‘In bed with education agents’: Coalition under fire as Tehan dines with agents

Coalition immigration spokesman Dan Tehan dined with education and migration agents at a breakfast to discuss immigration issues the day before sinking Labor’s bill to crack down on private colleges and education providers.

Tehan was the featured guest at a private breakfast hosted on Sunday by Rattan Virk, the Liberal candidate for the north-west Sydney seat of Greenway, and praised the feedback he received from a dozen people including migration lawyers and private college representatives whose business models were threatened by Labor’s legislation.

Coalition immigration spokesman Dan Tehan speaks on Wednesday.Credit: The Sydney Morning Herald

The breakfast was held a month after the Coalition’s education spokeswoman, Sarah Henderson, headlined a separate function organised by a company that helps students extend their stays in Australia and had sponsored Liberal Party functions in the past.

Tehan, Henderson and fellow Coalition frontbencher James Paterson, the Home Affairs spokesman, co-signed a statement on Monday declaring the Coalition would block the government’s education bill.

As the Coalition’s rejection throws Labor’s plans to lower soaring migration numbers into disarray, the federal government has seized on the revelations to accuse senior Liberal frontbenchers of “getting into bed with education agents” despite calling for deeper cuts to international student numbers.

Labor’s bill would have introduced international student caps – with the deepest cuts going to private education providers – as well a raft of integrity measures to crack down on migration agents and colleges that bring thousands of people into the country on student visas, such as by blocking commissions for agents when students change courses.

Nationals leader David Littleproud this week said one of the bill’s flaws was that “private providers … are being left out of this and in fact will go bankrupt”.

Virk, who invited local education and migration agents to Sunday’s breakfast with Tehan, celebrated the Coalition’s decision to block the bill in a post about the event. In a separate video Virk posted to Facebook, filmed after the breakfast, Tehan said: “This forum we’ve had today has been brilliant, it’s provided me with lots of feedback that I can take back to Canberra.”

In response to questions from this masthead, Tehan said the Coalition’s decision to oppose Labor’s “flawed education bill” had been made before the breakfast on Sunday.

“I have been consistently clear that the Coalition will restore integrity to our migration system and cut Labor’s record migration numbers,” he said.

The opposition has this week been pressured to outline its immigration plans as it blocks Labor’s attempt to limit student numbers while accusing the government of mismanaging the system.

Several shadow ministers and backbenchers have cited confusion in the party room about the Coalition’s sudden decision to block a bill that would reduce immigration, with some unsure about how to articulate the position publicly.

Education Minister Jason Clare used Thursday’s question time to accuse the Coalition of hypocrisy, pointing to reports in this masthead that Henderson and former immigration minister Alex Hawke headlined a migration forum and launched a new brand for a Liberal Party member who helps international students extend stays in Australia.

“It was hard to believe this opposition leader would get into bed with the Greens on migration. Now it seems that bed is getting pretty full. Full of education agents,” Clare said.

“Let’s remember what this bill does.

“It prevents education providers from owning education businesses. It requires providers to educate Australian students first for two years before they are allowed to recruit international students. And it prevents providers [who are under] serious regulatory investigation from recruiting new international students. That is what the Liberal Party is planning to vote against.”

Coalition leader Peter Dutton this week called Labor’s bill a “dog’s breakfast” that pandered to the wealthier Group of Eight universities by issuing them caps that were still too high.

“I just don’t think you can make such a bad bill better. We will announce our caps and our reductions in due course,” he said at a press conference on Tuesday.

Labor’s student caps, which were to be set the minister but required the enabling legislation, would have delivered the deepest cuts to vocational education providers, which would have lost 30 per cent of students from last year’s levels, and private higher education colleges, which would have had to cut student numbers by 28 per cent.

Universities got off more lightly, with a 1 per cent reduction on 2023 levels. The greatest share was due to be borne by the Group of Eight while many regional universities would have been able to have more students.

Nationals MP Barnaby Joyce on Thursday suggested he was open to new laws if Clare consulted more with regional universities.

“I haven’t said let’s blow the legislation up, but I have said, before you go forward with it, there should be further discussions,” he said on ABC radio.

“This can be resolved. But it’s resolved first and foremost by minister Clare, who I don’t think is a bad guy ... getting on the phone.”

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