NICOLA SMITH: International students, national security should not be election cannon fodder

A fast pace five-week Election campaign is not the time to be making up consequential policies on the hoof, and the Coalition’s new policy on international students is the latest to be slammed as a “vote grab” to which neither side is immune.

The 25 per cent cap for international students and dramatic hiking of their visa fees is part of what one expert has described as a “race to the bottom on a phony campaign” on overseas students by both Labor and Liberal, in a bid to sway voters.

The Coalition on Sunday said that by slashing numbers, in part through more than tripling visa fees to $5000 for applications to Group of Eight institutions, their policy will help to solve the housing crisis.

The universities sector has been staggered by the plan, warning it will damage one of the nation’s biggest income generators and Australia’s global reputation.

Attempts by both sides in recent months to link student numbers with the housing crisis is misleading, argues Luke Sheehy, CEO of Universities Australia, the sector’s peak body. Labor tried to push through its own failed student cap last November before slowing down the visa process.

“Students make up less than six per cent of the national rental market. The real solution is more homes, not fewer students,” he said.

“If you’ve got a construction problem, you don’t need to destruct another sector.”

The proposal overlooks international students’ more than $50 billion contribution to the economy and support of 250,000 jobs, he argued.

“We’re cannon fodder in a migration debate,” Mr Sheehy told The Nightly.

His ire is directed at “both sides of politics for what has been a race to the bottom on a phony campaign that attributes the housing crisis to international student numbers”.

He added: “It’s all about grabbing votes … It will do more economic damage than it will do anything to benefit the housing shortage that we have.”

A study in March by the University of South Australia, based on data from government departments and the Australian Bureau of Statistics between 2017 and 2024, found no link between international student numbers and the cost of rent, concluding the students had been “thrown under a bus”.

But Mr Dutton is not the only one accused of making policies on the run ahead of the May 3 poll.

The Prime Minister has also faced questions on the timing of Friday’s unexpected pledge that his Government would return the Chinese-operated Port of Darwin to Australian hands.

The sale of Darwin Port to Beijing-controlled company Landbridge Group under a previous Coalition Government in 2015 has been widely viewed as a geostrategic miscalculation, and one that Washington has urged Canberra to correct.

But the sudden rush to present Labor’s plan, undercutting a similar move by the Coalition, has raised the prospect of national security becoming a political football.

Both issues, as with any decision of major consequence to the nation’s future, need the scrutiny of parliamentary debate beyond the reach of electioneering.

Springing such policies in the whirlwind of an election campaign falls short of the standard that voters deserve.