The university sector is pushing back against One Nation's migration plan, which would cut hundreds of thousands of international student and graduate places over three years. Pauline Hanson says she's reflecting the will of the people, but industry leaders say the policy could wreak havoc on the economy and worsen skills shortages. The policy has also prompted fresh calls for reform and investment in research and education.
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TRANSCRIPT
For the second week running, One Nation has led the political debate, this time launching its controversial migration policy which would reduce intake by more than 750,000 places over three years.
International students, graduate visa holders, and their families would be hardest hit, with a reduction of almost 470,000 places, and caps due to follow in the out years.
Pauline Hanson has stood by the policy, describing it as the will of the people - but the university sector is pushing back.
"Slashing international students will have untold damage potentially to not only Australia's universities’ research effort, our standing in the world, but also importantly, the Australian economy and put at risk hundreds of thousands of jobs."
The CEO of Universities Australia Luke Sheehy says international education is one of Australia’s most successful industries.
"That means around $55 billion to the Australian economy. If you take university students, international university students, they contribute around $70,000 each per year to the Australian economy. Not just through the fees that they pay at our universities, but also in the rent that they pay, the services that they use and the other expenditure that they put into the Australian economy."
One Nation MP Barnaby Joyce has dismissed criticism it could tank the economy, saying people are "tired" of listening to economists.
The One Nation policy has not been costed by the Parliamentary Budget Office, and party leader Pauline Hanson has not held a press conference to face questions.
Senator Hanson has spoken to News24, telling them she'd be happy to have the policy costed.
"I've got no problem with it. But did they get it right with the Snowy Two Scheme? Did they get it with the right with the NBN? Did they get it right with inland rail? You know, all these things that there's they've all budgeted for this, and it's always been a blowout as well. The thing is listening to the people out there. As I said to you before, I'm implementing the will of the people."
She's not the only political leader looking to cut student visas.
Both major parties have explored the idea over recent years.
"Well, what we've seen from One Nation is them joining a conga line of political parties, including the government, Labor, and the Coalition in a political race to the bottom on international students."
Chief executive of the Group of Eight Universities, Vicki Thompson, agrees.
She says the Coalition sent students home during the COVID pandemic, Labor contemplated imposing a levy on international students, and both have supported caps.
"I think it's a race to the bottom by all of our political parties, frankly, to see who can decimate our international education sector quickest, and One Nation now have announced their policy. It's hardly a strategy. It's just a slash and burn of the international education sector with no thought as to the impact of that policy on not just the university sector, because I don't think they particularly care very much about the university sector, but also the broader economy."
Wiehong Liang is the President of the International Student Representative Council of Australia.
He's frustrated, saying students themselves have had little voice in this debate.
"That's very, you know, feeling very bad on that. We talk about but not really get directly consulted from that. And uncertainty."
He says he'd be happy to meet with policymakers, and he’s eager to discuss how to improve standards and quality, rather than working backwards based on an arbitrary figure.
"We hope they do more regulation for the universities or education provider to make sure they get the right student there. They actually can do that. They have the exam system, they know how to recruit students for high quality, and then they probably reduce the people (who) just want to come here (and) take the visa as a working visa."
In its policy, One Nation has framed universities as 'visa factories', proposing to reduce the intake of international students by 240,000 places over three years.
Around 115,000 students would still be allowed under annual cap, which includes a new 'high value' visa category.
It would be a blow to the sector, which has come to rely heavily on revenue from international students.
Vicki Thompson says she has long called for a deeper discussion around funding models.
"For many years I have spoken about the distorted funding model that our universities operate under. Particularly for the universities I represent. So, we are by our nature very research intensive. We do 70 per cent of Australia's university-based research out of the eight universities I represent. We invest around $10 billion annually in research. We get around $2.7 billion from the Federal Government to fund our research."
And that number has been declining, along with business investment in research and development.
"And yet the need for research has not declined. So we think about the defence-related research, vaccine research, health and medical research. So that gap of just under $8 billion, it has to be filled, and it's filled largely by international fee revenue."
Luke Sheehy says reducing revenue from international students would ultimately impact their domestic peers.
"We already have an inadequate domestic funding system and the pressures being put onto the system are confounded and compounded when you rip away the number of international students into the system. So, politicians have to make a pretty clear choice. Do they want a world-class university system that's growing for the needs of Australia and Australia's economy, or do they want to just have a fight about migration and universities and Australian students will be collateral damage?"
One Nation’s policy would also cut 230,000 graduate visa places over three years, and introduce a new annual cap of around 20,000, as part of its push to prevent so-called visa hopping.
Vicki Thompson rejects the suggestion that universities have become a backdoor to migration.
"That is not what the Group of Eight universities are in any way, shape or form. The majority of the students who come and study at our universities are not here for a migration pathway. More than 80 per cent of our students actually go home and they complete their studies and they go."
She says those that stay often fill labour gaps in fields like engineering, aged care, and health.
Exactly how One Nation's policy would impact on skills is an issue that Innes Willox, chief executive at the Australian Industry Group, says deserves more attention.
Over three years, the policy would cut over 100,000 places from the skilled worker program, removing all family members, and imposing caps of 70,000 places per year after this.
"As a country, we're already facing extreme skills and labour shortages across different parts of the economy, and that is even with the migration program operating as it is. And to cut out skilled migration would only exacerbate those problems. Skilled migration covers everything from welders to abattoir workers, to electricians, to cybersecurity experts, care workers, and everything in between."
He says graduate visas do bring value to business, but concedes industry could have done more to leverage this labour.
"Because of that, I think that's led One Nation down that path to looking to cut those visas. That's obviously then going to have an impact on students wanting to come here because they just otherwise will come here, do their studies and turn around and go home. So, we don't get any value add from that as a country to benefit from those skills and experience. And the other reason that I think it's in the spotlight is because of concerns around visa hopping and overstaying."]]
He's calling for a more transparent, responsive, and faster system to manage skilled migrant labour,
Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke will give a much-anticipated speech outlining Labor’s migration policy at the National Press Club tomorrow.
