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.