Senator Mehreen Faruqi, Deputy Leader of the Australian Greens and spokesperson for Higher Education, has reacted to Labor’s replacement of Ministerial Direction 107 with Ministerial Direction 111.
Senator Mehreen Faruqi:
“Finally, the worst of MD107 which was throttling the tertiary education sector, is gone but Labor is using the same flawed international student caps that were thoroughly rejected by the Senate and the sector for their new MD111. This shows that the heart of the issue remains unchanged.
“This might be a small reprieve for a sector that has been crushed for too long, but implementing international student caps by stealth through a ministerial direction is sneaky and does not tackle the issues universities face.
“Labor continues to dog whistle and blame international students and migrants for the housing crisis they did not cause. The Albanese government should be ashamed of competing with Dutton’s Coalition in the terrible race to see who wins on punching down on migrants the hardest.”