December 18, 2024
Today's Mid-Year Economic and Fiscal Outlook (MYEFO) reveals a weakening of the Australian economy and highlights the importance of a strong export sector, particularly international education which is our most successful services export.
Group of Eight (Go8) Chief Executive, Vicki Thomson said Australia is increasingly relying on services exports to support growth with the $50 billion international education sector propping up the Australian economy post COVID and contributing to more than half of the nation's economic growth in 2023.
The MYEFO shows that exports of goods and services, which were forecast to grow 5 per cent in 2024-25 will now grow by only 1 per cent in 2024-25. Overall exports are expected to recover to 3 per cent growth in 2025-26, but this is below the 2023-24 outcome of 3.7 per cent growth.
While the weaker exports of goods and services story is partly related to mining exports, the weaker services exports performance is related to "a softer than expected recovery in Chinese tourists and students."
"This ignores the elephant in the room - that the Australian Government's own actions on international student caps has contributed to this weakening performance. Put simply, Australia's economic performance and budget position would be in better shape if the Government had not pursued this path," Ms Thomson said.
"As we approach an election year, it's time for both Government and Opposition to support international education as a key national asset - not just an economic asset - but as an integral component of the university sector that provides the research and innovation and the workforce to drive national initiatives including AUKUS.
"And now is not the time to look to visa processing workarounds to act as a defacto cap on international students for political effect but rather it's time to double down in supporting a key plank of Australia's future.
"We applaud the Government's structural reforms to support a fair and equitable university sector, increase the number of domestic students from diverse backgrounds and boost skills, but we must not lose sight of the critical role international education plays in Australia's economic and social prosperity," said Ms Thomson.
