One minister sets how many international students the country takes, by signing a direction
What changed
The government set a National Planning Level of 295,000 international student places for 2026 — 25,000 more than 2025. It is not a law. It is a ministerial direction telling the visa department which applications to process first, so it decides the size of the sector without deciding anyone’s visa. Every university and college gets an allocation; none gets less than last year, and extra places must be earned by meeting government priorities. Universities are effectively told how big they may be, by a document one minister signs.
Was this put to voters?
No. No election was fought on the number. The mechanism — a ministerial direction that prioritises visa processing — was created after an earlier attempt to legislate caps did not proceed. The current instrument is Ministerial Direction 115, in effect from 14 November 2025, replacing Direction 111. Applications are not refused for exceeding a cap; they are processed slowly enough that the number lands where intended.
How it’s going where you live
Pick your electorate and this will say what it would take for the number here to be bigger than the margin your seat was won by — which is the number your member can check for themselves.
Where do you stand on this decision?
This is a demonstration. In the real product, Euthyna confirms you are a real person living in this electorate before counting an answer, and you do not pick the electorate yourself. That step is still being built.
Who has responded
Most responses counted here are simulated — nobody was asked for them. Yours would be real and counted.
How people answered is not shown until voting closes — so early numbers cannot sway later ones.
This decision applies across 150 electorates. 9 of them have someone who has responded.
Where people have responded
- Bradfield9 residents · 8 enrolled to vote · under 0.1% of the seat
Won by 26 votes in 2025. 14 people changing their mind would have changed the result.
- Goldstein8 residents
Won by 175 votes in 2025. 88 people changing their mind would have changed the result.
- Longman8 residents
Won by 269 votes in 2025. 135 people changing their mind would have changed the result.
- Bean7 residents
Won by 700 votes in 2025. 351 people changing their mind would have changed the result.
- Bullwinkel7 residents
Won by 1,066 votes in 2025. 534 people changing their mind would have changed the result.
- Fremantle5 residents
Won by 1,400 votes in 2025. 701 people changing their mind would have changed the result.
- Kooyong5 residents
Won by 1,532 votes in 2025. 767 people changing their mind would have changed the result.
- Menzies5 residents
Won by 2,358 votes in 2025. 1,180 people changing their mind would have changed the result.
- Solomon5 residents
Won by 1,576 votes in 2025. 789 people changing their mind would have changed the result.
Showing 9 of 150 electorates.
25, or half the number it would take to matter there, whichever is fewer. In a small area a handful of answers can identify who gave them. Only people enrolled to vote are counted against a margin; everyone who lives here is counted as a resident. Margins are from the last election and change at a redistribution.
The record
Read the document itself →What you can do about this
Across 2 decisions, 438 people in 61 electorates have answered this question.
Should a government be able to make decisions that Parliament cannot overturn?
This decision is one piece of evidence. The question stands on its own, and every decision like it adds to the same total. Your answer counts once per parliamentary term, not once per decision — and you do not have to answer the decision above to answer this.
Choose where you live, further up, before answering.
What would actually change this
Parliament already holds the lever: whether an instrument can be disallowed is written into the Act that creates the power, and it can be written differently. What changes it is members deciding the exemption costs them more than it saves them — which is a judgement about their own electorates, made from numbers in their own electorates.
Euthyna publishes what people say so the decision-makers who can act on it can see it. It does not tell anyone how to vote and does not run campaigns.