Law change to skilled regional visa could see Gold Coast lose out on international students, writes Griffith University’s Professor Carolyn Evans

A law change surrounding skilled regional visas could see the Gold Coast lose out on international students, writes Professor Carolyn Evans. And that could spell trouble for the city.

WHICH of the following cities would you pick as regional: Canberra, Adelaide or the Gold Coast? If legislation currently before the Senate passes, the correct answer will be that our nation’s capital, along with cities like Adelaide and Hobart, will be considered regional and able to access a range of new government benefits. The Gold Coast will be the only non-capital city excluded.

The Federal Government’s proposed skilled regional visas legislation will allocate 23,000 skilled regional visas to people choosing to live in regional centres. Additionally, the legislation will create an additional Temporary Graduate visa, enabling international students who have studied at a regional campus to access a third year of post-study working visa rights.

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Professor Carolyn Evans. (AAP Image/Claudia Baxter)

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Flowing from this, the Gold Coast has been excluded from the Destination Australia package, which provides regional institutions access government funding for scholarships for both domestic and international students.

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The combination of these efforts means that international students who are considering studying in Australia will given incentives in terms of work rights and scholarships to study in other regional cities but not here on the Gold Coast.

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Griffith’s Gold Coast campus is the destination of choice for many international students, with the capacity to welcome more, and a comprehensive study offering from medicine to marine science. Other educational providers on the Gold Coast also have invested in making this region a great place to study.

The city’s growing reputation extends far beyond its first-class tourist destination status, with booming light manufacturing, health and innovation precincts servicing what is now a well-established, diverse multicultural community.

Study Gold Coast and its member institutions have been working hard to attract international higher education students to the city, as well as retain domestic students in post-secondary education institutions. There is a good reason why so many of the city’s businesses and institutions have supported this push. International students provide over $1 billion to the economy of the Gold Coast a year.

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Griffith University’s Gold Coast Campus. Photo by Richard Gosling

The Gold Coast’s exclusion from the new Temporary Graduate visa scheme is at odds with the inclusion of the state capitals of Adelaide, Darwin and Hobart, as well as our national capital, Canberra. These capitals are all are considered regional for the purposes of skilled regional visas.

Canberra has the prestige of being the national capital and is home to the Australian

National University which attracts many international students. Adelaide has a population more than twice that of the Gold Coast yet is considered regional.

Regardless of population size, capital cities are the centre of government and consequently attract greater economic, social and cultural attention. By definition, they are the gateway to the state’s economic activity and house much of the physical and social infrastructure to service these drivers.

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We also know our capital cities are projected to grow faster than regional cities, with two thirds of Australians already living and working in state capitals. These numbers are expected to increase further to around 70 per cent by 2027.

This trend supports the need for the Gold Coast to be afforded regional status to address the widening divide between capital cities and other areas of the state.

Further, the Gold Coast shares many characteristics with cities like Geelong and the Sunshine Coast, including demography, land area and proximity to the state capital cities.

Unlike the Gold Coast, however, they are classed as regional cities under both the proposed skilled regional visas legislation and the Destination Australia policy.

Geelong and the Sunshine Coast are between 65 and 90km from their state capitals. The Gold Coast is 71km from Brisbane. All three cities share similar population growth rates.

The Gold Coast is being put at a competitive disadvantage compared to very similar cities.

The legislation risks large numbers of both domestic and international students considering study options away from the Gold Coast in order to access the scholarships and post-study working visa benefits. The Gold Coast will also miss out on the opportunity to attract skilled

migrants and their families to the area, with none of the additional 23,000 skilled visas being allocated to the Gold Coast.

The proposed legislation threatens to undermine the city’s reputation as an attractive destination for families and international students alike, all of whom make an important contribution to our economic and social development, as well as our cultural vibrancy.