Bill Shorten is defending these individuals as he knows this is his supporter base
The Australian today.
More than 1.5 million people receiving welfare payments in Australia were born overseas with migrants over-represented on the aged and carer pensions, according to previously confidential data
The fastest growing income- support pension, the carer payment, is disproportionately used by people born in the Middle East.
Iraqi-Australians accounted for 3.77 per cent of the 260,592 carer payment recipients — 15 times their representation in the general population, which is just 0.23 per cent.
Lebanese-Australians, 0.39 per cent of the general population, comprise almost 3 per cent of those on the carer payments and 1.27 per cent of people on disability support.
The data, obtained from the Department of Social Services under Freedom of Information laws, paints a picture of a multicultural society in which Australian-born people are over-represented on the dole and disability support pension.
