The Labor Party has won the 2025 Federal election and will now form a majority government. With this win, the key figures for the international education sector in the former Labor Government, Minister for Education, Jason Clare, Minister for Home Affairs, Tony Burke, Andrew Giles, Minister for Skills and Training, and Julian Hill, Assistant Minister for Citizenship and Multicultural Affairs, have all retained their seats.
For the international education sector, we know that Labor has said it is committed to ensuring the quality, integrity and sustainability of Australia’s international education sector.
But the details of what this means from a future policy perspective is still uncertain, because Labor did not announce policy details for the sector during the election campaign, other than an increase in student visa application charges (see below). It’s also too early to know who will be given ministerial portfolio responsibilities and whether there will be a change from the previous government.
However, we can expect to see a continuation of measures that restrict the number of international students coming to Australia, as we know the Government’s projected Net Overseas Migration figures from the 2025 Budget (see below).
More of the same?
Labor said prior to the election that its reforms are working, seeing a 31 per cent reduction in the number of student visa applications. And in response to the Liberal Party’s international education policy announcement, Labor also said that it had already “put in place a range of measures that are cutting student visa applications and restoring integrity to the sector”.
Increase in visa application fees
One of the Labor Party’s late election announcements was that it would increase the student visa application fee from $1600 to $2000 from 1 July 2025. This measure is projected to generate an additional $760 million over four years, helping to fund various election promises.
At the time of the announcement, Phil Honeywood, Chief Executive Officer, International Education Association of Australia, said “The only concession is that at least Labor have given me a commitment that they will sit down and talk about IEAA’s Election Platform’s call for a 50% reduction in study programs of less than 12 months duration particularly ELICOS and learning abroad. The other post-election conversation has to be about some of this visa revenue actually coming back to our sector for e.g international student welfare rather than being reallocated to entirely different program spending!” (TKN 290425).
Ian Aird, Chief Executive Officer, English Australia was sceptical about the revenue generation claim, saying “The government claims this student visa fee increase will raise $760 million dollars for the government over coming years. It will cost Australian businesses that much next year alone in lost earnings”.
“Short courses like ELICOS must be exempted from this increase. They must be given a much lower fee,” said Aird. (TKN 290425).
Net Overseas Migration
A reminder that the 2025 Budget forecasts the NOM to be 335,000 in 2024-25, 260,000 in 2025-26 and 225,000 in 2026-27, 2027-28 and 2028-29.
The mid-year budget in December 2023 projected that the NOM would be 250,000 in 2024-25, 255,000 in 2025-26 and 235,000 in 2026-27. In reality, the NOM in 2023-24 was well above the forecast at 446,000.
Ministerial Direction 111
For now, Ministerial Direction 111 remains in place and education providers will be agitating the new government for clarification about what it has planned for 2026.
It is worth remembering that if there are no changes, then the wording of MD111 means that the 2026 new overseas student commencements will be the same as 2025.
As always, The Koala News will continue to provide you with up-to-date coverage of the policy landscape for the international education sector as Prime Minister Anthony Albanese forms the 48th Parliament of Australia.
