Pauline Hanson (Queensland, Pauline Hanson's One Nation Party) | Hansard source

I've spoken before about the need to break our universities of their addiction to foreign students. My concern has always been about the welfare of Australian students and the huge impact of foreign students on housing demand, but my stance is also about the best interests of the universities themselves.

Their reputations and rankings are already in decline. If they don't crack down on the use of artificial intelligence by foreign students who can't speak English, this decline will only accelerate. An article published yesterday by MacroBusiness highlights the problem. It says:

… Australia's universities have been dumbed down by the flood of international students with poor English.

Foreign students who don't speak English are using translators to capture lectures and read the literature and using AI to complete assignments in English. That's not education; it's just a money spinner.

Degrees are being devalued, and teaching standards are being degraded. In order to keep the revenue, universities are pressuring academics to pass foreign students who cheat or plagiarise. Labor hasn't helped matters, last year lowering basic English requirements for migrants that were already substandard. Labor's strategy to lift tertiary education attainment will only be achieved by further eroding university entrance standards.

Speaking English to an acceptable level and standard should be a requirement not only for foreign students but for all new arrivals to Australia. It's in their best interests, it's in the economy's best interests, it's in the country's best interests and it's a defining feature of the Australian monoculture we should all be striving for—everyone being able to speak our language, which is English.