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

I move:

That the Senate take note of the answers given by the Minister representing the Minister for Education (Senator Watt) to questions without notice I asked today in relation to international students.

The Albanese government is delivering blow after blow to international students, and the latest one is the doubling of the cost of student visa application fees. This cruel blow will first and foremost punish the most financially disadvantaged of potential applicants. Australia student visa application fees will now be the highest in the world. Expecting international students to fork out even more money reinforces this myth that somehow all international students are wealthy. Sure, that may be the case for some students, but many parents have saved every penny or taken out loans to finance their children's education. Once in Australia, too many international students have to settle for exploitative cash-in-hand jobs or gig economy jobs to make ends meet, whether it be delivering food or cleaning toilets. International students are exploited, used as cash cows and then made scapegoats.

The government's plan to cap international students is a divisive conflation of international students and the housing crisis. It punishes international students for a problem that they did not cause, and it will do nothing to fix the housing crisis or the higher education sector for that matter. It will significantly tarnish Australia's international reputation as a destination for higher education. So it's no wonder that there is so much opposition to the bill. The Group of Eight universities recently slammed the government for this policy. They note that there is no evidence the approach will work and significant evidence that it will fail.

After years of sustained underfunding of universities by both the Labor and the coalition governments and thousands of job losses during the COVID-19 pandemic because they were locked out of JobKeeper, now the government wants to micromanage universities to make things even worse. Governments who treat housing as a market investment rather than a human right are solely to blame for the rental and housing crisis, not students from India, Pakistan or Malaysia, whose parents have spent their lives saving up for their children to get the best possible education and opportunity in life. International students aren't causing the rental or housing crisis; they are victims of it, and particularly vulnerable ones at that. They don't owe us housing solutions. It's the other way around. Governments and universities have a duty to protect international students, and they are currently doing an abysmal job, with many ending up homeless and hungry.

We need a government willing to take bold action to tackle the housing crisis by capping rents, phasing out unfair tax breaks for property investors and establishing a public developer. I have heard too many horror stories just in the past year of international students sleeping in tents, couch surfing and paying exorbitant amounts to sleep in someone's garage or bathroom. Their current predicament reminds me of the neglect, abandonment and discrimination they were subjected to during the pandemic. International students, especially those of Asian appearance, suffered horrific racism during the pandemic. My office was inundated with hundreds of stories of international students experiencing unemployment, financial stress and precarious living situations during the pandemic. So many of them spoke about their distress of being completely abandoned by the government, and that's how they are feeling right now.

Much is often said about the economic benefits of international students. International students drove the value of Australia's education exports to an all-time record of $48 billion in 2023. But they actually bring incalculable benefits, adding to the diversity and vibrancy of our local regions, cities and campuses. International students do the heavy lifting on university funding and work in often precarious and exploitative conditions while contributing billions to the economy and society. Yet they are often left high and dry, often used and abused. International students deserve so much better from governments and universities, who must take seriously the responsibility to ensure their welfare and protect them from discrimination and exploitation. It's high time for the government to recognise and fix their policy failings rather than continue the never-ending commodification, dog whistling and demonisation of international students.

Question agreed to.