Nita Green (Queensland, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Our government has brought a bill into the parliament, the Education Services for Overseas Students Amendment (Quality and Integrity) Bill 2024, which is a really important piece of legislation. We are looking to fix the mess that we inherited from the previous government and to put a cap on international students while making sure that there is a fairer distribution of those international student numbers.

Regional universities are desperately crying out for this legislation to be passed, yet those on the opposite side, the Liberal and National parties, are opposed to this legislation. It is so disappointing—that's not the word that I use; that's the word that the regional universities in Far North Queensland and Central Queensland have used. They've used it to describe the decision by Peter Dutton to oppose this legislation, to stop regional universities getting their fair share of international students and to stop regional universities training people and having the certainty that they need to deliver good skills for our regional communities.

We inherited the worst skills crisis in 50 years because of those opposite. Every measure that we've put forward to fix this skills crisis has been opposed by Peter Dutton and the Liberal and National parties. That's why they don't support regional communities. If you support the regions then you support taking action on the skills crisis. It's why our government has made fee-free TAFE available to regional students. One in three of those students are from regional Australia. It's why we're decreasing student debt and raising the threshold. It's to make sure we have more skilled local workers. And yet every single one of these measures is opposed by Peter Dutton and the Liberal and National parties because they say that there is no value in training up a nurse in a regional community who will then serve her community as a nurse in aged care or in early childhood education. Shame on Peter Dutton and the Liberal and National parties.