Northern Territory set to welcome back international students

The Northern Territory is set to join South Australia in welcoming back international students in a pilot entry program.

Northern Territory chief minister Michael Gunner. Photo: Che Chorley

The Northern Territory is set to join South Australia in welcoming back international students, with plans in place for a charter flight of about 100 students to arrive in Darwin and spend two weeks in quarantine.

NT Chief Minister Michael Gunner, who is facing an election on Saturday, put the proposal for a “secure corridor” pilot return of students to Scott Morrison several weeks ago.

The federal government is understood to have been ready to approve it then but held back because the NT government went into pre-election caretaker mode, a period when no major decisions are taken.

However, both Mr Gunner’s Labor Party and the opposition Country Liberal Party are believed to be ready to reactivate the pilot plan if they win government.

So far the only state or territory to announce a return of international students is South Australia, which plans to allow 300 to arrive in September. The decision has angered some who see the decision as favouring international students compared to Australians, who face harsh overseas travel restrictions.

Also, Mr Morrison had said in June that no international students would return to Australia until state and territory borders were open for travel within Australia and most are still closed.

On Tuesday the Prime Minister told The Australian that both issues — state border restrictions, and the caps on numbers of Australians returning from overseas — would be addressed. “We will be working through these issues before international students return,” he said.

International Education Association of Australia chief executive Phil Honeywood said SA and the NT would benefit economically from the pilot student return programs, which are intended to pave the way for larger numbers of students to enter.

“It’s a great example of what a smaller-population state or territory can achieve in gaining first-mover advantage in a key innovative industry,” he said.

But the ACT, which planned to bring in 700 students from July, had to abandon its plan after the fresh outbreak of COVID-19 in Victoria.

The Australian National University and the University of Canberra said in a joint statement this week that it was unlikely the pilot could go ahead this year.

According to Mr Gunner’s “secure corridor” proposal to the Prime Minister, 100 students from several Asian countries were to have taken a charter flight from Kuala Lumpur to Darwin last week on August 10.

They would have been housed for a two-week quarantine period in the Manigurr-ma residential village at Howard Springs outside Darwin, which was built for fly-in, fly-out workers on the now completed Ichthys liquefied natural gas project. This is the facility used earlier this year to quarantine Australians returning from Wuhan and passengers from the cruise ship Diamond Princess, which was stranded in Japan after a COVID-19 outbreak on board.

The NT government was ready to pay half the $2500 per student cost of the two-week quarantine for students who were studying at Charles Darwin University or other Territory tertiary institutions.

It is understood the NT government may be willing to offer the 35000-bed Manigurr-ma facility to quarantine international students going to universities in other states, although it will not subsidise the cost for them.