The Treasurer, Jim Chalmers was interviewed on the ABC Insiders program yesterday. He revealed to David Speers that the migration programs impact on housing accessibility is “at the margins at best” and building new houses is the answer to the housing crisis.
This a big statement to an international education sector that is struggling to cope under the barrage of government intervention.
Speers spent time unpicking the oppositions budget response in relation to migration clearly attempting to have the Treasurer make a statement on migration reform as it related to housing.
Speers asks two broadly based questions and then pins the treasurer down with his third attempt to receive a direct answer. Does cutting migration help? He asks.
“At the margins at best,” said the Treasurer.
This is something those in the sector have known for a long time, but the government, via the immigration minister, does not want to acknowledge.
The recently released Property Council of Australia, report saying international students are not the cause of the housing crisis – making up only four per cent of Australia’s rental market Australia-wide is one point (TKN 27/4/24) while the Go8 group of universities economic analysis reveals that that there is no direct link between international student numbers and Australia’s current housing crisis (TKN 1/5/24).
So what’s the policy objective?
If the reduction of net overseas migration has been rolled out by the immigration minister as a directly link to the housing crisis, then these comments by the Treasurer must be a blow.
If the Treasurer is now saying there is little link between housing and net overseas migration then what’s the policy objective?
The only other outcome the Koala can see is “dodgy colleges”, which is overinflated at best.
The Koala loves the Ministers for Skills and Training comment in October of last year. O’Connor’s response to David Crowe at the National Press Club to the question of how many dodgy providers? “Probably more than a dozen, but under 100” said the Minister (TKN 3/10/23)
It’ a large variance but it makes sense.
The first tranche of warning letters was recently issued to 34 Australian education providers for non-genuine or exploitative recruitment practices, according to the Minister for Home Affairs, The Hon Clare O’Neil MP. (TKN 11/5/24).
There are currently 1483 registered CRICOS providers and 34 received warning letters. There is no rampant exploitation.
Fear is that the number is likely to go up
There is anxiety across the sector at the moment as the government is creating an environment that didn’t exist 6 months ago.
The issuing of Ministerial Direction 107 (TKN 16/12/23) and the inconsistent and subjective visa assessments (TKN 29/11/23) are creating an environment where in six months’ time it is likely the government will send out more letters due to visa refusals.
This is artificial and it’s shonky.
A recent example of a refusal for a Spanish student (low-risk country) seeking to study English at a low-risk (Assessment level 1) English provider demonstrates this (TKN 15/5/24).
This refusal will sit as a black mark against the provider. Over time, these subjective refusals build up and will affect the education providers’ risk rating.
This particular college, while level 1 now (lowest risk), will inevitably drop to level 2 and if the refusals keep coming, they will drop to level 3. Once at level 3 the ability to have a visa approved would have diminished considerably and their operational viability must be questioned.
The government are creating an environment for providers to fail and will take advantage of it into the future.
So… how did we end up here again? The Koala is baffled. Oh that’s right, the artificial link between migration and housing polls well. Sigh.
