E&OE

LAURA JAYES: Universities Australia Chief Executive Officer Luke Sheehy has used a speech this morning to warn that the move is shortsighted and could cost the sector thousands of jobs and hundreds of millions of dollars. All of this is playing out ahead of the upcoming federal election, of course, where migration and housing is going to be the number one issue. Joining me now is Universities Australia Chief Executive Luke Sheehy. Thanks so much for your time, Luke. This is bipartisan – you’re right. Is this just a populous move, do you think?

LUKE SHEEHY: Australia’s international education sector delivered nearly $50 billion to the Australian economy, and we know that last year it produced nearly half of our economic growth. If we’re talking about where Australia’s economy is heading, we need to ensure we’re supporting a sector that supports the Australian economy. That’s the case I’m making today, Laura. If we’re getting into a negotiated system with both the Government and the Opposition in an election year, we need a positive outcome for a sector that’s not only delivering for universities, but delivering for other sectors like the tourism industry and supporting what Australian universities need to do for the Australian economy, which is produce skilled graduates for the future jobs we have in our economy. I’m making the case that our sector should have strong support from both sides of politics and when we’re going to negotiate what the numbers will be, that the Government and Opposition recognise that important economic contribution that our sector has made for decades.

LAURA JAYES: Do you accept that there needs to be a reduction? Would you accept that in any capacity?

LUKE SHEEHY: We want certainty, stability and growth for the university sector. We need to recognise the important contribution that the revenue we get from international education makes to our sector. It helps support research and development and it helps support teaching – not only for international students but for Australian students. If we’re going to deliver on the things the Government wants us to also do, like a Future Made in Australia or AUKUS, we need to make sure we’ve got the base level of funding that we need to do that and that includes international student revenue. We can have a longer discussion with the Government around how much direct Commonwealth funding or public funding we can get, but the reality is over the last number of decades, we’ve been encouraged to diversify the income we get and that includes international education. Both sides of politics have told us to do it, so we want to make sure that they recognise that, and they recognise that important economic contribution we make when we negotiate what the future looks like.

LAURA JAYES: I mean, it’s still one of our biggest exports – absolutely. It contributes to our economy. It means that the budget’s got money to spend on other things. We can’t let that fall by the wayside at all. But this Government, in particular, is putting a bit of the onus back on universities and saying: “Okay, you can have international students, but we’ve got a housing crisis … if you are having more international students, you need to find somewhere to house them on campus so they take the pressure out of cities like in Melbourne in particular.” That’s fair enough, isn’t it?

LUKE SHEEHY: It is a fair proposition that every Australian domestic student and international student should have fair and equitable access to the housing market. That’s an important thing, and we’ll talk to the Government and the Opposition about that.

LAURA JAYES: But do universities, particularly in those capital cities, have the capacity to find that on campus accommodation? Is that realistic?

LUKE SHEEHY: We know that more than 70 per cent of local government authorities across the country have less than one per cent of international students contributing to the rental market. It’s in very small parts of the country where international students contribute more than 10 per cent to the rental market. Overall, international students only contribute four per cent to the private rental market in Australia. It is right that we have a negotiation and do our part as a sector, but it’s also important that the Government does its part. We want to make sure that federal, state and local governments work to deliver housing for all Australians as well as international students. We’ve got a role to play, but certainly I think it’s a Team Australia moment, Laura, where all of the Australian economy and governments need to work on this enormous housing challenge. Young Australians now are stressed about getting a rental, let alone getting into the housing market. It’s important that we have the right settings for housing across the board. The Reserve Bank has told us that construction and lack of supply is the main impediment to getting more housing supply.

LAURA JAYES: Governments of all stripes are looking at short-term solutions though, and this is one of those. Can you help them out?

LUKE SHEEHY: We’re a long-term sector. Things happen over three or four years with us, especially when you take a student doing a degree with us, and we’re still recovering from COVID because of that. We’ll have a discussion with the Government, but we can’t do everything tomorrow and what we want to make sure is that we are given the certainty and stability with the ability to access this important international student revenue so our universities can continue to deliver – including delivering housing and working with the private sector to develop that. We’ll be working with the Property Council and the Student Accommodation Council in the coming weeks to work out ways we can do that more collaboratively.

LAURA JAYES: Okay – it sounds like that could be a spicy meeting. I’d like to be a fly on the wall but let us know how it goes.

LUKE SHEEHY: There are always spicy meetings in an election year, Laura, so I look forward to many more.

LAURA JAYES: Yeah certainly. Luke, thank you.

ENDS