The Hon Julia Gillard MP
Minister for Education. Minister for Employment and Workplace Relations
Minister for Social Inclusion
Deputy Prime Minister
11 June, 2009
Excerpts
Radio Interview - ABC Radio National Breakfast - 735am Thursday
E&OE TRANSCRIPT
RADIO INTERVIEW
ABC RADIO NATIONAL BREAKFAST
735AM THURSDAY
11 JUNE 2009
FRAN KELLY: Minister, on another issue, you were confronted by some distressed foreign students in Sydney yesterday and the Universities Australia Chief Executive Dr Glenn Withers was hinting yesterday too that this whole issue of violence against Indian students could damage the $14 billion export market in foreign tertiary education. It’s our third biggest export behind coal and iron ore and there’s signs it’s already starting to shrink as students prefer other countries to us. How worried are you about this?
JULIA GILLARD: We’ve been very concerned first and foremost about the Indian students who have been the victims of acts of violence. As you know, Fran, I’m from Melbourne, I live in Melbourne’s west and some of the most grievous incidents have been in Melbourne’s west and it obviously I think would break the heart of any Australians to see an Indian student who’s come to this country to get a good education the subject of a violent attack. So that’s our first and foremost concern.
Then of course we’ve been concerned to make sure that in our discussions with the Indian Government, through them and through the Indian media to prospective Indian students, that they get full and accurate information about this country. And full and accurate information about Australia would tell you this is a very safe place, a very welcoming country, a diverse multicultural society. We have a strong Indian community - more than 200,000 Australians are of Indian extraction.
FRAN KELLY: Minister, all those things are true but there is also clearly an issue at the moment and the question is how to manage this and what to do about it. There are now some very specific demands being put out by Universities Australia, a 10 point action plan which calls for state and territory governments to do more, including immediately make travel concessions available for all international students to improve their safety. Is that something you support and will be pushing the states to deliver on?
JULIA GILLARD: Can I say, Fran in terms of getting the full picture out, I think we’ve got to make sure we’ve got the balance in it and to get the balance in it, we survey international students about their experiences in this country and overwhelmingly, overwhelmingly, international students say they’ve had a good time in this country, they’ve got the opportunity for a great educational qualification and they would recommend studying in Australia to their friends.
On addressing these particular issues that have been faced by Indian students in the recent period, first and foremost we’ve been working with state governments on a policing response. We’re talking about acts of violence and consequently, policing is required. Both the Victorian and New South Wales Governments have certainly stepped up to increase policing and increase liaison between police and international students and the Indian community.
I’ve welcomed the Universities Australia statement. We are going to be considering the matter of what we can do and what more we can do for Indian students and international students, generally when minsters from around the country meet in Hobart tomorrow.
Already we’ve acted to be in contact with the Indian Government to make sure that prospective Indian students are getting full information about living conditions here about what sorts of resources, financially they will need in order to make it a happy and safe time for them in this country, living costs and the like. We will continue working on that. We’ve obviously welcomed the Victorian Government’s initiative to increase sentencing for people who do commit crimes where there may have been a racial motivation.
FRAN KELLY: Do you think these are racially based crimes?
JULIA GILLARD: Well our advice from the police is that these are not racially based crimes.
FRAN KELLY: Is that what you think?
JULIA GILLARD: Well, look I take the advice of the police. They’re out there on the frontline each and every day and they’re obviously able to tell us in our big cities like Melbourne and Sydney where the hotspots are. I mean every big city in the world has problems with urban violence. It tends to be concentrated in a limited number of areas and I would, as a Melbournian, be familiar with some of the problems in Melbourne that have been associated with - some parts of Melbourne and particularly, some parts of the public transport system. So the advice from police is that this is a more generalised problem with unlawful conduct and that they were increasing their response. But they want to make sure that they’re getting the message through to Indian students and international students that the police are there to help and that’s why I think the strong community liaison that is emerging from this is very, very productive.
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