August 16, 2018 $400,000 a year not enough to save international student market Shadow Minister for Tourism and Small Business Libby Mettam and Shadow Minister for Education Donna Faragher said today the State Government’s announcement to help grow Western Australia’s share of the international education market was unlikely to have any significant impact. Ms Mettam said the McGowan Government came into office riding high on popular political sentiment to remove Perth from the Regional Sponsored Migration Scheme without any thought of the knock-on effect this would have on the international education market and the tourism sector. Mrs Faragher said today’s announcement of an additional Graduate Skilled Migration List was an admission by the State Government that its policy was wrong and had resulted in an 8 per cent reduction in international student enrolments over the past 12 months in WA, while in other states the numbers had increased. An investment of $2 million over five years from the McGowan Government is also a far cry from Queensland’s reported investment of $37 million over four years, or Victoria’s $35 million investment. Ms Mettam said the McGowan Government had severely underestimated the impact this reduction in international student numbers would have on the State’s tourism sector. “For every international student, there are five visits from family which translates to millions of dollars flowing into the WA economy,” Ms Mettam said. “WA had some 1300 less international students enrol last year, which when combined with the associated tourism losses means there is more than $138 million less flowing into our economy to support employment, hospitality, housing and the business community.” Ms Mettam said the removal of hospitality jobs from the state skills list had also had a damaging effect on the sector. “The reality is West Australians are not taking up many of these jobs that have been traditionally filled by skilled migrants,” Ms Mettam said. “Low numbers of locally skilled chefs have resulted in many hotels being forced to fill vacancies by importing highly paid staff from Sydney and Melbourne.” Media Contacts: |
