REGULATIONS AND DETERMINATIONS
Senator FARUQI (New South Wales—Deputy Leader of the Australian Greens) (17:22): I, and also at the request of Senator Shoebridge, move: That the Migration Amendment (Temporary Graduate Visa Application Charge) Regulations 2026, made under the Migration Act 1958, be disallowed [F2026L00163]. The Migration Amendment (Temporary Graduate Visa Application Charge) Regulations 2026 have doubled visa application fees from $2,300 to $4,600, the third increase in a year.
This must be rejected. The motion is to disallow this disgraceful regulation. Not a week goes by without attacks on international students and migrants, whether it is the racist, billionaire funded One Nation or it's the Liberals trying to compete with the far right or, indeed, it's the Labor Party and their ongoing dog whistling on international students and migrants.
Without this visa, international students cannot put their degree and skills to work for the community here in Australia. This massive fee hike sends a clear message that international students are not welcome here. There are too many international students who have told me that.
No wonder Australia's already tarnished reputation as a destination for higher education is eroding even further. And, really, for what? So you can beat your chests about cracking down on international students and migrants?
This afternoon, Senator Wong stood there and wanted the Greens to work with them. Well, I can tell you this: the Greens will never work with the Labor Party or the Liberals or One Nation when you punch down on migrants and international students. That is never going to happen.
Graduates already face enormous degree fees and are suffering under the cost-of-living crisis like everyone else in this country. They are skipping meals because they can't afford to eat, and the Albanese government think now is the opportune time to twist the knife and bleed them some more, because that's what they are doing. It is no coincidence that just as student visa rejections reached a 21-year high in February this year, the Albanese government decided to immediately double these visa fees.
They want to exploit international students even more while also punching down on them at the same time. Ariya Masud, National Union of Students international officer, has rightly said that this sends a clear message to international students about their standing in Australian society. They are regarded as ATMs to funnel a multibillion-dollar industry instead of human beings being forced into abandoning the lives and careers that they have built here.
They have built lives and careers here over years and years, but Labor did not even bother with the pretence of any consultation with students or international students. Before this latest doubling of visa fees, it was already the most expensive post-study work visa in the world. We were already there.
Australia's temporary graduate visa application fee is now 10 times more expensive than Canada's, three times more expensive than New Zealand's and more than twice as expensive as the UK. If your visa gets rejected, what happens then? Too bad—there is going to be no refund.
This is an incredibly unfair process that abuses the precarious position that these international students are in. What this visa fee's doubling does is force students to cough up thousands upon thousands more dollars that they were not really expecting; otherwise, they must abandon their lives, their careers that they have built here. Labor is making life harder and harder for them and their families, and is treating international students with such disrespect and callousness.
Because that's what it is—disrespect and callousness. It is appalling, shameful and disgraceful. The government does this knowing full well that international students can't vote them out.
They think there are no consequences for their dog whistling. But can I tell you there are consequences. The more you indulge the fantasies of the far-right extremists in this place, the more you make it a reality, then the more you harm international students, migrants and people of colour living in this country.
Labor and the coalition are bleeding votes to One Nation because for years you yourselves have blamed and demonised migrants for everything under the sun, and you have treated international students as cash cows. So no wonder you are back with another One-Nation-flavoured attack on migrants. You created this environment and now you will be buried by it.
The way out of the cost-of-living crisis, the housing crisis, isn't by attacking international students. If you want to do something, stand up to the coal and gas corporations destroying our planet, stand up to the billionaires dodging taxes, stand up to the price-gouging supermarkets and stand up to the profiteering banks. We know that Labor, the Liberals and One Nation will flock to that side of the chamber to vote down this disallowance because they are on a unity ticket on scapegoating and fleecing international students, who can't fight back.