The Coalition want to cap international students (which Labor does as well, but the Coalition want to go further with the caps) and Peter Dutton claims it is to ‘help young Australians get into housing’.

International students overwhelming stay in student accommodation. They are not competing with people to buy houses.

Dutton:

Just to put this into perspective, this is part of our housing policy because I want to make sure that young Australians can get into housing. And I want to make sure that young Australians can afford their rents as well. At the moment, that’s not the case. So, for every 42 students that have arrived as part of the international student program – and we’re fully supportive of international students coming to our country, but the numbers increased by 65%. For every 42 international students who have arrived, there’s been one rental unit built to provide accommodation.

So, of course every one of those students wants to find safe accommodation, but the trouble is that they’re competing with Australians who can’t get into housing. So what we’ve said is that we want to reduce the number and reduce the migration program so that we can get the balance right. We’ve got a $5 billion program to work with councils to pay for infrastructure like water and road and sewage upgrades so that we can build 500,000 new homes.

And there are other things that we’re putting in place as well around housing so that we can get that housing outcome. I understand the Retailers Association and other employers as well who look to that workforce, but we’ve got a very significant number of people who have arrived over the last two years. In fact, a million people have been brought into our country over the last two years. That’s a 70% increase than any 2-year period in our country’s history, which in part is what’s created this housing crisis. And many of those people have work rights and the ability to work in retail stores and across hospitality and tourism and right across the