A speech by Malcolm Roberts, Senator for Queensland
The need for the Australian Government to implement a national housing and population plan that manages international student growth based on consultation and without unintended consequences for the economy or Australian students.
We need a housing and population plan that works for Australians.
The government currently has a plan.
That plan is: open the floodgates to arrivals no matter how many Australians are made homeless.
We need a plan that does the opposite and puts Australians first.
Australia just hit a record level of temporary visa holders.
Excluding tourist and other short stay visitors, there are now 2.43 million temporary visa holders in the country.
This blows the previous record of roughly 1.9 million clear out of the water.
That’s up to a million extra houses needed to put those people in.
680,000 of these are international students, another record.
This is putting untold pressure on the housing crisis.
When the borders were closed, nearly all suburbs close to the universities experienced higher rental vacancy rates.
That means, when international students couldn’t come into the country there were more homes available for Australians… who would have thought?
The truth is some universities and private VET providers are completely abusing the system.
A student visa is more often seen as a backdoor way to get working rights in Australia and eventually stay here forever.
Hundreds of thousands of people on temporary student visas end up illegally working full time hours and sending the money back to their home country.
Personal remittance flows out of Australia almost perfectly follows the amount of student visa holders in the country.
This transfer out of Australia hit a record $11 billion in 2023, on the latest figures.
We can only assume it’s increased from then.
You’ll hear a particular lie also pedalled in this debate.
That lie is that “international students are one of Australia’s largest exports at $48 billion a year.”
That figure assumes an international student arrives here on day one with all of their money for course fees, rent, food, transport, bills and other spending already saved in a bank account.
In reality, most students end up working here for the money to support themselves and send the remainder back home.
The claim that international students are one of our biggest exports is simply not true because it doesn’t align with reality.
If you intend to move here permanently, there’s a proper process to go through.
There was a rule that automatically blocked people from studying in Australia if they said they wanted to move here permanently.
The Labor Party removed this rule, of course.
This explosion in international students isn’t helping our education institutions or the housing crisis.
At the moment, our universities have a pretty good reputation.
Unfortunately, they’ve been pursuing international students as a cash cow at the expense of education quality.
If we don’t save the universities from themselves, they’ll destroy that hard won reputation.
Australia’s universities have been accused of awarding degrees to students with no basic grasp of English.
Academics say universities have turned a blind eye to language shortcomings because of the revenue generated from international student fees.
Academics say they are being pressured into passing hundreds of students suspected of plagiarism and other forms of cheating in order to maintain their universities’ revenue streams that are hugely dependent on the international market.
Then we had the story of Harry, a first year economics student at Melbourne University, who began attending his mandatory tutorials. He was excited to engage with his fellow student and start his further education journey.
But Harry found himself unable to participate in his class after students and the tutor would converse in Mandarin for almost the entire session.
It may be too late to save the universities completely.
The Guardian reports today “Australian universities tumble as some record worst result ever”.
One can only wonder why.
The first focus of our Australian universities should be the education quality of Australian Students.
We have roughly triple the ratio of international students as any other country in the world.
The universities have unfortunately proven they cannot be trusted to balance the money they make from internationals with their primary job of educating Australians.
One Nation has real solutions for the tertiary education sector, we would:
cap international student numbers
Force universities to report the average salaries of graduates of every degree so students know what they’re signing up for
Cut fees for subjects that used repeated recorded content to lower HECS debt and
Enforce English standards for international students.
One Nation will make sure universities aren’t sacrificing the quality of Australian educations to increase profits from international fees.
Executive Director Corporate Services and Chief Financial Officer David Clarke said the community has traditionally supported the idea of a local public holiday.