Parliament sits this week, which will give the Government a chance to pass the international student quotas bill – depending on how much trouble the Opposition is in the mood to make, because it can.
The Senate Committee Inquiry on the bill is due to report tomorrow, nearly two months after the original delivery date and what is in the reports from the parties of government will reflect what happens next. Labor Senators will announce the Bill is the best Parliamentary drafting since Magna Carta. Education shadow Sarah Henderson will likely point out inequities and anomalies especially for legitimate VET private providers, as she has done throughout hearings. But it would be a fair-enough guess for the Government that because the LNP supports the principle of quotas it will not want to be off-side with its base on what is an immigration issue for the electorate.
As of late Friday, the Bill was still on the Government’s Senate program for Wednesday, when it could pass, or be returned to the Reps with amendments, but one way or another, quotas appear a fait accompli.
The case the Government has made for them has the policy credibility of TV wrestling performed by the Marx Brothers. First up quotas were presented as a way of dealing with fake VET providers rorting the immigration system – which is true. Then addressing the housing shortage, the Government claimed it is in-part created by international students which only has merit in a few capital city suburbs. This was followed by suggestions that greedy universities are profiting from expanding international enrolments. The Government appears to mean some of the Group of Eight – if so other institutions were just in the wrong ring at the wrong time.
The Government’s case is all over the arena and sounds suspiciously like talking points being tested with focus groups.
The explanation of how quotas were set has been less all-in wrestling than a comedy pie-fight, with the Department of Education going the whole Harpo, offering not especially understandable explanations.
But politically, the shambles so far appears to be a win for Labor. While lobbyists have been agreeing with each other about how terrible it all is for universities and the VET sector, the alternative Government is spruiking even deeper cuts, making the Government’s policy comedy appear to be a credible alternative. The divided sector has failed to humanise the issue or address the impact at an electorate or individual level, leaving the stage wide open for the Government to push an image of being heroic rather than ham-fisted, cleaning out bad actors, stopping universities making out like bandits and even trying to help international students – remember them?
Unions NSW official Thomas Costa does. Appearing in the last Committee hearing on Thursday, he made it clear that other than accepting government authority on immigration, his organisation had no view on quotas. But he did have a bit to say on bad treatment of internationals, including; “We support the fact that the Bill is focusing on integrity and ensuring that there will be quality in the educational sector.
“We have some experience of where unscrupulous educational providers are connected to employers and arrange for these sorts of exploitative arrangements to happen.
“For that reason, we think any measures that go towards rooting out those unscrupulous educational providers and their networks with employers that exploit migrant workers are a good thing, and that increased focus in the Bill on the fit and proper person and allowing the measures to be implemented quite quickly is something we see as a good measure.”
