It appears the agreement does stop us from being able to cap the number of Indian students who come here. Now, that’s not the end of the world, given there actually isn’t a cap on them at the moment - or, frankly, on students of any nationality.
The Government also always retains the ability to cap all students by tweaking visa settings.
What this trade agreement prevents them from doing, by the looks of things, is specifically targeting Indian students and putting a cap on them alone.
But the issue is that Indian students have historically been a particularly tricky area, given previous problems with dodgy schemes sending students here without the required level of funds - or with other issues - and they end up becoming our problem to deal with.
Depending on where you sit on this, that might really upset you. You might hate that. Or you might simply see it as the give‑and‑take of free‑trade negotiations - a price we pay to gain access to the huge Indian market we now have.
The trouble is, instead of having that debate, we’re now on track to have a debate about whether the Government is hiding things from voters.
It’s becoming increasingly clear that they are withholding something, judging by the way the Trade Minister ducks and dives when asked about this.
And I don’t know about you, but in an age of online conspiracy theories, declining trust in politicians, and shrinking confidence in institutions, I’m not sure this is a smart strategy for the Government - especially in an election year.
Sure, either way, the Government was going to face a gnarly debate. But surely it’s better to debate whether we should trade uncapped student access for access to the Indian market, rather than debate the Government’s integrity itself.
Heather du Plessis-Allan is a journalist and commentator who hosts Newstalk ZB's Drive show. This article was sourced from Newstalk ZB.
2 comments:
Winston (who is in government) versus the government. Who will be left standing, asks Heather. Let’s watch and see if the guy in government gets his way, or if it goes the other way and the government position comes out on top. As they said in Scream - the call is coming from inside the house!
Well it deprnds on the type of indians we get. The ones I work with are from wealthy families in India and have degrees and are absolutely western and mostly christian. They tell me that nz is no longer the choice for these types due to them reading about the nz crime and ram raids and how there are no consequences for criminals. In India if you tried to walk out of a supermarket with a trolley of groceries you hadn't paid for, an indian citizen would grab you and beat you and then the police would come and beat you also. . So if we start getting the lower caste types instead who won't assimilate, then that is where the problems may occur.
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