E&OE

RAFAEL EPSTEIN: Both Labor and Liberals say they want to change the rules for international students. The Liberals say they don’t want as many students at the big universities in the big cities. Labor says it needs new laws to do just that, but the Liberal Party has blocked those new laws. The Greens have blocked them as well. So, we don’t have those powers for the Federal Government. Luke Sheehy joins us. He is CEO of Universities Australia. Good morning, Luke. If we don’t have these laws, are you happy?

LUKE SHEEHY: Well, the phony war about international students causing a housing crisis in Australia has been going on all year. And what we know is that since just before Christmas last year, the Federal Government took a sledgehammer to the international student sector with their Ministerial Direction 107, which effectively slowed down visa processing for certain markets and particularly for universities in our regional parts of Australia and the growth suburban corridor. So, the damage has already been done – a $4.3 billion hit to the Australian economy in the first six months alone. And the continuation of this visa processing, which will now keep going because the government hasn’t got their caps bill is costing the Australian economy $19 million a day and closer to home in Victoria, that’s $4.8 million a day. So, the damage is already being done and will continue to be done. What we want is a fair deal for this sector that delivers for Australia.

RAFAEL EPSTEIN: So, I hear that you don’t like what the government has done. I am curious to know what you think if we don’t have this law. The government says the law makes things simpler, there’s a complex mess of regulations right now. You’re talking about the impact of the mess of that regulation. If we have got a law to give the federal government more power, power by institution, power by course, power by city, is that a good thing or not?

LUKE SHEEHY: Well, universities didn’t want an intervention by a minister to potentially control what we could enroll at a course level at our institutions. We have never seen an intervention like this in Australia’s higher education system before, and we didn’t want it. We really didn’t want caps overall because what it was going to do is curtail the economic and other benefits that this sector provides to Australia. What we have got now is the continuation of this Ministerial Determination. We are going to go into a continued war on this sector between both sides of politics and in an election year, and frankly, that’s not what we want. We want both sides of politics to commit to this sector and work out a way to grow it for the benefit of Australians. It’s really important to remember that.

RAFAEL EPSTEIN: Can I just interrupt? You mentioned there that it’s grown, what’s the impact right now? The federal government says this mess of regulations has brought the number of international students down. Do you agree that it’s brought them down substantially or not?  

LUKE SHEEHY: Well, we know that in the first six months alone that this chaos around visa processing has resulted in 60,000 fewer visas being granted in the Australian system. And the Minister said, Jason Clare said that this ministerial processing determination and processing is already effectively a cap. So, the government has already got the policy outcome it desired, and now the opposition and the government will fight out in an election year, what they can do to this sector. I want them to build this sector, not wreck it. And it is really important, particularly for places like Victoria, where more than 20 per cent of economic growth comes from this important sector. We have seen the premier out there in India championing this sector for Victorians. We want to see all premiers and all federal leaders championing this sector for the betterment of Australia.

RAFAEL EPSTEIN: Why don’t you think more students have an impact on the city in terms of livability?

LUKE SHEEHY: If you walk up and down the streets of Melbourne, you know that the international education sector has transformed the livability of our city. And I know that the new Lord Mayor of Melbourne talks about this as well and our previous Lord Mayor in Melbourne talked about it. It is an essential ingredient to the economic success of our cities and our region. So, given that for four decades, both sides of politics have championed this really important sector, I struggle now to think about why we are getting blamed for a phony war about migration and housing.

RAFAEL EPSTEIN: Thank you for your time, Luke.

LUKE SHEEHY: Good to be with you, Raf.

ENDS