Letters | China and Australia tensions will hit more than iron ore exports

Name: Australia and China cooperation too valuable for 'nonsensical' decoupling
Uploaded: 2020-09-15T23:20:07.000Z
Duration: 7 min 34 s
Description: Australia and China cooperation too valuable for 'nonsensical' decoupling

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International students from China walk along the waterfront by the Opera House in Sydney on June 24. Photo: Reuters

Letters

Published: 7:20am, 16 Sep 2020Updated: 7:20am, 16 Sep 2020

Professor John Quiggin, from the University of Queensland’s School of Economics, argues Australia’s family incomes will remain immune from China abandoning our US$72.2 billion a year worth of iron ore (“Why China tensions won’t make Australia the ‘poor white trash of Asia’”, September 12).

He remains silent on how the economic damage inflicted by Australia-China tensions could ruin the tourism and international higher education sectors that underpin Australia’s high standard of living.

University of Sydney alone earned fees from A$500 million (US$365 million) from students from China in 2017, a fifth of its total annual revenue. Now, amid the coronavirus pandemic and mounting tensions between Canberra and Beijing, the future of our education money spinner is at grave risk.

China’s ambassador to Australia Cheng Jingye said parents may reconsider “whether this place, which they find is not so friendly, even hostile, is the best place to send their kids”.

China’s official dissuasion of students coming to Australia could spell the death knell for our universities. Australia stands to lose up to A$19 billion over the next three years if our border stays closed for 2020. The loss to the broader economy from living expenses incurred by international students living here could be as high as A$60 billion.

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Australia and China cooperation too valuable for 'nonsensical' decoupling

Then there is international travel. Tourism is Australia’s largest services export, contributing A$37.4 billion to the economy in 2017–18, ranked third after iron ore and coal. Around 1.5 million travellers from China visited Australia in the first six months of 2019, the largest number for any country. Australia’s tourism authority will surely want to nurture that bounty once the pandemic has loosened its grip.

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Letters | China and Australia tensions will hit more than iron ore exports