NSW is one of only two states in Australia to not offer full travel concessions to full time international students. International students bring richness of cultural experience to NSW and the possibility of genuine international and intercultural dialogue, yet the NSW Government treats international students with disdain. 

In 2006 the Sydney University Postgraduate Representative Association (SUPRA) and a group of international students took the matter to the courts, and the NSW Administrative Decisions Tribunal ruled that travel concession denial was racial discrimination. The NSW Government’s response was to change the law to make it legal to continue the discrimination. The effect was that only a small number of international students with government scholarships still got a concession.

In a tokenistic gesture, the NSW Government ultimately offered limited discounts to all international students through a special kind of MyMulti travel concession. The discount on MyMulti is more expensive than an opal card. It only benefits students who spend more than $3.92 per trip on more than 8 trips a week. These are students travelling per trip more than 8km by bus, more than 10km by train during peak hours, or more than 35km by train during off-peak hour. Most international students don’t fit this category hence they do not benefit from MyMulti and prefer using opal cards with their 8 trips per week cut off and $2.50 cap on Sunday.

Things have gotten worse again. In 2015 the NSW Government abolished travel concessions for most of the international student research scholarships that still had them. Now is the time to say no more. International students face rampant exploitation in the workplace, poor living conditions and an impossibly expensive rental market. International students are not all wealthy and Government and Universities need to do more to support them, and one way to extend such support is to stop the discrimination. We demand full student concessions for all students, regardless of their nationalities.

We, the undersigned, are international students, local students, education staff, and other supporters from the public who believe in equality and fair treatment for all including for overseas students. We demand the NSW Government extend transport concessions to international students and we demand them now.