The Hon Julia Gillard MP
Minister for Education. Minister for Employment and Workplace Relations
Minister for Social Inclusion
Deputy Prime Minister
16 June, 2009
Excerpts
TV Interview - Lateline (ABC)
E&OE TRANSCRIPT
TELEVISION INTERVIEW
LATELINE (ABC)
1030PM TUESDAY
16 JUNE 2009
LEIGH SALES: If I can ask about Indian students. Australia makes a great deal of money from selling education to international students, it's our third biggest export earner in fact. Do you believe that various governments could've done more to invest in infrastructure surrounding overseas students?
JULIA GILLARD: International students do come here in huge numbers. We're home to almost half a million each year. Many come from India. Of course, they share in the educational facilities that Australian students also attend - our universities, our vocational education and training sector. And so, for our education system generally, this Government was elected saying, "We needed to do more. We needed to bring an education revolution." We've invested in unis ...
LEIGH SALES: Sorry to interrupt you, but overseas students might have some special needs that local students don't have because they don't have family and that sort of support network that local students have. And so I guess what I'm asking is: is there more that government could've done to help overseas students deal with that transition, if you like?
JULIA GILLARD: I suppose my point, Leigh, is there are two things: we've got to make sure that our universities and vocational education and training sector are working well for everyone with the kind of support services that students tend to need. Then, of course, we've got to make sure that there are the dedicated supports for international students. They're going to face the challenge of coming to a new country, the challenge of living in a new country, finding accommodation. They of course are supposed to have financial resources when they come here to support themselves, but they are also able to work under the conditions of their visas for up to 20 hours a week, so they will be looking for employment. We want to make sure international students and Indian students in particular get accurate information about what the living conditions are like in this country. At the Ministerial Council that brought together ministers from around the nation last Friday in Hobart, we did say we wanted to get better information to students, we wanted to see a focus on compliance, making sure that our education providers are offering quality education, our universities are responding to develop better supports and to work with international students and particularly Indian students.
To read the full interview, please click here.