International student activists have succeeded in passing anti-transport discrimination motions at NSW Transport Minister Jo Haylen’s Summer Hill Branch.
With the international student cap coming into place alongside the backdrop of increasingly difficult cost of living pressures and housing insecurity – much of the discourse, especially with regard to international students have lacked perspective.
More often than not, discussions around these issues have focused on how international students have affected the housing market, cost of living, and more. As opposed to how international students have been impacted themselves.
To enhance their voice, many international students have sought to change this through activism, and joining political parties. In this case, some international students have joined the Australian Labor Party (ALP), which by the rules allows non-citizens to become members.
An issue activists have rallied around concerns cost of transport. NSW remains the only state in Australia where tertiary international students and non-full time students with permanent NSW addresses are excluded from forms of transport concession.
The Sydney University Postgraduate Representative Association (SUPRA) and Student Representative Council (SRC) previously sought to revitalise the Fair Fares Campaign by bringing a petition with over 21,000 signatures to the NSW Legislative Assembly. At the 2024 NSW Labor Conference, activists from the Sydney University Labor Club and wider Young Labor activists alike saw strong support from the Rail Tram and Bus Union (RTBU) in successfully enshrining a commitment to end transport discrimination into the 2024 NSW Labor Platform. As follows:
“NSW Labor supports the provision of transport concessions to all tertiary students, including international and part-time students. NSW Labor affirms the right for all young Australians to have access to accessible public transport.”
Due to previously lukewarm responses from the NSW Government on these issues, international student activists have now sought to coordinate with sympathetic Young Labor members to go branch to branch calling on the Labor Government to implement the 2024 NSW Labor Platform commitment.
Bohao Zhang, an international student and newly elected Councillor to the University of Sydney SRC, has sought to directly join the NSW Labor Party to have his voice heard.
Since starting this renewed campaign at the start of October 2024, the motion calling on the NSW Government to implement the 2024 NSW Labor Platform commitment has been supported at Glebe Branch, Liverpool Branch, Pennant Hills Branch, and most importantly Transport Minister Jo Haylen’s Summer Hill Branch.
William Yang
William Yang is a second year student at the University of Sydney, and President of the Sydney University Labor Club.