HANSARD
SITTING CALENDAR
SEARCH
LIVE BROADCAST
Hansard Dynamic Member Index
Legislative Council - Fifty-Fourth Parliament, Second Session (54-2)
2020-07-02 Daily Xml
Contents
Pdf Xml

International Students

The Hon. J.S. LEE (15:13): My question is to the Minister for Trade and Investment about international students. Can the minister update the council about the return of international students to South Australia?

The Hon. D.W. RIDGWAY (Minister for Trade and Investment) (15:13): I thank the very honourable member for her ongoing interest in the very important sector of international education. As we know, it is South Australia's largest export industry, bringing in $2 billion last year and employing some 11,000 South Australians, creating a global pipeline of talent for international students, who we value as very important members of our community.

With the onset of COVID-19 our education providers and students have met with numerous unexpected challenges. An interesting statistic from the Department of Home Affairs from around 24 May is that there were 6,778 international students who were studying in South Australia who were still offshore—from markets such as China, India, South Korea, Vietnam and interestingly 72 other markets—and facing difficulties in returning to South Australia for their study.

Interestingly, I think at about the election time we had about 43 per cent of our international students from China, and all the other countries were obviously somewhat smaller than that. Even though we have seen significant growth in the numbers, China now represents about 30 per cent. India is in second position at 24 per cent and we have seen significant growth from other countries.

I have been working very closely with my Ministerial Advisory Council for International Education (MACIE) since about February to try to work out a way that we can bring these students back to study at our three public universities, who have been unable to return. The successful repatriation of over 800 citizens from India in April demonstrated to my MACIE group and the team working on this particular project that we do have the capability to responsibly welcome and manage groups of people from overseas. The Minister for Health and Wellbeing has just been talking about the great work that was done there.

In recent weeks, we have seen commercial flights being announced to return to Adelaide: Singapore Airlines, Cathay Pacific and Malaysia Airlines. It is an expectation, if we get a pilot established, that it would most likely be four planes of 200 passengers per plane, totalling 800, a similar number of Australians we have repatriated from India.

A lot of work has been done, together with SA Health and minister Wade's team, South Australia Police (minister Wingard's team), StudyAdelaide and my team in the Department for Trade and Investment to put together a pilot program that can be implemented in a controlled environment to ensure the health and safety of South Australians as well as the health and safety of the returning students.

We have also been working closely with the three public universities on various study and public safety protocols, so they can be as well prepared as possible. My understanding is they will soon reach out to their student cohorts overseas to then work out how we can get those students to the various airports. I suspect the most likely ones will be Singapore, which is Changi Airport, which has now opened up to South Korea, Japan and I think, from my recollection, China, and of course local students, and the airport in Kuala Lumpur, the Malaysian airport, has opened up as well.

We are working together with the airlines, SAPOL and Health, all the stakeholders and our federal colleagues to make sure that, when we are given the green light by the federal government, we have everything in place. While there is still more work to be done to welcome back the students in a safe and responsible way, it is a priority for the Marshall Liberal government to support our industry, particularly this one, our largest export industry, and continue to support the jobs, grow more jobs, and of course help South Australia return back stronger than before.

PARLIAMENTARY BUSINESS
MEMBERS
GET INVOLVED
ABOUT PARLIAMENT
VISIT
LEGISLATIVE COUNCIL
HOUSE OF ASSEMBLY
CONTACT