Australian MP Julian Hill has told The PIE that the country is in a “transition period” when it comes to visa issuance as it is applying enhanced scrutiny to visa applications.
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Australia’s visa slowdown: we want “sustainable growth” says MP
Photo: pexels The country is seeking to rout the operators bringing the industry’s reputation into disrepute, he explained. A return to previous high levels of visa acceptance is not likely.
“Sustainable growth at times doesn’t always mean ever more and more students,” Hill noted, in an exclusive interview with The PIE. “There’s a legitimate social licence question that all countries need to grapple with.”
Citing the Nixon report, published in October 2023 – which reported on exploitation of the visa system – Hill said “the government makes no apologies for its significantly enhanced focus on integrity and raising the bar”.
The sector has been complaining of brakes being applied in visa issuance – Australian press reported a group of 16 VCs wrote to ministers warning of massive financial damage risked by the visa freeze or denials happening.
But Hill’s comments indicate that the government is determined to rightside the sector in terms of managed, more carefully monitored, access.
“The success and sustainability of Australia’s onshore sector requires a ruthless focus on quality education and a great student experience,” said Hill. “There are parts of the sector where things are not where they need to be.”
The visa squeeze does seem to have everyone in the sector worried.
The government agreed last year with the majority of the recommendations from the Nixon review, and said that an immigration compliance division would be established by the Department of Home Affairs.
Hill acknowledged that not every visa decision made might be correct but said the system was operating in a period of adjustment to a new quality-first approach that would ultimately benefit all international students.
“No doubt, like in every country, not every individual visa decision is right”
“We’re in a transition period. People are adjusting to that. And no doubt, like in every country, not every individual visa decision is right.”
“Just as some people get through in every country that shouldn’t, some people get rejected that are genuine students where the evidence may not have been strong enough, or accepted. But we are trying to raise the bar in transition.”
Hill underlined that Australia absolutely wanted to welcome good quality students and ensure they receive an education that offers them a good ROI and enhances future opportunities.
Referencing the trade subcommittee inquiry into Australia’s tourism and international education sectors, Hill said, “I’ve raised the question, and it’s a provocative question, but why would Australia continue to recruit large numbers of students to study very low value qualifications, with no skilled migration pathway and little apparent return on investment?”
“There are many good providers in private VET and private higher ed that offer a terrific product”
“We need to continue to send the message that Australia values international education, welcomes international students, whilst maintaining a focus on quality.”
Hill also underlined that offshore partnerships were another area of opportunity for Australia’s quality education providers – which included private operators.
“There are many good providers in private VET and private higher ed that offer a terrific product,” he said, “but they’re being undercut by problems that have accumulated over many years under the previous government at the bottom end of the private VET sector. And we’re determined to deal with those.”
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My old grandfather was amused by political hubris. “It’s better to remain silent and be thought a fool, than to speak and remove all doubt” he’d say, with his gentle smile.
I was reminded of his words when I opened up the education sector journal ‘The PIE’ this morning to be confronted by another attempt at spin by self-described industry expert Julian Hill. Hill is a career Labor party backbencher from Victoria, more accustomed to hectoring the empty opposition benches in late-night sittings of the House or Reps, jerking his few remaining colleagues into momentary wakefulness as his voice breaks with the emotion of a particularly telling point. A few years in a government education sector role at some point in his early career has emboldened our plucky backbencher to lead his government’s attack on our industry.
Confronted with daily reports of the now tens of thousands of cases of gross abuse suffered by intending students at the hands of Australia’s visa authorities, Hill blithely dismisses them. “We’re in a transition period” he pontificates. “People are adjusting to that. And no doubt…not every individual visa decision is right”. Hill surveys the many derailed lives and Australia’s lost opportunities, and again waves them away. “Some people get rejected that are genuine students ….but we’re trying to raise the bar in transition”. He pointedly ‘makes no apology’ to the students so cruelly impacted, nor the shell-shocked providers in the sector.
Hill goes on to ignore the innumerable examples of his government’s failed visa policy across all sectors of the international education industry, from leading public universities, through the embattled VET sector and across Australia’s outstanding English language providers.
“(Providers) are being undercut by problems…at the bottom end of the private VET sector. And we’re determined to deal with those.” He doesn’t explain how the thousands of cancelled COE’s and perpetual visa backlog at bewildered public universities support those aims, nor the clearly random visa refusals across the English language and schools sectors.
Julian Hill is not a man to be overly troubled by facts.
Hill drifts from attacking international students to impugning the integrity of the government’s own Nationally Recognised Training qualifications. While a man with no real hope of a Ministerial role may speak more freely than others, one can only imagine the dismay felt by more senior colleagues when met with Hill’s “I’ve raised the question, and it’s a provocative question, but why would Australia continue to recruit large numbers of students to study very low value qualifications ..,. with little apparent return on investment?”. This will be a very grim assessment to the thousands of Australia school leavers and mid-career professionals who undertake identical vocational training at the country’s TAFE and private VET colleges each year. A provocative question indeed. Some would say one mired in ignorance.
While Hill may well be accustomed the empty House or Rep chamber at his late night sermons, the education sector is most definitely wide awake and listening. This government needs to do much, much better.