Rich city universities got off too lightly under Labor’s caps: Dutton

Opposition Leader Peter Dutton says he tanked Labor’s international student caps because they pandered to rich city universities whose students were furthering the housing crisis, as he promised deeper cuts to migration under a Coalition government.

But Dutton offered no details as the parliament clashed over his decision to block Labor’s caps. He said the opposition’s own caps for lowering foreign student numbers would be “revealed in due course” and deliver housing back to Australians, in a sign those policies will be key to the Coalition’s election campaign.

Peter Dutton says the government and the city universities are contributing to the housing crisis.Credit: Dominic Lorrimer

The row over student caps has energised an immigration debate and signalled the turf on which next year’s federal election will be fought. Both parties on Tuesday linked international students to the housing crisis as they bolstered their own credentials for bringing migration down after years of soaring numbers.

Immigration Minister Tony Burke, whose government’s plans to wrest control of student numbers have now been thrown into turmoil, labelled Dutton a hypocrite who was making the country’s woes worse by allowing immigration numbers to go “sky-high”.

“They [the Coalition] are going to vote to push net overseas migration higher,” he said in a fiery question time. “If anybody out there is thinking that because of the rate of immigration they are having trouble getting into a home, just know the leader of the opposition has decided to make that worse.”

Dutton brushed off claims he was being weak on migration, indicating that people who breached visa conditions would be deported under his government, in a media conference pitting wealthy international students and sandstone universities against struggling Australians.

Immigration Minister Tony Burke during question time.Credit: Dominic Lorrimer

He said there were “plenty of international students in pretty schmick accommodation” compared with Australians who did not come from family money. “Let’s be frank about it. Now, there will be other students from other parts of the world who are, you know, scrimping and saving every dollar,” he said.

“But there is accommodation being taken up at the moment by international students who I believe very strongly [are] taking up accommodation that should be occupied by Australian citizens.”

Greens leader Adam Bandt, who opposed the student caps because they scapegoated foreign students, said the government was joining the Coalition in a “race to the bottom”.

“In the lead up to the election, I don’t want to see a competition on migration with Peter Dutton,” he said.

“The Coalition will do whatever it does for its own purposes … [But] we’re not prepared to blame international students for problems like housing that they didn’t cause.”

While the effect of international students on housing is contested – and concentrated in a handful of inner-city Sydney and Melbourne suburbs – Dutton’s comments capture the attitude of a growing number of Australians who are concerned about high immigration driven by underlying fears about the economy and housing affordability.

The opposition leader defended his decision to block the government’s student caps, which would bring down migration levels, by saying they didn’t go far enough because they issued Group of Eight universities caps roughly based on 2023 levels.

“Those students who are here under that money-making project are taking up rental accommodation in particular from Australians who can’t get into rental accommodation,” Dutton said.

“[University of Sydney vice-chancellor] Mark Scott made $1.4 billion [for the university] in one year. And the government essentially is baking in that opportunity for the University of Sydney and the other seven. And that’s not something that we’re going to support.”

Asked whether the Coalition was simply delaying cuts to immigration, Dutton said: “This problem can be solved with a change of government at the next election.”

“We announced a 25 per cent reduction in the migration intake in the permanent program and a reduction in the humanitarian program.”

The government points out the bill would give the minister a mechanism for setting caps, rather than legislating specific numbers.

Under Labor’s proposed 2025 caps, metropolitan universities would have to cut their numbers while many regional universities would increase theirs, although the Group of Eight would still attract the majority of students.

While Dutton didn’t put a figure on his desired number of foreign students – Clare set next year’s level across the sector at 270,000 – he said, “there will be deeper cuts because I want housing for Australians”.

Labor seized on Dutton’s comments to paint him as a fraud on immigration.

“If [there’s] anybody out there who might feel that they are missing out on a rental accommodation because an overseas student has taken it, just know the leader of the opposition wants to make that situation worse,” Burke said in question time on Tuesday.

Dutton dismissed the remarks. “You know, I’m either too soft, or too hard, or too much in the middle ... The more the Labor Party attacked me … the higher my numbers go. And I’m happy for that to continue.”

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