The coalition will reduce the number of students abroad who come to Australia every year in around 80,000 in what says it is an attempt to address the affordability of housing for young Australians.
The opposition leader, Peter Dutton, announced on Sunday that a limit of around 25 percent would be applied to the number of foreign students admitted to public universities.
The coalition said that “unsustainable” levels led to the lack of housing affebility.
“The plan we announce today is about taking young people to homes more quickly and helping them pay that house,” Dutton told journalists in Melbourne.
What is the coalition plan for international students?
An elected coalition government would allow 30,000 less foreign students in Australia every year compared to the Labor Plan. This would establish the limit of international students every year in 240,000.
The opposition estimated that there would be a maximum of 115,000 beginnings of students abroad every year in universities financed with public funds and, at most, 125,000 registered in private education and others as Vet courses.
“We are reducing migration because we want to put the Australians first. We want Australians in homes,” Dutton said.
The coalition also said that the position of a student visa request to $ 5,000 for the group of eight universities and $ 2,500 for the remaining international students would increase.
Students will also be charged a new rate of $ 2,500 if they want to change education suppliers.
The coalition will also review a visa that allows international students to live, study and work in Australia after they have completed the studies. He said that the review would address the “misuse” of the visa “, as a way to obtain access to the Australian labor market and as a path to permanent migration.”
Dutton says students save on the trip
Dutton was asked how a student limit, which would greatly affect metropolitan areas, would help a housing buyer for the first time in the suburbs.
He responded by marking that the promise of the coalition to reduce the cost of gasoline would save money from students in the Bowser.
“If an hour and a half pass in a car, even a little Mazda2, or if you have a larger and gasoline car, you will probably save, as a university student under our policy, maybe two tanks per week,” he said.
“Two tanks a week. There are probably 30 dollars per week that you are going to save as a university student. That is a great savings.”
He continued to say that students are buying houses in exterior metropolitan and metropolitan areas, but have faced a “housing crunch” under the Labor Government.
The coalition said that the number of international students studying in Australia increased from almost 520,000 international students in the year to the latest elections, to more than 850,000 in 2025.
TO International students “were not the culprits of the rental crisis in Australia”, and their authors “rejected the assumption that the growth of international students ’caused’ or exacerbated the housing crisis in Australia.”
Greens, universities criticize the coalition plan
The Greens criticized the coalition plan and accused the party of a “cynical attempt at the scapegoat” migrants and international students for the housing and rental crisis.
“Dutton’s plan to reduce the number of students and triple visa rates is a cynical ploy to enliven fear and division in the period prior to an election,” said the attached leader of the greens and spokesperson for higher education Mehreen Faruqi.
Faruqi also accused the labor of “starting this round of hitting international students” by pressing for their own limits last year.
“The facts are clear, we have seen the evidence: international students are not the cause of rental rentals or housing. That responsibility is directly with successive governments that have refused to build enough public homes and prioritize the coating of the pockets of rich property investors.”
The attached leader of the Greens, Mehreen Faruqi, accused the coalition of migrants and international students of “scapegoat.” Fountain: AAP / Bianca de Marchi
Meanwhile, Australia universities said the proposal would cause economic damage and would not resolve the housing crisis.
“Students represent less than six percent of the national rental market. The real solution are more homes, no less students,” said CEO Luke Sheehy.
“We urge all parties to base policies on facts, not point with the fingers. We are ready to work constructively in real solutions, but cuts like these will only damage the prosperity of the nation at a time that we can pay less.”
Vicki Thomson of the group of eight, said the plan of the coalition “The wrong policy at the wrong time”, and to blame international students for the housing crisis was “defective.”
“Beggars believes that the coalition will highlight the [Group of Eight] For additional load, the best Australia universities classified in the 100 best in the world, which attract the best and most brilliant minds in our region and around the world, “Thomson said.
The Australian Business Council also said that placing greater limits in international students would affect one of the country’s main export sectors.
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