A SRC and SUPRA e-petition to expand travel concession card access to part time and international students has reached the required 20,000 signatures to be tabled for Parliamentary debate on May 9 at 4pm.
NSW is currently the only state in Australia to not offer some kind of travel concession to part time and international students. In sharp contrast to Victoria and Queensland, where there has been a bipartisan push to give all students heavy discounts on public transport in the last decade, NSW has only trialed the policy between 2012 and 2016.
The campaign to achieve concessions began in 2002 when a SUPRA report into the issue led to a complaint with the Anti-Discrimination Board of NSW against the Transport Ministry of NSW, alleging that the policy was discriminatory.
The latest petition was launched in September 2023 and most signatures were collected at stalls during Welcome Week and through extensive reposting across many University social media accounts.
The expansion of concessions, if implemented, is expected to cost the NSW government around $170 million a year.
SUPRA President Weihong Liang told Honi Soit that the next focus of the campaign was to expand beyond the University of Sydney with a focus on bringing on other student bodies across NSW.
The postgraduate representative at UNSW, Tony Le, and international students officer at UTS, Raghav Motani, confirmed to Honi they were part of the latest push to gather support for the policy.
Honi also understands that representatives of the UTS SRC are meeting with UTS Deputy Vice Chancellor (Education and Students) Kylie Readman today to lobby for an official endorsement from the University.
Motani said he “expected a positive response” noting that because UTS would not be paying for the concession cards, they have no incentive to oppose increased funding for students.
Liang said the ultimate goal of this next phase was to submit a joint letter to the Transport Minister before the debate takes place with the mandate of as many universities and student organisations as possible.
USyd confirmed its support for the policy change in a statement. “We strongly support student associations SUPRA and the SRC with their ‘Fair Fares’ campaign.”
Honi also understands that Vice Chancellor Mark Scott has already raised the issue in an academic board meeting.
The University also said Scott would bring the petition to a meeting of the NSW Vice-Chancellor’s Committee in a further attempt to gather support from the executives of other universities.
One of the eleven recommendations the University made in its March 8 Submission to the NSW Government’s pre-Budget 2024-2025 consultations was that the government “should act as all other Australian jurisdictions have done to provide a concession on public transport fares to all students, including international students and part-time domestic students, who are currently excluded.”
The University pointed out that international students from USyd alone “contribute $1.4 billion directly to the [NSW] economy, with an estimated further $2.5 billion in indirect benefits.”
Further, the submission argued that “in an increasingly competitive market for international students” NSW falling behind other states risks it becoming a less attractive destination for students to study in.
Many international students have told Honi that they are sometimes spending hundreds of dollars on public transport a month.
According to Liang, the campaign has struggled to gain ground in the past because international students often struggle to advocate for themselves in Australia and even when they do, there is almost no political incentive to listen.
Greens MP Jenny Leong, who heavily campaigned for expanded concessions when she served as SUPRA president from 2006-2007, will preside over the debate in May.
The office of Transport Minister Jo Haylen was contacted for comment.
