The Education Services for Overseas Students Amendment (Quality and Integrity) Bill 2024 has again been omitted from today’s Senate Order of Business.
What now?
With the Coalition and Greens publicly opposing the ESOS Bill, and with only six sitting days remaining and a backlog of legislation yet to be debated in the Senate, it’s hard to image the Bill making it back onto the Government business orders of the day this year.
Effectively this means that the Second Reading Debate is incomplete and the Bill will not be voted on.
The Koala will continue to monitor the business of the Senate for the remainder of the sitting period in case this changes.
Migration is the hot button issue
It’s clear that migration, and its impact on the housing crisis, will be front and centre leading up to the next election. A motion by One Nation Senator Pauline Hanson in yesterday’s Senate and the subsequent debate caught my eye.
In part the motion read:
That the following matter be referred to the Legal and Constitutional Affairs References Committee for inquiry and report by 10 February 2025:
The failure of the Albanese Government’s immigration policies to manage population growth and protect Australians’ interests, with particular reference to:
(c) the unchecked influx of international students and the strain this placing on housing and services.
In speaking to the motion, Hanson didn’t refer directly to international students, instead focussing on immigration generally, including saying, “The government’s immigration policies are failing Australians”.
In response to Hanson’s statement on the motion, Greens Senator David Shoebridge did speak on international students, saying “Minister Burke made it clear that Labor can be more vile… And what did Minister Burke do? Well, when he was being tested on Labor’s incredibly unpopular thought bubble to cut foreign students without any solution for the higher education system in legislation that has been widely rejected, he got up and said: ‘If anybody out there who might feel that they are missing out on accommodation because an overseas student has taken it, just know the Leader of the Opposition wants to make that situation worse.’”
(On this, I checked the House of Representatives Hansard, because we know that the Coalition is planning to go even harder than Labor on reducing migration and Shoebridge’s comment surprised me. Immigration Minister, Tony Burke was responding to a question about net overseas migration and said that the Coalition had “committed publicly that they are going to vote to push net overseas migration higher” because of its decision to oppose the ESOS Amendment Bill, although this was by inference rather than specific mention.)
One Nation Senator Malcolm Roberts said, “Some of these temporary visa holders have to leave. Let’s start with the 400,000 overseas students who have completed or discontinued their study and have failed the 100-point test necessary for permanent residency. These students are in a limbo which is best solved by returning home and developing their own countries with the skills learnt here”.
In speaking against the motion, Labor Senator Karen Grogan took the opportunity to criticise the Coalition and Greens opposition to the ESOS Amendment Bill.
The debate was adjourned as a Division was called and will be back on the Senate’s agenda today.
Independent Senator David Pocock also has a motion before today’s Senate that will be worthy of keeping an eye on in this space – Establishment of a select committee on population and its impacts in Australia.
The four Bills listed in yesterday’s Order of Business will continue to be debated today (TKN 191124).
