ScoMo: Foreign students more important than Australians

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Recall that the Morrison Government has given the green light for South Australia and the Northern Territory to begin flying international students into Australia from next month.

In explaining the plan, Federal Minister for Trade, Tourism and Investment Simon Birmingham said the scheme was “very important” to the country’s recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic:

“This is a very important next step in terms of the recovery from the economic disaster of COVID…

“International education is a huge services export industry for Australia…

“It underpins many thousands of jobs and it is important that we figure out how we can get international students back to Australia safely and appropriately…

“It’s being done with the absolute utmost of safety requirements in place”…

Meanwhile, Prime Minister Scott Morrison confirmed on Friday that he would not lift the cap on returning Australians due to fears that it would overload the hotel quarantine system:

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Journalist: Have you asked the states and territories to consider expanding their capacity for hotel quarantine? We know we’ve got 18,000 Australians trying to get home?

Prime Minister: On the many Australians, and it’s around about the number that you’ve mentioned, some of those in a much more urgent state. Right now, when you’re looking to manage the risk in quarantine, I agree, and that’s why I am not lifting the caps currently as they exist on airports at the moment in our major capital city centres. It has been the New South Wales Government, particularly in Sydney at Sydney Airport, that bears the biggest load when it comes to inbound arrivals. I want to stress that 4,000 Australians are still returning every week, every single week, and we’ve got tens of thousands of people who’ve been going through quarantine as well from overseas. And that is particularly being done by the New South Wales Government. And right now, as they’ve been seeking to get on top of that outbreak, it is in our view and of course, the other state governments that are affected, that right now it is not the wise decision to lift those caps…

But we’ll be reviewing those caps every fortnight. So we will review them again in a fortnight from now, and once the Victorian, I think, and we can be even more confident of the New South Wales situation, which is very good, then I’m hoping that we’ll be able to make further room there. But right now, on the balance of risk, on the balance of risk, we need to keep those caps where they are.

Bottom Line: the Morrison Government cares more about foreign students than it does about helping Australians stranded abroad to return home.

When foreign nationals carry more political weight than Australians, you know your entire political system has been corrupted.

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About the author
Leith van Onselen is Chief Economist at the MB Fund and MB Super. He is also a co-founder of MacroBusiness. Leith has previously worked at the Australian Treasury, Victorian Treasury and Goldman Sachs.