Plan to tax foreign students and cap numbers to ease housing crisis

International students would be taxed and their numbers capped under a plan being considered to cut Australia’s soaring migration numbers.

International students would be taxed and their numbers capped under a plan being considered to cut Australia’s soaring migration numbers.

Government and higher education sources have told News Corp both measures are under active consideration to be included when the government reveals its migration strategy in the next month.

The move to cap student numbers comes as net overseas migration — the total population arrivals minus departures — is set to top a record 520,000 people this year, fuelling the growing rental crises in Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane.

Between January and August 725,000 international students were studying in Australia, an increase of 31 per cent on the previous year.

Since the end of the pandemic the number of students from middle-income countries studying in countries like Australia has surged around the world.

Overseas student numbers at universities have soared. Picture: iStock

In capping international student numbers, Australia would be following Canada which in August announced it was considering limiting the number of student visas it grants.

In July the Australian Universities Accord Interim Report floated the idea of a levy on international students, a move which has been bitterly fought by the Group of Eight major universities who get the majority of international university students.

But a senior education source said they were now more “relaxed” about a proposed tax on international students because revenue raised from the measure is likely to go towards an increase in their research budgets.

Opposition immigration spokesman Dan Tehan. Picture: Martin Ollman

Last week Assistant Treasurer Stephen Jones responded to a statement by economist Chris Richardson that student numbers needed to be capped and taxed with, “I agree with Chris, that we need to look at the student stuff”.

The government already has a cap on permanent migration numbers which is set at 190,00 a year.

But the move to limit the number of international students has moved into the political mix as the government starts to take heat over the record net overseas migration numbers, which this year is set to be a record.

Immigration Minister Andrew Giles declined to comment but last week he told a conference “there will clearly be much more to say when the Migration Strategy is released”, which he said would be “shortly”.

Opposition immigration spokesman Dan Tehan said any move by the government would be too late.

“The horse has already bolted — there is enormous pressure on rents and on housing due to the government’s complete mismanagement of immigration,” he said.

“The record numbers have already impacted inflation and have added to the cost-of-living pressures facing everyday Australians.”

Reserve Bank of Australia Governor Michele Bullock last week reiterated that soaring immigration was driving up house prices and rents.

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