Julia Gillard's India Visit Raises Questions

123jump.com Staff
01 Sep, 2009
New York City

Australia after months of violence against Indian students stepped up its diplomatic offensive. Deputy Prime Minister Julia Gillard on a five-day visit to India stressed that Australia is safe and welcoming place failed to cite concrete evidence of her government

[R]10:00 AM New Delhi, India – Australia after months of violence against Indian students stepped up its diplomatic offensive. Deputy Prime Minister Julia Gillard on a five-day visit to India stressed that Australia is safe and welcoming place failed to cite concrete evidence of her government’s efforts that protect all international students.[/R]

Australia stepped up diplomatic charm offensive after a spate of violence directed at Indian students.

Deputy Prime Minister Julia Gillard also controls among other portfolios the education ministry. While talking to reporters in New Delhi she stressed that Australia is a safe and welcoming place for Indian students but her explanations left more unanswered questions.

Ms Gillard is on a five-day state visit to India.

While barely acknowledging the recent violent attacks, after persistent questioning Gillard went on to stress that Australia is working on legislation to strengthen security and root out vocational colleges and institutions that have been known for years as sham operators.

Gillard’s tone of answering to Indian media and her lack of grasp of details is raising more questions.

More than 95,000 Indian students are in Australia and the number of students has sharply increased from under 40,000 in 2006. Indian students are about 18% of 542,000 international students in Australia, trailing only to Chinese student body.

Foreign students are critical to the Australian economy and international students contribute more than $13 billion to the local economy and generate the third largest export income after coal and iron ore.

Education Minister Julia Gillard offered several explanations of what her government feelings are towards the recent attacks on Indian students but failed to offer any concrete evidence to support her assertions. The only evidence she offered was that more police are patrolling in the areas where attacks have taken place.

Though Gillard likes to point out that attacks again students are only recent and sudden increase in student body is the main reason behind the surge in recent attacks.

However, a review of statistics suggest otherwise.

According to police in Victoria, 1,082 Indian students were attacked in the state in the year ending in June 2007 and 1,447 students registered attacks in the year ending in June 2008. Attacks statistics in the year just ended in June have not been released but the preliminary indications suggest a further increase.

What is more damaging to Gillard’s credibility is that few families and students in India believe her explanations. While most middle class families in India are sympathetic to the Australian government and believe in Australian education system, but Gillard’s performance has left many wondering if she has lost touch with reality.

It is the persistent denial and stonewalling by the Rudd government officials including Deputy Prime Minister Gillard and not accepting the responsibility for the safety of all international students is turning out to be more damaging than the attacks.

When reporters asked Deputy Prime Minister if she can reveal how many people have been arrested and prosecuted in connection with these attacks, she did not respond. When reporters inquired how much additional policing is done and what is the increase in police budget she again demurred.

Education Minister Gillard also stressed her government’s role and commitment in rooting out questionable vocational institution in Australia. She warned that institutions that do not meet the national registration standards will be “put out of the business.”

However, it is not clear how stringent these standards are and who is responsible for devising these standards. When 123jump.com contacted Department of Education, Employment and Workplace Relation and requested the new registration requirements we were met with a silence.

Sham schools have dogged Australia at least for a decade and international students have been victimized for years.

In 1998, then the Indian high commissioner to Australia Gopalaswami Parthasarthy warned of the problems with these schools to Australian regulators. For more than a decade, Australia has failed to do anything about these schools.

Kapil Sibal, the current Education Minister in India told Australian publication The Age, “Education in Australia needs to be about education and not just money-making.”

Gillard may think that Australia is safe and welcoming place for Indian students but not many Indian families are buying her soothsaying.

Several schools in Australia are reporting sharp fall in application from India and estimates run for a decline between 20% and 30% in the current academic year.

In addition, fourth institute is expected to fail this week. Melbourne based The College of Creative Arts and Technology is expected to close its doors not for its failure to pass the national standards requirements but lack of financing.

Several dozen students are likely to be stranded and lose their pre-paid fees. According to the Web site of the institute full time courses for audio engineering cost A$10,000 for the first course and must be paid before the start of the academic semester.