NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian has announced her plan to tackle Sydney’s population growth by giving international students incentives to study in regional NSW. 

An estimated number of 220,000 of 400,000 temporary migrants in NSW are international students. International student’s education is the second largest export industry in NSW, and was worth approximately $10.3 billion in 2016-17. 

According to the expert panel formed by Ms Berejiklian, 98.8 per cent of all international students in NSW attend tertiary institutions in Sydney, while only 1.2 per cent are in regional NSW. 

The population panel was established in October and was led by former federal public service chief, Professor Peter Shergold, Infrastructure NSW chief executive Jim Betts, and the Department of Planning and Environment head Carolyn McNally. 

The incentives program will be part of the Canadian-style system of migration which Ms Berejiklian has put forward, where the states and territories will have more say in determining their migration levels. 

“For far too long, NSW has been burdened with ballooning population growth without us properly consulted on the targets, where people live and what services and infrastructure growing communities will need,” Ms Berejiklian said. 

Moreover, other proposals in the six-point plan include greater state input on skilled-migration needs, more state discretion on federal infrastructure spend and better data sharing and planning by the Commonwealth.