by “We’ve offered to the federal government and the state government, the use of that building as an ideal quarantine facility for almost 500 quarantine rooms,” Mr Carracher said.
“I believe the Victorian Government, in my opinion, is probably the most advanced and the most considered state in advancing bespoke solutions for different cohorts of other arrivals into their state.”
Mr Carracher said students had two advantages over other returning groups.
“One, even if they are COVID-positive they typically are in an age demographic that does not require the health care resources that 40, 50 and 60-year olds would require, or a returning ailing Australian expatriate.
“Secondly, they’re far more compliant, because they are here for a purpose, they’ve been given a visa to come into the country. They can be sent home again.”
Scape dominates the private student accommodation sector with over 14,000 beds across three brands in Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane and Adelaide.
Mr Carracher expressed disappointment with the NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian’s downplaying of the need to enable international students to return.
“The Federal Government has made their views clear, they control policy in this area and they have said their priority is bringing back Australians who are stranded overseas and I understand that and respect that and it is not a policy that states can change,” Ms Berejiklian said.
“I’m very disappointed in NSW today suggesting that their international student cohort is something that they should ‘consider’ … during the year, from the premier,” Mr Carracher said.
“She also suggested that some how international students represented a concerning activity group, because they might be singing, dancing, and mingling with each other.”
“In my opinion that represents a less informed position than the Victorian Government position at the moment and we would like to see the NSW government address each of these issues with some sort of ferocity,” Mr Carracher said.
Victoria Education Minister James Merlino said the government was looking for Canberra to take the lead to open up travel for returning international students.
Mr Merlino said everyone was keen to get students back but that it had to be done safely.
So its incredibly important for our economy, for our society, so we are working with education providers, were working with the Australian Government to ensure that we can have international students returning when it is safe to do so.”
So, everyone is keen to get it up and running and getting those students back as soon as its safe to do so, Mr Merlino said
