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Subsidising Foreign Students

Posted by: Michael Smith | 11 June, 2009 - 2:07 PM

Violence is a big issue down south

Violence against Indian students in Melbourne and Sydney is making headlines in India.

Just google it - there are thousands of reports in the Indian press.

Australia invites foreign students into the country and they pay for their studies.

That’s worth an estimated $15 billion per year to our GDP and because foreigners pay the money, it’s counted as export earnings..

That’s about 1.5% of GDP. To put it in perspective, we exported $54.679 billion worth of coal, $34 billion of iron ore and $17.33 billion of gold.

$15 billion is big money. It’s a big industry.

Our universities are dependent on that income

But I think it’s important that we get this industry in perspective

We are not inviting foreigners into this country out of the goodness of our hearts.

We are not providing charity.

We are doing it for money.

The universities in Australia are lobbying for changes to various laws and regulations to make it more attractive for foreign students to come to Australia.

http://www.universitiesaustralia.edu.au/documents/news/media_releases/2009/uniaus_media_09_09.pdf

They have a 10 point plan. If implemented it would cost us a lot of money. And you’d expect the universities, which are dependent on the income, to be lobbying for these changes.

Well one of the changes they seek is to provide the same travel concessions to all foreign students as are available to local students.

I was amazed to hear this exchange with Indian students in Melbourne with the Deputy Prime Minister Julia Gillard. Listen here

The so-called racist policy that the foreign student refers to is the NSW and Victorian policy not to provide student concession travel to foreign students.

The position of the CEO of Universities Australia, Glen Withers is much more disturbing. He seems to think that the rest of Australia’s taxpayers should be providing more charity to foreign students. Listen here

So I made enquiries with Queensland Transport today. And guess what? You and I are paying to subsidise the transport of foreign students in Australia.

We have to have a think about why they are here. They are here for us to make money from them. That’s the reason.

They are the customer. We should make them very, very welcome. But we should never lose sight of the fact that we want them to pay for things!

What the hell are we thinking having Queensland working people pay taxes to provide for discounted travel for foreign students.

And it’s big money.

We know that last financial year, Indian student numbers in Queensland increased from 2,339 to 6,240.

And more than 1,300 taxi driver licences were issued last year.

And according to Queensland Transport’s website they are entitled to the same student concession fares as local students.

Taxpayers are already forking out $500 million a year to prop up southeast Queensland’s passenger rail network. That subsidy has doubled since 2006.

For every passenger trip on our rail network you, the taxpayer, will pay $8.25. And that’s to subsidise a full fare. You pay even more to subsidise foreign students fares.

By all means we should provide great customer service to these people. They should get a superb education in return for their payments. But what is the government doing taking money - taxes - from you and me to give it away with fare concessions?

I’d be very interested to know what you think. Should we remove the subsidy?

Blog comments

This is all about Muslims and hindus, not Indians and lebanese.

Christian Lebanese Tuesday 16 June, 2009 - 11:24 PM
Oh great, nice to see the media whipping up some racism again. You white fellas are all immigrants, the Aboriginal people of this land have been paying for your existence all your lives. You should all be ashamed of yourselves.

Heidi Claus Friday 12 June, 2009 - 12:19 PM
I was sickened to see the hoards of angry men waving Indian flags and screaming into the faces of our police on TV. And could only think, here we go, it's started in our country....riots and warring between those we are bringing in, in this case Indians/Lebanese. How ugly. If this is a money making venture then the price of pocketing the cash is too high. No, we should not subsidise foreign students. If they don't like paying their way in our country, don't come. This huge grab for cash is killing our country.

Anne Scott Friday 12 June, 2009 - 8:39 AM
Some of the foreign students end up applying for Australian citizenship and stay here, its probably why they came here in the first place. Ive met two of them from India, a doctor who teaches at TAFE and a PhD engineer who works here, both now citizens. The gains to Australia outweigh the travel subsidies.

Albert Thursday 11 June, 2009 - 3:53 PM
Hi Smithy. As usual you have hitthe nailon the head concerning the abuse of the good nature of Australian Society. WHY SHOULD THE TAXPAYERS OF AUSTRALIA SUBSIDISE FOREIGN STUDENTS!!!! Julia Gillard will give away Australian money to subsidise students as it is not her money. Subsidise Australian pensioners for the many increases to utilities and indirect taxes they will have to pay from the reckless amount of money this rudderless government is giving away and will have to be paid back one day.

Wayne Thursday 11 June, 2009 - 2:38 PM