Late Wednesday, the Senate committee inquiry into legislation giving government power to set international student numbers at all post-school providers recommended the bill be passed. Given the Opposition’s position on the need for caps, it will be.
As Coalition Senators state in the first par of their additional comments, “providing the Government with the power to cap international students … is crucial because of Labor’s gross mismanagement of immigration.”
The jibe aside, the Opposition had no choice, unless it is going to gift the government immigration as an election issue. As Education Minister Jason Clare put it yesterday, “It is really important to protect the integrity of our international education system, but it is also important to protect public support for international education. I make no apology, the Government makes no apology for our commitment to return migration to pre-pandemic levels.”
The Committee recommendation follows months of protests from universities, plus private HE and voced institutions which led to four delays in reporting. The Government hoped to have the Bill passed this week, but it will now be put to the Senate in November and if amended there, returned to the Reps.
That there will be amendments seems certain, with the Committee recommending changes the Government will wear. These include removing the power to limit course enrolments at universities and TAFEs and including a requirement for annual consultation with providers on their individual quotas. However, the Committee also wants to increase executive authority, giving the Government power to “exempt specific classes of students, including by citizenship” for unexplained reasons.
Overall, this is a big win for Mr Clare, his first contested success as minister and a defeat in detail for universities which are now subject to increased Government control of their biggest source of private income.
And other regulatory powers are coming. Legislation for the Student Ombudsman is in the Parliament. It will “have strong investigative powers, similar to those of a Royal Commission,” Mr Clare said in the House, Wednesday.
And all before the Australian Tertiary Education Commission gets going.
