E&OEÌý
TRUDY MCINTOSH: Chief Executive Luke Sheehy, great to see you in the studio.Ìý
LUKE SHEEHY: Yeah, good to be with you.Ìý
TRUDY MCINTOSH: Have you heard anything from Tony Burke or the Department about what’s actually coming and how it’s going to affect the universities?Ìý
LUKE SHEEHY: Look, we haven’t had a formal briefing yet, so I wait with bated breath to see what we will get at the National Press Club today, and I will be there and listening very, very carefully. What I can see already from what’s in the press today is this continues to chip away at Australia’s great success story, which is international education, a sector that has supported economic growth, supported the tourism industry, and underwritten the education of nearly a million Australian students with the fees that international students pay.Ìý
TRUDY MCINTOSH: The Minister is clearly trying to recalibrate the system though. Changes are coming. What we are hearing leaked out of this is that international students will be effectively banned from bringing family members here. Do you support that? What impact would that have?Ìý
LUKE SHEEHY: Well, certainly a cut and copy of what Rishi Sunak tried a couple of years ago in the UK, and what did that result in? Fewer international students coming into the country. International students, as I said, support the funding of our universities, but also support hospitality and tourism industries, not only as workers, but their families who either come with them or visit them, support at least one-third of our tourism industry, particularly in regional Australia. That’s going to have real economic consequences. What is the intent of the Government’s policy to drive down the number of international students for political reasons?Ìý
TRUDY MCINTOSH: And is there a justification for recalibration? Are the numbers too high that there are competing challenges that governments need to sort out? If the housing problem is an issue, migration is a political issue, then maybe this needs to be recalibrated.Ìý
LUKE SHEEHYÌý Well, it seems to be recalibrated every six weeks depending on what’s happening in polling and what’s happening in Parliament House.ÌýÌý
TRUDY MCINTOSH: Do you feel like a bit of a punching bag in your sector?Ìý
LUKE SHEEHY: Look, we are absolutely victims of a race to the bottom. International students don’t get a vote, and they’re the easiest part of the migration program to slash and burn. What is not told often in these debates is the economic consequences that will result in taking away what is an incredibly important asset. And let’s think about another aspect as well. Students come from 140 countries to Australia. They invest their family’s resources and commitment to our country. We are going to say to the outside world, you are no longer welcome, and we are no longer going to be making those strong lifelong relationships that we make for Australia that deliver for decades to come because we are simply saying you are not welcome anymore.Ìý
TRUDY MCINTOSH: Have universities though become too addicted to the money that comes from international students? One of the things you hear sometimes here in Parliament is that the focus should be on educating people in Australia rather than making money off people, the lucrative industry of bringing people here from overseas.Ìý
LUKE SHEEHY: Well, the Treasury and both sides of politics over the last four decades have got a cut price world-class university system because they have encouraged universities and other education providers to enrol international students. And so, the simple next question to that is, if you want fewer international students in the country, that’s fine. Who is going to pay the bill? Who is going to pay the gap in funding for universities? Who is going to pay the gap in the support for the tourism industry, hospitality and property industries that benefit from this? This isn’t just about metropolitan city universities. This is about regional towns. This is about jobs in pubs, hospitality, and tourism sites. I was just talking recently about my home state of Victoria. Imagine if a third of the tourism industry disappeared, how many people would actually go into the pubs and towns around Phillip Island to visit the fairy penguins? We have got to get realistic about the intended and unintended outcomes of these slash and burn policies we are seeing from all political parties.Ìý
TRUDY MCINTOSH: Another aspect of this has always been the conversation about housing. There’s been an idea for some time that universities should stump up more money for housing on campus. That would take some of the demand pressures off, particularly in places like Sydney and Melbourne. Is that something universities are already doing? Is there more that you could do to try and stave off the reduction in numbers?Ìý
LUKE SHEEHY: We have got to get realistic about the impact that international students have. Only six per cent of the private rental market is attributable to international students, and 40 per cent of international students have alternative accommodation. So, if you got rid of international students tomorrow, you are not going to solve Australia’s construction problem in housing, but we need to be realistic as a sector as well. The Opposition and the Government in the last couple of terms ofÌýParliament came together to get rid of our infrastructure funding. They are blocking us from accessing Housing Australia funding to build purpose-built student accommodation. We need to work really cleverly and sensibly on that issue. The irony is, during COVID our universities sold their purpose-built student accommodation, many times to keep their balance sheets alive. So, we are still recovering from COVID, but we want to have a fair dinkum discussion around how we can turbocharge those efforts for constructing new properties for students on our campuses.Ìý
TRUDY MCINTOSH: ľ¹ÏÓ°Ôº CEO Luke Sheehy, thanks for joining us today and we’ll see what Tony Burke actually announces at the Press Club. Thank you.Ìý
LUKE SHEEHY: Thank you.Ìý
