the problems. Rural and regional areas are dying because kids are leaving the towns because they do not have jobs. And you are not doing anything about it! All I see in here are people who are hypocrites. Because we are doing something about this, all you can do is direct your fingers and say that raising this issue is about racism. Well, I can tell you that One Nation is a party that is standing up for the Australian people about jobs and about people paying their taxes. I am here to represent the Australian people, first and foremost, and to worry about everyone in this country, as are my colleagues. When you get your act together and know how to run this country, we might get ourselves out of $504 billion of debt that is heading towards $600 billion. I think both the coalition and the Labor Party, while you've both been in government, have done a very good job in raising the debt of this country. It is lucky that One Nation is here because we can keep you on your toes and start really addressing the true concerns of the Australian people.

Question agreed to.