April 29, 2006
INTERNATIONAL university students are launching an equal opportunity claim against the State Government, arguing rules banning them from travel concession fares are racially discriminatory.
The complaint to Equal Opportunity Commission Victoria will claim foreigners who use public transport pay hundreds of dollars more each year than their domestic classmates due to race.
Campaign spokesman Pradeep Subramaniam said the complaint could lead to Victoria's overseas student population — more than 50,000 last year — taking separate legal action against the state if it was not willing to compromise.
"It's clearly a case of racial discrimination. There's no other basis on which you cannot get concession if you are an undergraduate student," he said.
A daily inner-city Metcard costs $6.10 at full price or $3.20 with a concession. A monthly pass is $49.10 cheaper with a concession card than without.
The discrimination complaint, to be lodged next week, comes at a time of growing disquiet in the international student sector.
Australia's $7.5 billion foreign education market is slowing after years of rapid growth in the face of increased competition from Asia and Europe. Last month 60 overseas students at Central Queensland University's Melbourne campus threatened to go on hunger strike, accusing the university of milking them for upfront fees by examining and failing them on material they were never taught.
About 100 international students from different universities yesterday marched through the city before protesting outside Parliament.
They were inspired by a NSW tribunal last month finding similar travel concession rules in that state breached anti-discrimination laws. NSW and Victoria are the only states that require international students to pay full fare on trains, trams and buses. Victoria also bars postgraduate and part-time students from concessions.
Song Yee Ng, of the National Liaison Committee for International Students, said the fight for equality for foreign students had only just begun. "Even the state governments treat us like cash cows," she said.
Transport Minister Peter Batchelor's spokeswoman, Louise Perry, said overseas students qualified for travel concessions if they were refugees, on exchange programs or held Australian development scholarships.
She said postgraduate and part-time students with low-income health care cards from Centrelink also paid concession rates.
"The State Government is committed to providing public transport concessions to students who are in genuine need," she said.
Ms Perry said it was puzzling that students campaigned over comparatively minor transport fares while staying quiet about massive upfront university fees.
Ms Ng said international students contributed to the economy through GST and payroll tax.
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