Thank you, Madam Chair.
My questions are for the representative at U15.
Mr. Hammond, what you left out in your opening remarks is that U15 is a registered lobbyist and a prolific lobby group that represents the interests of the ever-expanding and bloated university bureaucracy. Your organization lobbied the federal government 936 times in the last 14 years, averaging 66 times per year.
In a press release, U15 welcomed the exemption of foreign master's and Ph.D students from the 2026 Liberal so-called study permit cap as “an important step” and said it was “vital”. However, when you put an exemption to a cap, then it's not a cap at all. What the Liberals have ultimately done, after you lobbied them, is create this back door to letting in unlimited numbers of foreign international students.
Why did U15 push for a broad exemption for a cap on foreign graduate students rather than a narrower policy targeted only to verified labour shortages or critical research fields?