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Parliamentary Questions


Question Without Notice No. 1143 asked in the Legislative Council on 21 October 2020 by Hon Charles Smith

Parliament: 40 Session: 1

UNIVERSITIES — INTERNATIONAL STUDENTS

1143. Hon CHARLES SMITH to the Minister for Education and Training:

I refer to the recent article in WAtoday entitled '''We will not be viable': WA university leaders call for state borders to reopen''.

Does the minister concede —

(a) Western Australian universities are over-reliant on international students;

(b) WA universities have dumbed down entry and teaching standards for international students;

(c) the persecution of whistleblowers like Gerd Schr�der-Turk at Murdoch University was disgraceful;

(d) wage theft and over-casualisation of staff is a systemic problem in our universities; and

(e) WA universities are putting dollars ahead of lives by incessantly lobbying to open Australia's borders throughout this pandemic?

Hon SUE ELLERY replied:

I thank the honourable member for some notice of the question.

(a)–(e) The question is seeking an opinion on each of the five parts, which I am not obliged to give under the standing orders. However, I will confirm that international students are an important part of the WA community and economy.