The Liberal Party has been accused of being in bed with the mass migration industry after it was revealed that the Opposition immigration spokesman dined with migration agents just a day before the Coalition stunned its own voters by deciding to oppose Labor’s international student caps.
Dan Tehan sat down with Liberal candidate for Greenway in north-west Sydney Rattan Virk and migration and education agents on Sunday, and a day later delivered a joint statement with shadow education minister Sarah Henderson and home affairs spokesman James Patterson to announce the cap backflip.
Immigration issues were discussed at the meeting, which included migration lawyers and representatives from private colleges threatened by the plan to cap student numbers, The Sydney Morning Herald reported, a day after revealing that Ms Henderson headlined a migration agent event in mid-October.
“The Coalition recognises the urgency of setting migration policies right, ensuring that our housing and infrastructure can meet demand while reducing pressure on essential services,” Ms Virk wrote in a post about the event.
“To address these pressing issues, yesterday I hosted a Breakfast Discussion on Immigration: Challenges and Insights with the Hon. Dan Tehan, Shadow Minister for Immigration and Citizenship.
“This meeting provided an excellent opportunity to discuss the challenges faced by our community, highlight the Coalition’s solutions, and gain valuable insights from Shadow Minister Dan Tehan.”
Labor’s Education Minister Jason Clare said that Ms Henderson and former immigration minister Alex Hawke’s presence at the event showed the Liberals were hypocrites on immigration.
“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,” Mr Clare said in parliament on Thursday.
“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.”
Mr Tehan told the Sydney Morning Herald the Coalition decision to oppose the bill had been made before the Sunday breakfast, and insisted that the Opposition planned to cut Labor’s record migration numbers.
Ms Henderson said that the migration forum, which was hosted by a company called Apply 4 Study Australia, was not a fundraising event and no donations were requested or received.
“The event I attended in Sydney was not a political fundraiser. It was part of my consultation on this bill,” she told the publication.
“The Coalition makes no apology for opposing Labor’s student cap legislation because it will fail to fix the migration and housing crisis of the government’s own making.”
According to his social media posts, Apply 4 Study Australia’s CEO GD Singh has been secretary of the Rouse Hill Liberal election council in Mr Hawke’s electorate, and his company sponsored the Liberal Party’s budget dinner in 2022.
Photos from the event at the Hilton Hotel in Sydney on October 16 show Ms Henderson, Mr Hawke, and former McKinsey management consultant turned Liberal MP for Cook in Sydney’s south Simon Kennedy posing with attendees, including representatives of education companies that rely on international students.
Mr Tehan also posed for photos at the Sunday breakfast, and in a video posted by Ms Virk after the event he declared: “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 their joint statement on Monday Ms Henderson, Ms Paterson, and Mr Tehan said “we cannot support measures which will only serve to compound this crisis of the government’s making” and said the bill “will not even touch the sides” of the migration problem.
But One Nation Queensland Senator Malcolm Roberts said the Coalition’s decision showed that they were all talk and no action on immigration.
“Anyone hoping for Peter Dutton to make meaningful changes to Australia’s insane immigration program and ease the housing crisis has just been betrayed,” he said.
“After backflipping on a plan to cap international student numbers, the Liberals still support a big migration plan.While there were some holes in the cap, Peter Dutton’s backflip proves he won’t even commit to a small cut to ‘temporary’ immigration.
“The Liberals have promised minor changes to the number of permanent visas. They have said nothing about cutting some of the 2.45 million temporary visa holders in the country including students. In the middle of a housing crisis, these ‘temporary’ residents are driving demand for an extra 1 million houses.”
Header image: Left, Dan Tehan and Rattan Virk. Right, Alex Hawke and Sarah Henderson (Facebook).
