Press Conference - Launch of the Draft National Strategy for International Education

E&OE TRANSCRIPT
Press Conference – University of Adelaide
Wednesday 1 April 2015

SUBJECT: Launch of the Draft National Strategy for International Education

CHRISTOPHER PYNE: Thank you very much, Pascale and it’s lovely to be here this morning at the Village as part of the University of Adelaide. I’ve driven past it dozens and dozens of times on my way to the airport but didn’t realise it was quite so deep and involved, and had so many open spaces. It’s a fantastic place.

In doing so can I recognise Warren Bebbington, the vice-chancellor of Adelaide University and Justin Beilby, the vice-chancellor of Torrens University and an alma mater of Saint Ignatius’ College. So, he’s done much better than the Minister for Education as a vice-chancellor of a university. I think Andreas Gouras is here, the Consul General of Greece – Andreas, nice to see you – representing the consular core of South Australia. To the students, ladies and gentlemen and members of the Fourth Estate, thank you very much for coming here for this really important announcement this morning about international education.

Those of you who know me, and know Warren and Justin and Pascale and others involved in the international education system – or the education system – international education is a vitally important part of our economy and our education industry. Most people in Australia don’t realise that international education is our third largest export after iron ore and coal, and gold follows that. So it’s the only services export in the top four and it’s the only non-mining export in the top four. So it’s quite an important part of our economy. This year it’s worth $16.3 billion of export income and I can announce today that in 2014, that increased by $1 billion adding 5000 jobs to our economy.

So when we talk about education, I think some people still believe it’s the hallowed halls of Group of Eight universities and students behind laboratories and behind laptops, but in fact international education is a very important part of our economy and the international students because of the squeezing of revenue for universities over several decades are the ballast that allows universities to do a tremendous amount of things they wouldn’t otherwise be able to afford to do in research and in high quality teaching. So as a Minister for Education, I’m an absolute enthusiast for international education and international students. And different universities have different approaches – some have a very high number of in-country international students like Adelaide University, others have pursued offshore international education options and others online international education. All of them are important to the international education market.

And so today we are announcing the Draft National Strategy on International Education. It’s a consultation document and by the 29^th of May, we hope to have completed consultation with stakeholders and students – all those interested in international education. Why it’s different to what we’ve done before is that what we’ve done before has been differentiated between six different portfolios. There’s been no one coordinating council of ministers to bring together all the different interests. And if you think about international education, it crosses lots of boundaries – education; the ministry of education; the ministry of training in terms of vocational education and training, for which Simon Birmingham is responsible; immigration because of visas and entry to the country and international students who want to remain as permanent residents; industry and science because the industry and science portfolio covers a lot of research aspects and activities like CSIRO and trying to commercialise research outcomes of universities; and of course trade and foreign affairs. So there are six different areas and in some governments in the past they’ve become quite diffuse and not worked closely together.

So today I can announce that we will be establishing a Coordinating Council of International Education within the Government – it’s the first coordinating council of international education in any government, of which I will be the Chairman as the Minister for Education and as the person who is primarily responsible for international education and promoting international education universities.

And that was my phone, which is disappointing because I think I’m usually on silent – I was looking around for the person who was supposed to be putting their phone away and nobody was doing it, I realised it was me – I realised it was me. So that’s done now.

So I’ll be the Chairman of the Coordinating Council of International Education and we will be bringing together those six portfolios and six other key stakeholders because international education crosses many boundaries in business, in universities, in vocational education and training, in providers of the services that students want and seek in research, in science, etcetera. So it will be 12 people who will be making sure that the Government’s approach to international education continues to grow that sector. As I said before, in the last 12 months, the sector has grown by $1 billion and 5000 jobs, but the reports into international education suggest that over the next few years by 2020, if we play our cards right, international education could grow by a further $12 billion and be a $30 billion export industry. So it is a big deal and it’s very important.

We’re already doing, in international education, a number of important things. The Government reintroduced the Colombo Plan as the New Colombo Plan with a view to bringing Australian students overseas for international experiences. That’s been a great success and Julie Bishop as the Foreign Minister is primarily responsible for that working with the Education Department, so there’s a great example of how two different ministries are working on the same project. But we’ve had for many years the Endeavour Scholarships and the Australia Awards. The Endeavour Scholarships send Australians overseas, the Australia Awards bring foreign students to Australia to learn and then return home in the areas where their country has priorities, like Laos sends young students who are interested in agriculture and governance, public administration to boost their civil society and their economy. So in many different ways we have been promoting international education and this will build on those different measures. So I’m very pleased today to be announcing the Draft National Strategy on International Education and the new Coordinating Council on International Education and I look forward to the consultations that we will embark upon promoting the three pillars of international education in this report, getting the fundamentals right, reaching into the world and staying competitive.

And they will promote our six goals: to create an education system that stands out as the best in the world, with some of our institutions ranked amongst the very best, which is our higher education reforms; raising Australia’s profile as a world leader in education through building strong research and education partnerships and broadening our engagement [indistinct] international education; fostering an international outlook to better prepare Australian students and researchers for global engagement; attracting some of the world’s most talented students and researchers, and promoting Australia as a quality destination for international students; building on Australia’s competitive advantages to improve the quality of the education and living experience for international students; and growing our international education services, including by embracing new technologies and responding to demand for offshore education training services.

So with that, I declare the Draft National Strategy for International Education launched, and look forward to the consultations that we will now undertake. Thank you very much for having me today.

[Applause]

PASCALE QUESTER: Thank you Minister. We certainly look forward to participating in the consultations.

I would now invite the vice-chancellor and President of the University of Adelaide, Professor Warren Bebbington to say a few words, vice-chancellor.

PROFESSOR BEBBINGTON: Thank you Pascale, and welcome to my colleagues from other universities. I particularly should mention the pro vice-chancellors who are here from all three universities as well as our students and friends from the sector.

We all know Australia’s been a major player in international education for a very long time, with large numbers coming here, firstly from South-East Asia, then China, then India, and now with rapidly growing numbers from other parts of the world, especially South America, I agree with the perspectives in this report that in the next five years we could be headed for a significant further expansion of this market here.

Our original edge in all this, which was the price position, thanks to the strength of the Australian dollar, is largely no more. But we now have a new advantage and one which I don’t think we have made nearly enough of, and that is the new Australian student visa, which allows students to remain in Australia post-graduation and work for two years. This is something of enormous interest to them and something also which gives us an edge over our northern hemisphere competitors, such as Canada and other parts of the world. It’s something I think we need to make much more of and it’s referred to here.

But there are a number of irritants for foreign students in this country. They complain of the lack of reasonably priced accommodation options. They complain of the lack of access to subsidised healthcare. In some cities, they complain they are excluded from student discounts on public transport. All those things and many more are mentioned here. They are as I say irritants, and things we ought to get right, as we set the fundamentals to do really the best we can in this area.

Here in South Australia we don’t have our national share of the international student market and the Premier has recognised the power for the economy here of expanding our international student population. So I think this strategy is going to receive a very warm reception here.

Minister, I think you should be very pleased with the work your department has done here. This is very timely. It‘s very compelling and I think you are going to find it’s going to get a positive and warm response right across the university sector. Thank you.

[Applause – break in transcription]

PASCALE QUESTER: I will now invite Minister Pyne to come back to the podium to respond to the media if he would care to do so.

CHRISTOPHER PYNE: If everybody doesn’t mind waiting for a couple of minutes while we do that. I’m sure it won’t take long. Are there any questions from the press?

JOURNALIST: Minister, the universities in the top eight, they’ve said that they support deregulation but they’d like to see the reforms de-politicised. Do you think the debate around your package has detracted from the aim of [inaudible]?

CHRISTOPHER PYNE: Well Senator Kim Carr, the shadow minister for education, has already rejected the Group of Eight’s call. He did that yesterday, so in terms of their call for bi-partisanship, Kim Carr didn’t consider it for more than 12 hours, if that. So that is disappointing that Labor is still insisting on refusing to be part of a reform agenda. We saw on the weekend in New South Wales, the outcome for New South Wales Labor refusing to be part of a reform agenda, and they were rejected by the New South Wales voters, and I think the same thing will happen to the national Labor Party. The Group of Eight have made it clear that they support the Government’s deregulation reform agenda, but they don’t want to see it compromised to the extent that it no longer resembles the original. And that is exactly my position, which I have said many times since May last year. Yes, we want to be flexible. We’re very happy to talk to the crossbenchers in the absence of Labor being mature enough to have a debate with us about amendments that will make the reforms acceptable to them. But if they take out the core, which is the deregulation agenda, then of course it doesn’t reflect or resemble the original, and therefore there’s no point in continuing with it.

The Group of Eight made that clear in their statement. They said if there was to be a review, then these are the people who should be on the review, but the good news for the Group of Eight, who also said the sector was over-reviewed, is that we have no intention of reviewing it again. There have been 33 reviews since 1950 and a review is no substitute for action. We have the right policy, we have the support of 40 out of the 41 vice-chancellors, and if you have the right policy and you have the support of the sector, pretending it’s the wrong policy is not sensible politics. So we don’t intend to pursue another review. We’re always open to more discussion, but we do intend to persist with this reform, because it is the right reform and we’re happy to have the Group of Eight’s support in that.

JOURNALIST: Well Minister, do you understand why the universities would be worried that the crossbench would compromise the reforms?

CHRISTOPHER PYNE: Well that’s perhaps a matter you should ask the Group of Eight. I mean I have shown myself to be very flexible. We have changed the 10-year government bond rate as the interest repayment back to the consumer price index. We’ve put a $100 million transitional fund on the table, for the next three years. We have split the Bill from the deregulation reform and the changes to the Commonwealth Grant Scheme, which Glyn Davis from the Group of Eight described as almost too good to be true — because it means that the universities can have the reform without having to worry about the reductions in the Commonwealth Grant Scheme as part of that reform, which I think is being sensible.

So we’ve shown ourselves to be very willing to be flexible. But the core element of it, which is to free up universities to be their best selves, to be fair to taxpayers and students, to have the best university system in the world with some of the best universities in the world, must remain at the core, otherwise there is no point in continuing. So that’s why we will not be backing away from something that we know is in the best interests of Australia.

JOURNALIST: On tax, Minister Pyne, do you think that it’s fair that the world thinks Australians benefit from generous superannuation tax concessions?

CHRISTOPHER PYNE: Well the purpose of superannuation is to ensure that people can take care of themselves in their retirement and there have been generous superannuation tax concessions since the Keating and Hawke governments introduced a world-beating superannuation system, not unlike our world-beating Higher Education Contribution Scheme, which I want to continue to support, through these reforms. And those generous taxation arrangements around super have led to an enormous amount of funds under management supporting retired Australians. That means they then don’t have to access the pension, which saves taxpayers a tremendous amount of money.

There is a debate now about those concessions — not taking away what’s already been given, not taxing superannuants in a different way, because they have made arrangements about their retirement — but questions whether those concessions that are as generous should continue in the future, that’s part of the debate about the Tax Discussion Paper, it’s part of the debate about the Intergenerational Report, and the agenda that is being established by the business community in terms of how we can afford to have the services that governments provide. I won’t pre-empt that debate, I welcome the debate, but I think it is very important that people understand that superannuation is not something that can be dipped into by government, it is the asset of the superannuants — they have put that money aside for their future and they should not have to be concerned that any government will try and tap into that. I know that Labor has made noises about doing just that, and if I was a superannuant, I would no sooner vote Labor than fly to the moon.

JOURNALIST: So with all the talk focusing on tax breaks for individuals, do you think it’s time for the government to start focusing on targeting tax breaks on bigger companies?

CHRISTOPHER PYNE: Well we’re having a debate about tax, because of the tax paper that was handed down yesterday, and that will all be part of that discussion. Now in the Budget, of course, that’s the document that lays out the Government’s agenda around tax for the next 12 months, and you will see all the outcomes of those discussions being laid bare in the Budget. But I don’t think the Treasurer would want me to pre-empt that Budget for him.

JOURNALIST: On a lighter note, [indistinct] Mark Butler talking about ALP taking direction from Sandra Sully this morning? You thought that was interesting did you?

CHRISTOPHER PYNE: I think Sandra is a terrific journalist and a wonderful television news reader and I would not criticise her in a month of Sundays.

JOURNALIST: Just one more about university reform, are you assessing your options — do you think maybe you should wait to take this to an election as a mandate?

CHRISTOPHER PYNE: Well the election is not due until the end of next year. We can’t wait on reform, it’s too important. Labor for six years did nothing about universities except cut $6.6 billion — $6.6 billion of cuts was Labor’s policy. Now the Labor policy is to put back caps, to undo the demand-driven system, which was introduced by Julia Gillard, which Julia Gillard and Chris Bowen described as one of their finest achievements. Kim Carr wants to do away with caps — would do away with the demand-driven system I should say — and bring back caps, pay on outcomes. What that means is that low-socioeconomic status young Australians, who might not have had the greatest results in Year 12, or who might want to come back and get re-skilled in university, will be shut out of the system if Labor gets their way. Because universities will not take the risk on those students not completing their courses if they get paid on outcomes, and if the caps come back they won’t even have the places available. So we now have a very stark choice: the Liberal policy, which is to expand the demand-driven system to tens of thousands more Australians to get the opportunity to go to university, or the Labor system, which is to turn back the clock, shut people out of university and have universities just for the elites. I mean it is an irony that the so-called party of socialism and the worker is actually the one that wants to shut people out of the opportunities that university education provides. I am not going to support that, and I will continue to persist with what I know will be an opportunity for young people to get re-skilled, or get opportunities for the first time at university.

Thank you.

[ends]