‘Bring Aussies home first’: PM puts international students plan on ice

The Prime Minister will halt plans to bring thousands of international students to Australia. But an SA trial of just 300 students will still go ahead.

Scott Morrison will immediately halt plans to bring thousands of international students back to Australia in order to get more Aussies home as the pandemic ramps up overseas.

But the Prime Minister confirmed South Australia and the Northern Territory’s trials to bring students back will go ahead as it was being done outside overseas arrivals caps.

SA aims to bring up to 300 students back to Adelaide later this month.

Mr Morrison said the country would halt any further plans to get international students back as the situation overseas was “deteriorating” and the priority would be to get Australians home.

“This is a question of priorities. And our priorities must be to look after Australian citizens and residents first,” Mr Morrison said.

Prime Minister Scott Morrison arrives for a news conference in the prime minister's courtyard on with Acting Chief Medical Officer Paul Kelly. Picture: Sam Mooy/Getty Images

“We need to use every available space that we have in quarantine,” he said.

Even more Australians stranded overseas were registering with authorities wanting to come home as the pandemic escalated, Mr Morrison said, adding that the situation in Europe and the United States was “very serious”.

“What we are seeing around the world ... is heartbreaking,” Mr Morrison said.

The United States of America today recorded more than 150,000 new cases, the highest for any country in a single day during the pandemic.

The Federal Government has already signed off on SA’s trial to bring up to 300 students back to help revive the state’s $2bn international education sector and to prove the safe travel corridors model.

Premier Steven Marshall said no students had arrived in Adelaide yet but he hoped the trial would begin later this month.

“Our pilot is I think between 200 and 300 international students - it’s not got to do with the vast bulk of international students that have been studying in Australia that need to come back to complete their work, plus the new students that we can attract into our economy,” Mr Marshall said.

He said it was a “very important sector of our economy” but added: “I fully appreciate the prime minister’s position which is that we have stranded overseas a large number and a growing number of Australians who with the deteriorating situation in some countries would like to return home.”

“They are of course our priority.

“But we have got to do the preparation work and that’s why this pilot is so important.

“We’re hopeful we can get the first of those students back this month.”