In a supercharged debate, Labor knows the risk of high immigration numbers being blamed for housing shortages, rental costs and overstretched infrastructure.
The start of a new academic year will sharpen familiar arguments about Australian universities’ financial reliance on extraordinarily high levels of international students paying steep fees.
Combine that with simmering community concerns about the level of overall immigration, made politically combustible by accusations that the system fails to ensure Australian “values”.
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correction —
This story has been updated to say the figure of 51 per cent international students at the University of Sydney is for 2024, not 2025.
