The nutjob Greens have proposed to clear the backlog of 97,000 migrant parent visas (see here).
The Productivity Commission’s 2016 Migrant Intake into Australia Report found that “the case for retaining parent visas in their current form is weak”:“The contributory visa charge of just under $50 000 meets only a fraction of the fiscal costs for the annual intake of roughly 7200 contributory parents. And an additional 1500 parents make a minimal contribution. Overall, the cumulated lifetime fiscal costs (in net present value terms) of a parent visa holder in 2015-16 is estimated to be between $335 000 and $410 000 per adult, which ultimately must be met by the Australian community. On this basis, the net liability to the Australian community of providing assistance to these 8700 parents over their lifetime ranges between $2.6 and $3.2 billion in present value terms. Given that there is a new inflow each year, the accumulated taxpayer liabilities become very large over time. This is a high cost for a relatively small group.
Ultimately, every dollar spent on one social program must require either additional taxes or forgone government expenditure in other areas. It seems unlikely that parent visas meet the usual standards of proven need, in contrast to areas such as mental health, homelessness or, in the context of immigration, the support of immigrants through the humanitarian stream, and foreign aid.
So, the productivity commission shows that each migrant parent costs the Australian taxpayer approx $400 000 over their lifetime and the brainless virtue signalling greens want to bring more in.
To be honest why are we allowing any parent visas when they cost us, the Australian taxpayer, the best part of half a million dollars each???
Why don't Liberal or Labor put a stop to the complete waste of our tax dollars on foreign nationals (because LibLab are utterly useless too!!). We have our own homeless people and elderly to look after.
You can read more here if interested.
