Travel Concessions for International Students - Foolish Demands (1 Viewer)

[spartan31234]

Currently there are some on going campaigns by the Usyd SRC and various student unions to get travel concessions for international students
naturally they have only presented a one sided view on the issue and naturally i feel compelled to use my right to free speech* to give a more balanced view.

Unionists have gone as far to claim that refusing to give travel concessions to international students is racial discrimination Transport Concessions

"The successful racial discrimination case against the NSW Minister for Transport Services, STA, RTA and Railcorp, highlighted the prejudicial behaviour of the government and its instrumentalities in its dealings with international students"

The unions point is that they like some of us struggle to balance work, life, study and therefore should be given a travel concessions.
This is untrue and the propaganda is helped, sometimes by by a subconscious assumption " because they come from a certain developing nation they must be worse of then us!" But if you compare the demographics of most international students you will see their are more struggling Australians that have to support their studies working 15-20 hour while studing 20 hours per week.

This is simply because a significant number international students come from the elite of their countries and theorfore are going to be more well off than suprisingly quite a few number of Australian citizens. I mean how else can they afford to pay $20K + per semester up front... they don't their parents do!

Further more the claim that the Australian government does not give travel concessions to international students is untrue!
International students are not eligible for a concession EXCEPT those on approved Australian Government exchange or sponsorship programs
Infact The Australian government offers many scholarships to developing countries.

eg
"Australian Development Scholarships
Australian Development Scholarships (ADS) are a highly-valued form of development cooperation between Australia and partner countries with which Australia has a bilateral aid program"

Other scholarships for international students

Scholarships for international students - International postgraduate research - The University of Sydney

- USYD scholarships

In this way only the international students that need support are given various concessions and therefore the Australian government are not violating any racial discrimination laws as some people have claimed.

Please Note

I am not against international students and i am aware they are getting ripped off especially by those colleagues and i think a few things need to changed before the reputation of Australian education degrades.

I admit more needs to be done to help internatinoal students settle.

I wrote this article because of the misinformation that was out their, in essence socialist propaganda which aims simply to divide and conquer for their own political purposes. Remember (to any international students) the people who are appearing to help you are the ones who support Compulsory Student Unionism, which in the dark days forced both local students and international students to join the union pay in USYD $590 up front per year.

here is an article about the USYD union and how they resulted in the president of the chess club resigning
(NB this occurred a long time ago so the policies mentioned could have changed by now)

SU Chess Club

but thats another thread...

oh yea their not tax payers so the government can't get their money back as well

anyway what do you think??

PS
Sorry for double posting, this thread comes up on Google, but it looks like it is for travel concessions for all international students

i deleted the other thread sorry sorry sorry

 

[spartan31234]

apparently Victoria and NSW are the only states that do not give concessions to international students.

"the Premier, Nathan Rees, who held long talks with the Indian Foreign Minister, V.S.Krishna, two weeks ago, is facing calls to give overseas students greater access to travel concessions as a symbolic gesture"

well if they are going to be travel concessions they should be issued through a some sort of aid scholarship i suppose.

 

[quik.]

I don't see why they shouldn't get concessions. Rich aussie students are still eligible?

International students are also limited to working 20 hours p week as far as I know, that knocks out part time work leaving only casual... so those that do have to support themselves (have worked with one), could use the help.

 

[spartan31234]

I would assume most international students do not support themselves , if they do ie their parents aren't rich they probably on a ADS scholarship. Most Aussie students aren't rich. I am sure no Aussie student can afford to pay full fee (perhaps their parents), kids with rich parents are the equivalent to most international students.

My main point is that the current policy is not discrimination as some people have claimed, The travel concessions are given on the basis of demographics for example

for Australian students
"Full time tertiary students who attend day classes and are not in paid employment or otherwise receiving an income"

Travel Concessions for Tertiary Students and Mature Aged Senior Secondary Students 19 Years and Older - NSW Ministry of Transport

as you can see a fair bit of Australian students do not qualify for concessions. I am not sure about the income bit - does casual job count ?

Your point is true there are students in Australia with rich parents but it is very difficult to means test their independence to them. It is more cost effective to give travel concessions based on the above criteria.

Anyway like i said the chances are that international students are more wealthy than the average Australian student and its unfair to equate the two when determining concession policy- what ever they may be.

Unless they are on a AusAid based scholarship - in which they do get concessions thus allowing international students to get travel concessions based on their economic situation.

I admit it could be tough for some international students as they may not have seen all the costs of studying overseas.. but we can't do too much about that.

 

[aussie-boy]

I see 2 issues here:

1. Clearly, international students are submitted to much more stringent eligibility tests - we just sign a bit of paper saying we don't work (often a lie); so its like the Gov has double standards when it comes to enforcing its rules

2. Every bit of subsidy that one gets as a student will be paid back in the higher tax revenues generated as a well educated professional (many times over) - so we are paying full price, just half now and half later. International students, if they leave after getting their degree, need to pay for their travel now.

I don't understand the logic of this protest though; they need to accept that they are buyers of an export good with a market $ value - if they spend less on one facet of life in Australia, the Gov will be sure to recoup the costs by charging more for fees.

If living conditions weren't acceptable, they wouldn't come here - but they do, meaning nothing needs to change

 

[Freedom_]

I support the International students on this issue.

 

[Planck]

I'm not a racist but these immigrants are clogging up all of the housing for the Australian [comment]White[/comment] students and causing a ruckus with their crime and whatnot.

Why should we reward this behaviour with an equal status in Australian society?

 

[Ben Netanyahu]

I'm not a racist but these immigrants are clogging up all of the housing for the Australian [comment]White[/comment] students and causing a ruckus with their crime and whatnot.

Why should we reward this behaviour with an equal status in Australian society?

poar!

 

[КГБ]

I'm not a racist but these immigrants are clogging up all of the housing for the Australian [comment]White[/comment] students and causing a ruckus with their crime and whatnot.

Why should we reward this behaviour with an equal status in Australian society?

lol what are you talking about? I doubt international students can afford inner Sydney accommodation.

 

[Rasengan2dabalz]

Mmm no i think this is a terrible idea. By allowing International students to purchase metcards at concession prices, connex will be losing out on alot of revenue, and will probably raise the prices of all tickets to make up for it, or start cutting jobs.

 

[russs]

No concessions for international students.

In fact, no concessions for anyone.

 

[JClamp]

but not all of us are rich bastards, bro

 

[Garygaz]

No concessions for international students.

In fact, no concessions for anyone.

Care to rationalize this dribble?

 

[rozymisty]

In Qld the only way that you can get a conceesion, well on Brisbane transport is to have the QR logo on your ID card. And to get that, you need to be on some sort of full time study and get youth allowance or something similar!

Just coz you are at uni doenst mean you can get a concession card..weird system but yeah.

 

[russs]

Care to rationalize this dribble?

1. International students have the funds to pay full price. I've met plenty, and none of them need concessions.

2. I don't think uni students should really get concessions. If you have the means to attend uni, you should have the means to pay full price for a ticket. Also, half the students who currently have concessions should not have them because they are employed - look up department of transport rules.

These people I think should get concessions:

- Disabled
- War Widows
- Veterans
- Maybe the people who qualify for YA, ABSTUDY, AUSTUDY and other specific centrelink assistance.
- Pensioners (In some cases)

3. Any public transport in Sydney (I can only speak for Sydney) is pathetic. That includes both Cityrail and Sydney Buses. I would be happy to never qualify for a concession (I don't anyways) if the services were brought up to scratch from the extra income.

 

[Garygaz]

2. I don't think uni students should really get concessions. If you have the means to attend uni, you should have the means to pay full price for a ticket. Also, half the students who currently have concessions should not have them because they are employed - look up department of transport rules.

Well ignoring those half who are breaking the law, I know a lot of people who don't have a lot of money who are at uni and tafe. The means to attend uni? Most people do deferred payments because they don't have the means to pay for it. I do, however, agree with your first point.

 

[mcflystargirl]

1. International students have the funds to pay full price. I've met plenty, and none of them need concessions.

2. I don't think uni students should really get concessions. If you have the means to attend uni, you should have the means to pay full price for a ticket. Also, half the students who currently have concessions should not have them because they are employed - look up department of transport rules.

These people I think should get concessions:

- Disabled
- War Widows
- Veterans
- Maybe the people who qualify for YA, ABSTUDY, AUSTUDY and other specific centrelink assistance.
- Pensioners (In some cases)

3. Any public transport in Sydney (I can only speak for Sydney) is pathetic. That includes both Cityrail and Sydney Buses. I would be happy to never qualify for a concession (I don't anyways) if the services were brought up to scratch from the extra income.

if they were to cut australian students concessions my weekly travel cost would go up to about 57 bucks a week, i can personally not afford this! Most uni students over here can not afford this!

 

[Freedom_]

Public transport should be free. Period

 

[Rasengan2dabalz]

Public transport should be free. Period

Dream'n

 

[Freedom_]

Dream'n

Why? our taxes should be covering the costs of our shitty rail system. Anyone who actually believes that we should be paying for public transport is an idiot.