2 days Ago By Natassia Chrysanthos
Opposition Leader Peter Dutton says he tanked Labor’s international student caps because they pandered to rich city universities whose students were furthering the housing crisis, as he promised deeper cuts to migration under a Coalition government. But Dutton offered no details as the parliament clashed on Tuesday over his decision to block Labor’s caps . He said the opposition’s plans for introducing its own caps and policies to lower foreign student numbers would be “revealed in due course” and deliver housing back to Australians.
Peter Dutton says the government and the city universities are contributing to the housing crisis. Credit: Dominic Lorrimer Immigration Minister Tony Burke, whose government’s plans to wrest control of student numbers have now been thrown into turmoil, labelled Dutton a hypocrite whose decision would make the country’s woes worse by allowing immigration numbers to go “sky-high”. “They [the Coalition] are going to vote to push net overseas migration higher,” he said in a fiery question time.
“They will vote to let it rip on however many number of student visas get issued.” But Dutton brushed off claims he was being weak on migration, indicating that people who breached visa conditions would be deported under his government, in a media conference that pitted wealthy international students and sandstone universities against struggling Australians. Dutton said there were “plenty of international students in pretty schmick accommodation” compared with Australians who did not come from family money.
“Let’s be frank about it. Now, there will be other students from other parts of the world who are, you know, scrimping and saving every dollar to send their kids here,” he said. “But there is accommodation being taken up at the moment by international students who I believe very strongly [are] taking up accommodation that should be occupied by Australian citizens.
” Dutton’s comments capture the attitude of a growing number of Australians who are concerned about high immigration driven by underlying fears about the economy and housing affordability. But the opposition leader defended his decision to block the government’s student caps by saying they didn’t go far enough and would issue Group of Eight universities caps roughly based on 2023 levels . “Those students who are here under that money-making project are taking up rental accommodation in particular from Australians who can’t get into rental accommodation,” Dutton said.
“[University of Sydney vice-chancellor] Mark Scott made $1.4 billion [for the university] in one year. And the government essentially is baking in that opportunity for the University of Sydney and the other seven.
And that’s not something that we’re going to support.” The government points out the bill would create a mechanism for the minister to set a cap, rather than legislating the specific numbers of students. Under Education Minister Jason Clare’s proposed 2025 caps, metropolitan universities would have to cut their numbers while many regional universities would be allowed to increase theirs, although the Group of Eight would still attract the majority of students.
While Dutton didn’t put a figure on what he thought was an appropriate number of foreign students – Clare set next year’s level across the sector at 270,000 – he said “of course there will be deeper cuts because I want housing for Australians”. Labor has seized on his comments to paint Dutton as a fraud on immigration, given he committed to international student caps in his budget speech this year. “If [there’s] anybody out there who might feel that they are missing out on a rental accommodation because an overseas student has taken it, just know the leader of the opposition wants to make that situation worse,” Burke said in question time on Tuesday.
“If anybody out there is thinking that because of the rate of immigration they are having trouble getting into a home, just know the leader of the opposition has decided to make that worse.” Dutton brushed off the government’s attacks that painted him as soft on immigration. “You know, I’m either too soft, or too hard, or too much in the middle.
I don’t know. I mean, what’s Labor’s line here? All they’re doing at the moment is throwing out personal attacks,” he said. “The more the Labor Party attacked me .
.. the higher my numbers go.
And I’m happy for that to continue because I’ll deal with that.” In a response to a question that suggested the Coalition was delaying reductions to immigration, he said: “This problem can be solved with a change of government at the next election.” Cut through the noise of federal politics with news, views and expert analysis.
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