Latest / The Slippery Slope / ‘It really is a scam’: University of Sydney professor hits out at international student ‘rort’
Transcript
- 1:06way. OK, so.
- 1:10Probably a month. Did every month ago something
- 1:14like that maybe. I was.
- 1:15I was around town, I was. I went into a shop had to look
- 1:18for something. I was looking for something
- 1:20musical. And so I.
- 1:22Went into. This really tiny music shop and.
- 1:26They just. Happened to have a certain.
- 1:28Guitar in. There.
- 1:29I went. Looking.
- 1:30For something else. And then and I come across this
- 1:33guitar, they had a guitar in there and it was on sale.
- 1:37Really great price and it was a small.
- 1:40It was one of those mini. Maintains like those half sized
- 1:43maintains that you get and I looked at I thought.
- 1:47I would. Love this guitar.
- 1:48I've always wanted one. Always wanted.
- 1:51One and I thought it was there and it was like I said, it
- 1:54wasn't a bad price at all and I thought I should get that.
- 1:57Guitar and. Then I could all I could hear
- 1:59was my wife saying why in my my head I'm sitting and thinking
- 2:04yet more like imagine her saying why are you getting another
- 2:08guitar. And although the the problem is
- 2:13I already have several guitars so she's always like well you
- 2:15can't play them all at once I think yeah, but I can.
- 2:18I like having guitars, even if even if they are just sitting
- 2:22there sometimes and not really just play one or two one at the
- 2:26moment. But I like the fact that I have
- 2:28other guitars that I can play if I want to.
- 2:31So anyway. I really like this guitar.
- 2:33I wanted this guitar. All I could think of is my wife
- 2:36saying you don't need another guitar, Jay.
- 2:39So I walked out and I thought, well.
- 2:41It'll be. There.
- 2:42This this. Probably won't sell.
- 2:45You know. One of these guitars like this.
- 2:48In the town where I am, it's probably not going to.
- 2:50Sell and I thought, well, I'll, I'll come.
- 2:53Back. I'll come back.
- 2:54I'll convince myself that I could wait.
- 2:57So anyway. I'm in.
- 2:58Town yesterday I go into the shop.
- 3:00I thought you know stuff this. I'm gonna go buy this guitar
- 3:03and. Just.
- 3:07Maybe I just won't tell my wife I'll just buy it.
- 3:09I'll play it. Will she even notice?
- 3:11She'll just think it's one of the guitars I've.
- 3:12Already got anyway and. As long as long as she doesn't
- 3:17knows. The spare.
- 3:18Another case. Laying around anyway, I go into
- 3:21the. Shop the guitar's gone.
- 3:23Lady goes. Yeah, no, it was a nice guitar.
- 3:26Someone. Obviously someone bought it.
- 3:28And I walked out. I thought, You know what?
- 3:31Should have. Should have.
- 3:32Bought the guitar. And that that same.
- 3:36Came to me. You know, sometimes it's better
- 3:38to to seek forgiveness than ask. Permission and which?
- 3:44Which I'm not saying is the best, the best saying, but that
- 3:47did come to me. I thought, Yep, Jay, that's what
- 3:50I should have done. When I.
- 3:51Saw the guitar. I should have just thought, Yep,
- 3:55I should just bought the guitar, I said.
- 3:57Well, sorry, babe. The.
- 4:00Board and other guitar. You know, it's too late.
- 4:03I've got it. I own it.
- 4:05It's a it's an investment. Or can I say?
- 4:08But I didn't so. I'm walking out yesterday.
- 4:10Thinking. Yep.
- 4:12I should have asked. Forgiveness I should, I should
- 4:14have. Should.
- 4:15Have been seeking forgiveness. And then asking permission.
- 4:20Then I would have had another guitar.
- 4:21I would. Have had one of those mini
- 4:22maintains. Played it two walls in the shop.
- 4:25It was good. It was a good guitar.
- 4:28I have to go get another one anyway.
- 4:30So I was reading this. I was reading this.
- 4:33Article I. Thought this.
- 4:34Is exactly what the government. Are doing.
- 4:36You remember if you a few weeks ago, I think it was.
- 4:39I was doing a I did an episode and it's about how Australia is
- 4:44struggling with housing at the moment and also employment in
- 4:49some areas. OK the problem is the government
- 4:53is just allowing more and more immigrants in it's and like I
- 4:57said there's nothing I I am I think Australia needs
- 5:01immigration. However, the way Australia is
- 5:05doing it at the moment, I mean they've they've allowed
- 5:07something like. It's over half.
- 5:10A million. New migrants within a.
- 5:12Really short time frame, I think it was between in within a two
- 5:16year time frame. I think it might have been just
- 5:19under 600,000 actually. And.
- 5:23I thought. Well.
- 5:23This is ridiculous. You can't sit there saying we
- 5:25have a housing shortage. And then you're continually
- 5:29looking you're. Continually allowing this amount
- 5:32of new migrants to come into the land, into the country, and then
- 5:38you sit there and blame everything else on the housing
- 5:40shortage. It's, you know.
- 5:42Everything. Everything else, other than the
- 5:44fact that you're letting hundreds of thousands of new
- 5:47people into the country and then they stepped up and they go, oh,
- 5:50we'll have to look into it. They're like Windows.
- 5:52They're always. Looking into it, but The thing
- 5:56is, it dawned on me this is what they're doing.
- 5:59They I'll, I'll read the article.
- 6:03I'll read the article. So this headline here says.
- 6:06It really is a scam. University of Sydney.
- 6:10Professor. Hits out at International
- 6:12Student Raught, OK. So.
- 6:16A landmark report by the property industry which argued
- 6:19international students are not to blame.
- 6:23Not to blame their saying. But the housing crisis has been
- 6:26slammed by an expert highlighting how simple math in
- 6:31the study's own figures appear to contradict one of its key
- 6:34claims. The.
- 6:35Report released late. Last month by the Student
- 6:38Accommodation Council, part of the National Property Council
- 6:42lobby group. OK, so in other words.
- 6:45You know, these are people that make money.
- 6:48They they make money out of these reports and and painting a
- 6:51good picture on things. So don't.
- 6:53Anyway, they said that international students had
- 6:56unfairly worn the blame for Australians Australia's rental
- 7:00crisis. But they were not the cause,
- 7:02they said, either of rising rents or low vacancies making up
- 7:07just 4% of rent renters nationwide.
- 7:10In fact, far bigger impact on rental housing availability has
- 7:13been the post COVID trend to work from home.
- 7:16Oh yeah, OK, Hams that make a difference.
- 7:19Seriously, you already had a place to live, and So what?
- 7:22You're gonna you're gonna work from the place, from your, from
- 7:26your house. How does that makes no sense?
- 7:32This so this is what? Student Accommodation, Council,
- 7:34executive. Director Tori.
- 7:36Brown wrote in an opinion piece for the Herald Sun.
- 7:39So he's just gaslighting. It's telling us basically,
- 7:42you're all a bunch of naughties, you don't understand anything.
- 7:45It's really because people have decided.
- 7:46To work from home that we no longer that we have this.
- 7:49Shortage. On a of accommodation, which
- 7:53makes absolutely no sense. Anyway, we need to grow the
- 7:57amount of student. Accommodation to provide greater
- 7:59housing options for. Students without forcing them to
- 8:01compete for private rentals. It's time to stop pointing the
- 8:04finger at international students and instead pointed.
- 8:06At ourselves. However, University of Sydney.
- 8:10Associate Professor Salvatore Salvatore.
- 8:14Babones. Babones.
- 8:16That's a great name. Salvatori.
- 8:18Bones, and a vocal critic of the sector who has labelled the
- 8:23international student market a scam, said the the report had
- 8:29unintentionally made an incredible admission.
- 8:32Their own statistics, damn them, Professor Bonners, Bones told
- 8:38news.com. Then what have we got here?
- 8:41So this is the actual reports. These are the figures.
- 8:44International students are concentrated.
- 8:46OK, so if you go to page 15, it says 13 of this is of the
- 8:51report. OK.
- 8:52So he's saying if you go to page 15, it says 13 out of 556 local
- 8:57government areas have international students that
- 9:00exceed 10% of the rental markets.
- 9:04It's huge. And in 73% of LG AZ
- 9:07concentration is under 1%. That means in 27% of LG's, which
- 9:13are virtually all in capital cities, not rural areas, the
- 9:17concentration is over 1%. Well, what is the rental vacancy
- 9:24rate? It's 1%.
- 9:27You get that. So the concentration is over 1%
- 9:32in 27% of LG's in all these capital cities.
- 9:36And that's the the vacancy rate is only 1%, which means if there
- 9:39were no international students in 27% of LG's the rental.
- 9:44Availability by. A very rough cut, according to
- 9:47their analysis, would double, and that's only for LG's where
- 9:52the where the concentration is 1% for those that are above 10%
- 9:57or up at 24%. That's incredibly warping to the
- 10:02rental market. The Student Accommodation
- 10:05Council report identified Adelaide and Burwood as the
- 10:08LPGA's with the highest concentration of international
- 10:11student renters at 24%, followed by Melbourne at 21.8%,
- 10:15Strathfield on 17.6% Bayside on, 15.8% in Sydney, 14.6% Perth.
- 10:23Hobart, Monash. Georgia's River, Kenning,
- 10:26Cumberland and White Horse were all above 10%.
- 10:29They didn't do the simple maths. The professor.
- 10:32Babones said in their mind they were showing their that
- 10:36international students had no impact on the rental market.
- 10:38They didn't realise their own data they're promoting actually
- 10:42contradicts their claims. It's because they that is
- 10:47because they treat us. They treat us, the general
- 10:52public, like we're idiots. They've just.
- 10:55Decided it's. Better for them if they ask
- 10:58forgiveness at a later date rather than beg permission now.
- 11:04That's all they've done. They don't want to tell everyone
- 11:07what's going on. They don't want to admit what's
- 11:09going on, even though the the. Figures bear out.
- 11:11Exactly what's happening. And even though we all know
- 11:14what's happening, because we're not, we're not the fools that
- 11:17they think us, that they think we are, that they treat us like
- 11:21everyone can see, that, you know, we've got a housing
- 11:24shortage. And it's because we have all
- 11:26these international students, all these new migrants coming
- 11:29into the land, but they treat us like fools anyway.
- 11:33But this is what they're doing. They're simply going to do what
- 11:36they want. And then later down the track,
- 11:39when you know when it's all too late, then they'll say, Oh yeah,
- 11:42we made a mistake, please forgive us.
- 11:46And then give us another term, please forgive us.
- 11:49And can you vote for us again? We'll promise we'll fix it in
- 11:51the future, but by then it's too late.
- 11:55They've already got it. Anyway, let me know what you
- 11:59think. I'm Jay Fallon.
- 12:02Thanks for listening to The Slippery Slope.