The Albanese government has been left red-faced after the Coalition made a last-minute backflip over plans to cap international student numbers from next year.
The education minister, Jason Clare, has accused Peter Dutton of being a “fraud” on tough immigration policies after the opposition sided with the Greens and independents on changes to limit new enrolments from overseas students to 270,000 in 2025.
In a statement, the shadow education minister, Sarah Henderson, joined by the Liberals home affairs spokesperson James Paterson and immigration spokesperson Dan Tehan, said Labor’s proposal was a “piecemeal approach” and did “nothing to address the structural issues it has created”.
“We cannot support measures which will only serve to compound this crisis of the government’s making. Based on [Labor’s] record so far we have absolutely no confidence the government is capable of fixing its immigration mess,” they said.
Clare said he’d “never in my life” expected to see the Greens and the opposition join sides on issues related to immigration, before accusing Dutton of being a “fraud”.
“Over the course of the next few months, Peter Dutton is going to wander around the country pretending to be a tough guy on immigration,” he said.
“And every time he says the word immigration, remember this week is the week that proves that Peter Dutton might pretend to be a tough guy on immigration, but the truth is he’s a fraud.”
The move has been widely unpopular among the tertiary sector. Luke Sheehy, chief executive of Universities Australia, said universities were being used as a “political football” in the migration debate.
“It beggars belief that one of our country’s biggest export industries is being treated this badly,” Sheehy said.
“We can’t have a bright and vibrant higher education sector that delivers for all Australians without the revenue international education brings to our universities.”
Clare has previously said the changes would result in universities having 15% more international student enrolments than before the pandemic while private vocational providers will be about 20% less.
Sheehy has previously warned the changes could put 14,000 university jobs at risk.
The ACT senator, David Pocock, accused Labor of scapegoating international students while praising the Coalition for its more sensible approach.
“We need to have a plan for immigration and what that means for housing and pressures on infrastructure, all the other things that Australians are concerned about. But to just scapegoat international students, (it’s) such a poor way to do it,” he said.
The Greens education spokesperson, Mehreen Faruqi, said Labor’s proposal was a “race to the bottom with the Coalition on migration”.
“From day one, we have been vocal in our opposition to these student caps which was just dog whistling that shamefully scapegoated international students for the housing crisis they did not cause,” she said.
“Literally everyone except Labor was opposed to international student caps because they would decimate the sector, harm international students and our reputation and result in massive job and economic losses.”
