A parliamentarian from Australia¡¯s governing Labor Party says changes are needed to legislation that gives Canberra the power to?cap international enrolments ¨C but Victorian MP Julian Hill has criticised ¡°extreme advocacy¡± from the proposal¡¯s opponents, saying the government is working through the issues in good faith.

¡°There¡¯s a long way to go on this,¡± Mr Hill told parliament. ¡°The government¡¯s listening and consulting. The sector should take those consultation processes seriously.

¡°I do think there are amendments needed to this bill. They will be dealt with sensibly and are being thought about by the government. It¡¯s a proper process.¡±

Mr Hill co-chairs the Parliamentary Friends of International Education support group and is a former head of international education in the Victorian state government. Addressing a half-deserted House of Representatives on the evening of 3 July, he said the bill outlined a ¡°major shift in how this significant market is managed¡±.

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He said the proposal was preferable to the ¡°blunt tools¡± currently used to control student numbers: the?Commonwealth Register of Institutions and Courses for Overseas Students, which ¡°sets notional limits by floor space and teachers and paperwork¡±, and a?visa approval methodology?that undermined government policy to diversify foreign students.

¡°It prioritises students who apply from China because they¡¯re very unlikely to overstay their visas,¡± he said. ¡°We¡¯ve got these two blunt instruments that work against all the policy which we stand up here and preach.¡±

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Mr Hill highlighted negative outcomes from the current approach, including legions of ¡°permanently temporary visa holders¡± who ¡°hop around¡± from course to course in the unrealistic hope of securing permanent residency.

He cited the ¡°completely unacceptable exploitation of students¡± exposed in a review by former Victorian police commissioner Christine Nixon, and some ¡°blatant market share grabs¡± by large universities that aggressively recruited Chinese students.

He said these problems would not be solved through a ¡°bureaucratically allocated market¡± with ¡°Soviet-style inefficiency¡±. Equally undesirable was a ¡°cap and trade¡± approach. ¡°We don¡¯t want to set up a system that¡¯s effectively trading in people and [would] privilege economic factors over all other factors [with universities] all teaching MBAs because they¡¯re the highest profit and lowest cost.

¡°It¡¯s about time we¡­agreed on an adult way that the minister and future ministers can manage the sector and shape it to maximise the value¡­in every sense. The critical question, which we¡¯ve never confronted as a country, is what is the shape of the onshore market that we want?¡±

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Earlier, independent regional Victorian MP Helen Haines vowed to vote against the bill. ¡°It seems to me like bad public policy,¡± she told parliament. ¡°It¡¯s risky for our economy. It¡¯s poor governance with a significant level of ministerial power.¡±

Dr Haines said the proposal was a ¡°rushed response¡± to housing and migration issues and could fuel ¡°devastating¡± job losses in regional campuses and communities. ¡°In [my] five years [as] a member of this parliament, I¡¯ve seen governments of both stripes flip-flop on their treatment of international students depending on where the political winds are blowing.¡±

Mr Hill said some of the criticisms of the bill should be treated with scepticism. ¡°The notion that regional universities would somehow have draconian course caps put on them is just nonsensical.¡±

Debate on the bill was due to resume on 4 July.

john.ross@timeshighereducation.com