The Koala is hearing from a variety of sources that the Government is set to announce changes to Ministerial Direction 107, although we don’t yet know what these changes will be.
Phil Honeywood, CEO, International Education Association of Australia, said in his December update to members yesterday that “We held back the publication of this Monthly Update in the hope of an announcement about changes to Ministerial Direction 107 (which we now understand will be made later this week)”.
And last week, Luke Sheehy, Chief Executive Officer, Universities Australia (UA) said that “We understand the Government is working on alternatives and are confident that we will soon have a new measure in place that is fairer across the board”.
UA has consistently advocated against MD107, including following the Government’s failure to pass the Education Services for Overseas Students Amendment (Quality and Integrity) Bill 2024.
“MD107 has already stripped an estimated $4 billion from the economy and our universities and is putting thousands of jobs at risk right across the economy. Some universities, particularly those in outer suburban and regional areas where MD107 is being felt most, are on their knees due to the financial impact of this destructive instrument”, said Sheehy on 18 November.
But there are some cautions for anyone hoping for this change to be especially positive, except perhaps for some parts of the sector (regional universities perhaps).
The first is that the latest GDP figure out today is not good news for the Government. The economy grew just 0.3 per cent for the September quarter and is at 0.8 per cent for the year (Sept ’23 to Sept ’24). This is the slowest growth since the COVID-19 affected December quarter 2020.
The Opposition has already started to hammer the Government about this result, with Shadow Treasurer Angus Taylor telling Sky News Australia it is “absolutely diabolical” to see numbers like this.
Secondly, the sector is running out of time for visas to be processed in time for the start of the academic year, except for low-risk countries, regardless of what the changes are. Even if the changes are at all positive, it may come too late for some providers, including IH Sydney Training Services (IH), which as The Koala reported yesterday has been placed into voluntary administration. (TKN 031224).
And finally, both the Government and the Opposition are committed to some form of international student cap. The next release of Overseas Migration figures is 13 December, and we already know that the Net Overseas Migration figure will be well above what was initially predicted.
We’ll come back to you once we know more about the MD107 changes.
