“The biggest issue on hand has been the [international student’s] travel concessions issue.” You may not be surprised to learn that this sentence is from a Sydney University Postgraduate Representative Association (SUPRA) International Students’ Officer’s annual report. What if I told you this line is from the year 2002?
The report, written by Rohit Dhawan, states that SUPRA has registered “a complaint with the Anti-Discrimination Board of NSW against the Transport Ministry of NSW”.
“Regarding the current status of the issue, all I can say is that our complaint has been registered and communication has begun.”
22 years have passed since that complaint. Today, the travel concessions campaign still hasn’t reached its ideal outcome, and it remains SUPRA’s “biggest issue on hand”.
NSW is currently the only state in Australia that does not offer travel concessions to international students. In Victoria, international undergraduate students can buy a Travel Pass that can save $1,034 a year, according to Public Transport Victoria. Full-time International students studying in Queensland can access a 50% concession fare.
An e-petition launched by USyd’s Students’ Representative Council (SRC) and SUPRA in September 2023 demanding travel concessions for all students in NSW (including international students and part-time students) has obtained roughly 7,000 signatures, less than half of its goal of 20,000.
From October 16, 2023, a new state government policy means it is no longer possible to get a half-price trip after eight journeys, increasing costs for international students who frequently use public transport.
USyd international student Yufei Zhu said she felt disappointed. “They [NSW Transport] only considered that local people cannot use that many trips for public transport, utterly ignoring students’ daily needs to take public transport to go to classes and get around the city,” she said.
Spending more than 50 dollars a week on public transport, USyd student Eve Zheng said she felt like she was “topping up again and again”.
To save money, USyd student Amper Zhu said he sometimes selects a “less eco-friendly” choice: taking a taxi with his roommates. “Sometimes it costs less than taking a bus, and it’s also quicker.”
Amper Zhu knows another international student who would spend hours waiting to get on a bus at off-peak time, to save money.
International students rely heavily on public transport for travel. Other popular methods of travel in Australia, such as owning a car, often raise several issues. It may cost time and money that international students don’t have. Students from right-hand driving countries will have to get used to driving on the left side.
Besides, there may be some unexpected problems. Yufei Zhu said that she knows someone who bought a second-hand car without knowing that it had some legal issues. “I want a car and then I buy one — it’s not that easy,” she said.
As for bicycles, Amper Zhu and Yufei Zhu said that they did not know of many bike lanes in Australia, and feel it is unsafe to ride alongside cars and buses.
Arriving in a new country all alone, international students are often confused by travel disruptions, delays, schedule changes, and station closures. Travelling to attend classes, students are also more likely to suffer from sudden changes to their routine, feeling anxious when they have to find an alternative.
The only option left: walking. Yufei Zhu said she chose to live close to the campus because of the issues around public transport, ensuring walking distance at the cost of high rent.
International students’ rights have been ignored for a long time. In SUPRA’s 2005-2006 Annual Report, former International Students’ Officer Mark Kelly said international students cannot afford the time to advocate for their rights.
“So many of us have to work to support ourselves (and the University’s profiteering from our educational aspirations), leaving little time for us to act to defend ourselves. We have no vote in Australia, though we are major contributors to the economy, and such a government clearly feels that it can ignore our demands,” Kelly wrote.
In SUPRA’s 2018 Annual Report, former Education Officer Rachel Evans also writes about Australia exploiting international students. “Sometimes students are worth more to unscrupulous Australian governments than coal and iron ore,” Evans wrote.
Today, despite the SRC and SUPRA’s long fight for the travel concession campaign, SUPRA President Weihong Liang said he was still feeling uncertain if the campaign would reach its ideal goal.
Liang said that the campaign has long been ignored by the authorities. He said without discussion with the student organisations, the government is making decisions leaving behind the true demand of students. “No conversation, no review, no one knows how many students are suffering from these issues”, he said.
Liang said the main challenge to fight for international student rights is that international students have no voting rights in Australia. They bring indirect and potential benefits to the voters that concern not only transportation, such as housing and ecology. He talked about travel concessions for international students using a Chinese saying “pulling a single hair makes the whole body move”, meaning that a single change can have far-reaching influence.
The current campaign also advocates for travel concessions to be available to part-time students. Liang said many students chose to do part-time study because they cannot financially support themselves while undertaking full-time study. Travel concessions can help them financially, but Liang found that no one was raising this issue for them.
“Students are marginalised; international students are more marginalised, part-time students are even more marginalised,” he said.
The deadline of the petition is March 7, 2024. Liang said whatever the outcome of the petition is, the campaign will continue to pursue a formal dialogue with the policymakers. “The campaign’s relaunching is telling people that we haven’t given up, and we will keep up until we reach equality.”
Despite constant and collective efforts from student organisations, the demand for quality has still been ignored, and those students are still struggling, paying either high rent or high transport fees. In 2017, the campaign united 12 organisations to collect 10,000 signatures but didn’t reach the goal. One can’t help but wonder: will this year be different?
