Let’s recall Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull’s lies last week about the causes of Sydney’s and Melbourne’s population pressures:
Malcolm Turnbull: The thing that is driving the increase in foreigners in Australia – which is included in this term net overseas migration (NOM) – is foreign students, who are not part of the permanent migration system, and tourists and business visitors.
There are around 200,000 more foreign students in Australia today then there were a few years ago. That is the single biggest driving factor. So if you feel there are more foreigners on the tram – and you can’t get a seat on the tram – that is because of that… they are most likely to be students and visitors…
Which were repeated by Treasurer Scott Morrison this week:
SCOTT MORRISON: It’s the rise in temporary migration in recent times that has really fuelled that population growth. So if you are sitting on a bus or a tram or a train, the reason there’s more people sitting on it actually has a lot more to do with the increase in temporary migration: people coming and studying, people here on visitors’ visas…
Yesterday, Education Minister, Simon Birmingham, trumpeted the strong growth in international student numbers, which had increased by some 50% since the Coalition came to office in 2013:
The number of international students taking advantage of Australia’s world-leading education system has already broken through the half-a-million mark for 2018, according to new government statistics.
Minister for Education and Training Simon Birmingham said for the first time this early in the year, the data showed international student numbers had grown 12 per cent to 509,610 in the year to February 2018, on top of a 54 per cent increase over the previous five years since the Coalition Government came to power in 2013…
Fairfax provided the breakdown by state:
The figures released Wednesday show that from February 2013 to February 2018, the number of international student enrolments in Victoria doubled – from 86,830 to 176,983. In NSW, numbers almost doubled from 109,687 to 200,958 over the same period. Enrolments are higher than the number of actual students because some students are enrolled in multiple courses.
Righto, so according to these figures, there was a 90,153 increase in international student enrolments in Victoria in the five years to February 2018, and a 91,271 increase in NSW, and these are likely higher than actual student numbers.
So how do these numbers compare to Victoria’s and New South Wales’ drivers of population growth over comparable timeframes:
Remember also that many foreign students would not be counted in the net overseas migration (NOM) figures (as well as Australia’s resident population), since many do not reside in Australia for more than 12 months out of 16 months (i.e. the 12/16 month rule for NOM).
Irrespective, blaming the trivially small increase in student numbers for Sydney’s and Melbourne’s population pressures is ridiculous. The genuine driver is found here:
