The head of Australia's opposition promises to restrict foreign students
In his pre-election speech, the opposition leader in Australia outlined his party's plans to reduce migration and control the number of overseas students.
In his pre-election speech, the opposition leader in Australia outlined his party's plans to reduce migration and control the number of overseas students.With Australia's federal election approaching, the leader of the Coalition has declared that should they win, they will cut the number of foreign students attending metropolitan institutions and cut the country's permanent immigration intake by 25%. "I want no Australian to have any doubts about the Coalition's values. Peter Dutton stated, "Today, I will outline our key priorities to get Australia back on track," at a speech to the Chisholm constituency in Victoria on January 12. A Dutton Coalition administration would prioritize "fixing the housing crisis" and "rebalancing" Australia's migration policy, according to Dutton. "The floodgates of migration have been opened by labour." In the first two years of Labor, a record one million migrants had come. Compared to any other two-year period, that is 70% greater. Housing, infrastructure, and services are under strain. Demand has greatly exceeded supply since just 350,000 houses have been constructed throughout the same period."The Coalition is going to act. Foreign investors and temporary residents would not be allowed to buy existing Australian properties for two years, Dutton declared. "We will cut the permanent migration program by 25% over the next two years, from 185,000 to 140,000 places," he continued. We will get back to a sustainable 150,000 and 160,000 locations in years three and four. Additionally, to alleviate pressure on city rental markets, we will collaborate with major metropolitan colleges to impose more stringent restrictions on international students. nearly five years, we will free up nearly 100,000 residences using these levers.According to Australia's 2023–24 overseas migration statistics, the number of people entering the country on student visas decreased by 25%, from 278,000 in 2022–2023 to 207,000 in 2023–2024. The greatest category of migrant arrivals, notwithstanding the decline, are foreign students. According to the data, foreign students made up 39.5% of Australia's net overseas migration, which is the lowest percentage since 2016–17 (except from the pandemic slowdown of 2019–20).The current Labor government's plans to cap the number of international students under the ESOS Amendment Bill were previously blocked by Dutton and the Greens because they didn't go far enough to reduce migration. The plans looked to cap international enrolments at 250,000 in 2025.The education minister decided to introduce a new visa processing directive, Ministerial Direction 111 (MD 111), on December 19, 2024, in response to the Bill's inability to garner enough support to pass the Senate. This directive is linked to the individual provider caps that were previously allocated to schools.The government's thwarted enrolment caps, also known as the National Planning Level, for 2025 will cause departmental officials to give priority to student visas for each provider until they reach 80% of their cap figure, also known as their net overseas student commencement number.Universities that have not yet hit 80% of their cap will be given precedence, and once an institution achieves this threshold in its allocation, it will be put to the back of the line.
