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Legislative Council - Fifty-Fourth Parliament, Second Session (54-2)
2020-03-05 Daily Xml
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Coronavirus

The Hon. T.T. NGO (15:00): I seek leave to make a brief explanation before asking a question of the Minister for Trade and Investment regarding exports.

Leave granted.

The Hon. T.T. NGO: On 26 November last year the minister released a media statement that was headlined, 'Record numbers of international students boosting jobs in South Australia'. On 16 December last year the minister released a media statement that was headlined, 'International education overtakes wine as SA’s No. 1 export'. Around a week after the second media release the first coronavirus cases were reported. My questions are:

1. What is the expected impact on jobs and the expected impact on our number one export industry arising from the coronavirus?

2. What is the expected impact on the state final demand figures for the March quarter due to the coronavirus?

The Hon. D.W. RIDGWAY (Minister for Trade and Investment) (15:02): I thank the honourable member for his ongoing interest in a particularly well-performing sector, the international education sector. And he is right, we have had some wonderful growth over the last two years, resulting in a tick under 45,000 students participating here in their education last year. And he is right that it overtook wine as our biggest single export. It is particularly important. There is a figure or an anecdote that every four students create one job. So it is particularly important not only in just the education services but the student accommodation, and of course, then, when family and friends visit those students they contribute a lot to our economy. So certainly I think it was 44,119 students was the final figure for last year, some $1.92 billion.

The higher education and the vocational and training sectors in South Australia reported the highest enrolment growth of 15 per cent and 40 per cent respectively, compared to the national average of 11 and 16 per cent. As we know—I think I made some comments yesterday in relation to it—China is our largest source of enrolments, at 35 per cent, although last year they were down from 42 per cent the year before. So while they grew a little bit, a modest number of 1.5 per cent last year, we have seen significant growth in other markets.

I think just for the Chinese it is very sad for them, with the coronavirus having started there, and we wish them all the very best in getting that under control and coming back into the market. But I think it emphasises the importance of having a diverse range of markets that we source our students from. So while China is the top one, India, Vietnam, Nepal and Hong Kong with China collectively represent 69 per cent of South Australia's total international student enrolments. But we are seeing other countries, like the Philippines and Brazil and Sri Lanka and Colombia growing quite well and India, of course, increasing.

It is unfortunate, the advent of coronavirus, and we are concerned about the impact of the coronavirus. I made some comments earlier in the week, I think, and I updated the chamber yesterday that it is a little bit under 6,000 students who, as of our latest data, were due to either return to study or commence study who were still offshore. A number of them are able to participate in there or have their 14 days out of mainland China by holidaying or being in places like Thailand and the like. Actually, I met one young gentleman last week when we launched the Port Adelaide Football Club ambassador program. He had been 16 days, I think, in Thailand at great expense to his family to get him from China to have those two weeks of isolation.

We are uncertain in what sort of time frame those nearly 6,000 students will make it back to South Australia. I know all the universities are doing a lot of work. They have contacted all of their students both ways I think, both verbally and electronically, and are providing opportunities for them to make sure they can participate in online and other learning activities while they can't get back here to South Australia.

The honourable member asks about the economic impact. It is really a little bit too early to know the impact but we know it will be significant, not only in the international education sector, for our economy, the tourism sector. There are trading issues where people are unable to get a regular supply of shipping containers so we expect that will have some impact. I heard anecdotally that I think it was the Victorian equivalent of Business SA surveyed their members and they came back with a figure of some 97 per cent of businesses in Victoria who responded to the survey thought their businesses would be impacted in some way.

While we are concerned and my colleague the Hon. Stephen Wade is doing a fabulous job with his team and the Chief Medical Officer to make sure we keep South Australians well aware of all the issues around the health impacts of coronavirus, there will be some significant impacts to our economy. It is too early to say to the honourable member the magnitude of that. The sooner we get on top of this issue the better. The impact will be short lived, I hope, but there will be some ongoing ramifications for our economy, the nation's economy and the global economy.

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