International Students

The Hon. D.J. SPEIRS (Black—Leader of the Opposition) (14:24): On indulgence, I used to have a saying, 'Environment minister things,' and one of them was bird banding. Very few people have done that in Scott Creek but both the Deputy Premier and I have. My question is to the Deputy Premier. Do measures in the federal budget relating to international student caps place at risk any financial projections for the new Adelaide University? With your leave, sir, and that of the house, I will explain.

Leave granted.

The Hon. D.J. SPEIRS: The business case for the new university is predicated on the assumption that it will be able to attract a net increase of 5,000 to 7,000 international students to South Australia. Last night, the federal Treasurer said, and I quote:

We will limit how many international students can be enrolled at each university based on a formula, including [how many houses] they build.

The Hon. S.E. CLOSE (Port Adelaide—Deputy Premier, Minister for Industry, Innovation and Science, Minister for Climate, Environment and Water, Minister for Workforce and Population Strategy) (14:25): This is a very important question and, if I may say, a well-articulated question of the extent to which this may pose a risk.

Last night, I spent quite a lot of time talking to the Hon. Andrew Giles and his advisers about this and on how we make sure that what sits behind many of the changes that are being proposed, while we make sure that integrity is at the forefront of the way in which we deal with the international student market—as all of the good providers want us to—that we do not inadvertently cause challenges either for the providers nor, of course, recognising the opportunities for making sure that we have enough housing for international students. They are the challenges that we are wrestling with.

The proposition that is being put forward by the federal government at this stage is that there will be a piece of legislation that goes into their parliament in the next couple of weeks but will sit on the table to allow for consultation that will give powers for the federal government to identify the number—it will agree but identify the number of international students that individual providers, an individual university for example, can have based in part on the amount of housing available to them. I think we are recognising that the challenges that we have in South Australia are real, but they are even more acute in the Eastern States. Also, there is some question of the extent to which that will also balance the markets from which they come and which courses they are undertaking. All of that is reasonable on the face of it but does constitute a matter of, at the very least, interest from the state government.

Last year, international students were our biggest export. More than $3 billion came into the state economy thanks to international students. We don't mess lightly with our exports. What we need to do is make sure that, while we increase integrity measures, we are not sending a signal to the world in general that somehow we are not interested in having international students here—nothing could be further from the truth here in South Australia. We regard them as an essential part of the economy as well as an important contributor to the fabric of our society.

I had some detailed discussions last night with Minister Giles, who recognises that South Australia is not the same as New South Wales and Victoria, but also understands that with our particular view to have a merger that is well underway between two of our institutions, it is important that we not put at risk the financial stability of that merger on the basis of introducing a question mark about the numbers of international students. We have agreed to continue those discussions. I will be working with the three universities, soon to be two obviously, on how we can present a team South Australia view to the federal government about the way in which we can approach this.

I would just say that with one of the factors that has been highlighted most in the federal budget papers and in the speech on the question of accommodation, at the moment we have a 10 per cent vacancy rate in student accommodation in South Australia. That is not the case in the Eastern States, so understanding that we might not be facing quite the challenges that they are facing will help us create the argument, but we also need to make sure that we are providing a sustainable pathway for our institutions to manage their income and to ensure that we've got the flow of skilled workers that we need for the future.