Christopher Pyne (Sturt, Liberal Party, Leader of the House) Share this | Hansard source

I thank the member for Grey for his question. It is a very important question because international education has become one of the major mainstays of the Australian economy. In Victoria and South Australia, for example, it is the No. 1 export from both those states. It is No. 4 after iron ore, coal and natural gas for Australia. Particularly good news received yesterday here in Australia was that the value of international education to the economy has now risen to $17.6 billion. That is a $2-billion increase on 2013, which is a very substantial increase. For South Australia, where the member for Grey comes from, for the first time we passed through $1 billion of value of international education to the South Australian economy.

When we came to power in 2013, international education had been on the decline under Labor. They did not have in their DNA support for international education. It had declined by $2 billion between 2009 and 2012. It had started to recover but in the 2014 calendar year it really bounced back. It did so because of the excellent work of the Department of Immigration, the assistant minister Senator Cash, the Minister for Immigration, the now Minister for Social Services, the Department of Education, foreign affairs, trade, industry and the vocational education and training minister to really have a whole-of-government coordinated response on international education.

We streamlined visa processing for international students. Last week, Minister Michaela Cash announced the streamlined visa processing—having had a pilot for 12 months—would be extended across the sector. Last week we also had the round table where all of those six ministers attended and spoke to international education stakeholders. We have a national strategy for international education.

But, most importantly, the message from the Abbott government and ministry is that we are open for business with international education. We welcome international students to Australia. They add revenue to our universities, our vocational education and training sector and our schools, but they also add enormously to retail trade, to accommodation and to tourism, bringing their family members to Australia, to boost local economies. So we are very pleased to be able to report that our strategy is working. It is more good news from the Abbott government, and I look forward to being able to report next year on the expansion over this calendar year of that fantastic industry.

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