New Zealand Students Are the Victims of Australia’s Flagging Economy

The Australian government has this week announced major changes to the way it deals with New Zealand visitors; including ceasing to subsidise kiwi uni students.

New Zealand officials said they were given no warning the change was coming—and the Prime Minister says New Zealand will continue to subsidise Australian students’ fees.

The first round of changes was announced on Tuesday, in the lead-up to the Australian federal budget. It included the decision to stop charging most New Zealand tertiary students local fees. The jump to international rates means fees for those studying in Australia could almost triple, with RNZ reporting the costs would shoot from around $7000 a year to about $24,000 a year.

Under the new scheme, New Zealanders would have access to the Australian student loan system. The changes won’t affect the ~8000 students already enrolled in Australian universities.
In an interview on Tuesday, Prime Minister Bill English said he was “pretty unhappy” with the changes, and they were part of a broader Australian effort to balance the books.

“We want a serious discussion with them about where they’re headed with this policy, rather than announcements that are made either without telling us or at short notice,” he said.

University students may not be the only ones affected. Policy analysts across the ditch say the change in approach could soon extend to children on NZ expats studying at Australian schools.

Speaking to RNZ, Australian National University immigration researcher Henry Sherrell said the shift was a result of financial pressure on state governments and New Zealanders’ inability to vote in Australia—and thus punish political changes they didn’t like. He said Australian state governments were under increasing pressure to claw back their deficits.

“There’s definitely justification to be worried,” he said. “Governments can often act with impunity because there is no electoral backlash.”

When Foreign Minister Gerry Brownlee met with his Australian counterpart Julie Bishop today, he said the fee-jump was “a one off” In a press conference following the meeting, he told reporters, “I appreciate it’s very difficult if you’re putting together a budget that you can’t necessarily go off and [have] international bilateral negotiations about what’s going to be in that budget.
So I think this is a bit of a one-off.”

This latest call from the Australian government comes after controversy earlier this year over the treatment of New Zealanders with criminal convictions, who were being detained and deported—another possible sign of a cooling relationship between the two Oceanic neighbours.

Australian government documents say around 20,000 New Zealanders and Australian permanent residents are enrolled in Australian institutions and the change could encourage about 60,000 more to enrol because they would be able to borrow money for their fees.

Follow Tess on Twitter.

Image via flickr