Daniel Andrews goes it alone on China trade
Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews will not be joined by university vice-chancellors or education industry leaders during his secretive four-day trip to China.
Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews will not be joined by university vice-chancellors or education industry leaders during his secretive four-day trip to China.
Despite nominating the state’s critical foreign student industry as a key focus of the trip, the Premier’s office confirmed on Monday that no university representatives would be on the trade mission.
Mr Andrews, who flew out of Melbourne on Monday night, instead would be accompanied by the secretary of the Department of Premier and Cabinet and two members of his private office.
Phil Honeywood, chief executive of International Education Association of Australia, which counts universities and other players in the international student industry, said representatives from the sector usually attended such overseas missions.
“Clearly the sector welcomes the Premier encouraging education engagement between China and Victoria,” Mr Honeywood said.
“Normally such education missions involve a number of vice-chancellors and peak body representatives. We’ve yet to be informed as to any education provider or sector representatives who have been involved in this particular trip.”
Mr Andrews’ office said the trip would involve “back-to-back” meetings with senior officials from the education ministry and the governments of Beijing, Jiangsu and Sichuan.
The Premier’s spokesperson said the meetings would discuss “our long-held trade and cultural ties, and the return of Chinese students to Victoria”.
Federal Department of Education figures show Victoria’s market share of international students had slipped, while NSW had increased its share in the wake of the pandemic and the marathon lockdowns imposed on Melbourne.
The data shows that pre-pandemic in 2019, Victoria enrolled 32 per cent of international students but this had fallen to 30 per cent by last year. Across the same period the NSW share of the lucrative market increased from 38 per cent to 39 per cent.
This will be Mr Andrews’ seventh trip to China as Premier and follows his controversial 2019 decision to defy the Morrison government’s wishes and sign Victoria up to Beijing’s Belt and Road Initiative.
The Andrews government was forced to abandon its arrangement and the Premier has said the deal will not be restarted on this week’s trip.
Despite his assurances, there is growing pressure from the state opposition on the Premier to release more details of who he is meeting and the nature of the talks with Chinese officials.
Opposition Leader John Pesutto said he was not opposed to the trip but wanted Mr Andrews to provide more details.
“The Premier does need to show some transparency,” he said. “Why is he going? Who’s he meeting with? Is it to build relationships … or is it to talk about Victoria’s debt profile to companies based in China?
“It is totally unacceptable that the Premier should go there and not be upfront with the Victorian people about what he’s going there for.”
In announcing the trip on the weekend, Mr Andrews defended the failure to invite media or provide earlier information about the mission. “It’s not a trip that is designed to sign deals,” he said.
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