Australia’s ruling Labor Party has announced it will fund some of its election promises by raising visa fees for international students.

The move will mean the fee will rise from $1,600 to $2,000 if Labor is re-elected.

The Coalition has also said it would raise the student visa application charge to $5,000 for Group of Eight universities and $2,500 for all other international students.

Election costings outline how the major parties plan to fund all the policies and announcements made throughout their campaign.

In a bid to pressure the Coalition to release its costings, Labor unveiled the cost of commitments made since March’s budget on Monday. However, the parliamentary budget office doesn’t release its full list of costings until after the election.

In a joint press conference, Treasurer Jim Chalmers and Finance Minister Katy Gallagher revealed a further $1 billion in savings since the pre-election economic and fiscal outlook.

“We will finish this election campaign with the budget in a stronger position than at the start of the election campaign,” Chalmers told reporters.

Where has Labor found savings?

Savings will come from student visa fees, which will increase to $2,000 from 1 July 2025 and are anticipated to deliver $760 million to the budget over the forward estimates.

The change will not affect arrangements for Pacific Island and Timor-Leste applicants.

An extra $6.4 billion will come from reducing spending on consultants, contractors, and labour hire, as well as non-wage expenses such as travel, hospitality, and property.

Gallagher said unlike the Coalition’s pledge to cut 41,000 public jobs, these savings would not impact any services or programs that the Australian Public Service provides.

The cumulative budget deficit will reduce from $151.6 billion to $150.5 billion as a result of the changes.

It will help to cover Labor’s $1,000 instant tax deduction for work expenses, which is estimated to cost the budget $2.4 billion over forward estimates.

Gallagher said Labor had managed to get “rid of a lot of waste and rorts” embedded in previous budgets, which have been redirected to cost of living measures.

“We returned that money to budget, and it allowed us to … deliver through our budgets — our investments in Medicare, our investments in housing, the income tax cuts, and other measures like lowering HECS debt,” she said. (SBS News)