Huo RaymondRAYMOND HUO (Labour): I rise to join the debate in my capacity as Labour's spokesperson for export education. The Labour Government changed the education legislation in 1989 and opened the market for international students. The export education sector contributed about $2.6 billion per annum and that was the figure in dollar terms when I left Parliament about 2½ years ago. I have since learnt that the figure in dollar terms is about $4.5 billion now. So it is a no-brainer that export education is a smart and sustainable way to grow our economy.However such an export education sector might be subject to abuse and would put more pressure on our public education system. Right now schools across the country are overcrowded and hundreds more are at risk of overcrowding. In Auckland alone the education ministry has warned of critical pressures and would expect about 107000 additional students in the city by 2040. Some of those students quite contrary to the public perception or belief may not be Kiwi kids—namely those whose parents are either New Zealand citizens or permanent residents—but overseas students enjoying the same entitlements as our domestic students.How would that have happened? Whistleblowers have told me that some international students over the last 8 years or so got themselves enrolled in low-quality courses graduated from poor private training establishments (PTEs) as quickly as possible and then applied for an open work visa. Once the open work visa was granted that international student would sponsor his or her spouse and once they were here they would bring in their dependent children and then enrol at our publicly funded schools as domestic students.I am not criticising the policy around open work visas per se or addressing any issues related to immigration—I will leave them to my immigration spokesperson. What I am saying is that there should be clear guidelines to help protect our public education system and prevent the system from being abused. Right now nobody knows about the size and scope of the problem. And guess what? This National Government has no idea about the problem at all.Chris Bishop: Oh rubbish.RAYMOND HUO: That is not rubbish. That member would like to know that in answers to written parliamentary questions about the numbers of dependent child student visa holders who were enrolled in New Zealand State schools the Minister of Education said that the Ministry of Education did not collect the data. In response to written parliamentary questions about the numbers of spouses and dependent children of the holders of post-study work visas the Minister of Immigration said that he did not know. All we know is that half of the 39142 first-time fee-paying international students enrolled in the year 2013-14 went on to convert their student visas to work visas or other types of visas. There will about 130000 international students in New Zealand this year.Export education is a smart and sustainable way of growing our economy. I salute the export education sector. I salute the good quality PTEs and home-stay parents for their hard work and contributions. But there are three key issues I wish to reiterate. Firstly schools across the country are overcrowded and hundreds more are at risk of overcrowding. Secondly good PTEs across the country are not on an equal footing when competing against the small number of PTEs that offer low-quality courses to those so-called international students whose intention is not to study here but to take advantage of our school system. Thirdly Labour will close the loophole. Thank you.