NSW Minister for Transport Jo Haylen has released a response to the ‘Fair Fairs’ petition which signals that the government will not change their policy on concession cards for part time and international students.
The petition, started by SUPRA and the SRC, reached 20,000 signatures in March this year after a large university supported student campaign. The City of Sydney and multiple state MPs including independent Alex Greenwich and Jenny Leong have endorsed the campaign.
In her response, Haylen maintains that “under NSW law, full fee paying overseas students are not eligible to receive concession travel.”
Similar to her response to a letter sent by Lord Mayor Clover Moore, Haylen argues that students who apply for visas are required to show they are able to pay for their living expenses in Australia.
Study Fare, and exceptions for students on certain federal government scholarships or who have a disability, Haylen notes, apply to international and part time students.
All other part time students are excluded from concession cards, according to Haylen, because they have greater work opportunities.
“These formats offer the potential to undertake full time employment hours while studying.”
SRC Disabilities and Carers Officer Khanh Tran and SUPRA Disabilities Officer Gemma Lucy Smart told Honi Soit that the extent people with disabilities can access concession cards in NSW is currently unclear.
“Travel concessions eligibility for part-time students with disability remains a bureaucratic patchwork of programs that are difficult to navigate through. The claim that ‘Students that attend tertiary studies part-time due to their disability can receive concession travel’ is only partially correct, and many students in this category are not currently eligible for such concessions.”
To receive a concession card, students have to be receiving the Disability Support Pension and in some narrow cases there are specific travel passes such as for people who are blind or vision impaired. The pension only applies to those with ‘incurable’ disabilities.
Many students do not register their disability with the government or the university.
SUPRA President Weihong Liang told Honi that they are “very dissatisfied with this response. It neither provides any reasonable explanation nor shows any willingness to engage in dialogue and seek resolution.”
Liang argued that the requirement that international students be able to afford their own cost of living was a federal requirement and did not reflect the reality for students but also was not a reason why state governments could not offer concessions.
“Using this as an approach creates significant uncertainty for students; any problem we encounter in NSW might be dismissed under this pretext, claiming that students have declared they should be self-sufficient.”
Liang also pointed out that between 2012 and 2016, NSW trialled a concession card for international students, making the policy well within what the state government could do.
Smart told Honi in a separate statement that part-time Higher Degree Research students (HDRs) are often unable to work full time.
“To suggest that HDRs can ‘work full time’ on top of their research commitments will only lead to the quality of the research and innovation in this country suffering.”
SRC President Harrison Brennan told Honi the response was “utterly disgraceful,” and that the request for expanded transport concession was “rather modest” for students who are currently struggling financially.
“This refusal has only made even more salient the Labor party’s disdain for students and working people.”
A parliamentary debate about the petition will be held on May 9 and presided over by Leong. SUPRA and the SRC are encouraging students to attend in the gallery.
