Our Australian Universities and their Chinese International students are affected by the virus and associated precautions.
News reports claim that there is an interruption to the education of many Chinese University students in Australia and also that only SOME schools (not many) are making allowance/ provision for those children whose preparation for or attendance at those examinations have been impaired because of the virus.
International education in Australia is our 3rd largest export (according to Dept of Foreign Affairs and Trade - up from 6th position 8 years ago BTW) industry and worth $32.4 Billion to the Australian economy. Representing 6% of the industry. Before the virus there were plans to increase this to $60Billion
Our main sources of International Students are Chine, India, Nepal, Brazil and Malaysia accounting for 6% of all international students -something like 336,000.
This virus not only causes children to face the medical repercussions and trauma such as family and self illness but also the death of family members and friends as they prepare for the next stage in their education.
There are Uni students who have been forced to defer their studies for unknown amounts of semesters and their are school children still not attending mainstream schooling despite the school year starting over a month ago.
..........
Another industry which has been significantly impacted by this virus is Hospitality and Tourism and accounts for approximately 10% of our export income. The 2016 Memorandum of Understanding between China and Australia seems a bit useless to us ATM
Year ended June 2019, Chinese visitors to Australia totalled 9.3 million visitors ( an increase of 4.6% on the year before) and injected $44.3 Billion into our economy, up 5% on the previous year.
In 2017-2018 alone, Tourism alone (not including hospitality) 646,000 people contributing a total of 3.1% to Australia's GDP
As it stands ATM, 1 in 19 Australian Workers are employed in Tourism/Hospitality. The industry is gasping for breath. The limited work available is consumed by those on full time/ set hour awards. Casuals income sources have been cut off at the knees. Mid and High Level employees generally on salaries, employment agreements and other employment benefits are being forced out in redundancy packages etc as the businesses struggle to meet their financial obligations.
Hotels and Restaurants and Room and Accomodation Industries are in crisis. This results in no work or money for
what is largely a casualized work force.
As At February 6, One in Six Australian businesses have been effected by the virus. This is right up the **bleep** of 28% of Australian businesses being affected by the recent bush fires.
I'm going to make a point of reflection on the effects and repercussions of the virus for some of these industries and the people within them....
I do find comfort in knowing that just as we have survived other global threats in the past, we will survive this too.
Stay Safe
*NOTE : A top ten list of Australia's Highest Shipping export will obviously exclude industries such as education and hospital/tourism/rooms in their export lists.. interesting and reason for optimism to see meat export coming in at #4 on those lists at $11.5 Billion.
