In the wake of Dr Bob Birrell’s startling report on Labor’s proposed uncapped visa for parents of existing migrants, Melbourne University demography professor, Peter McDonald, has warned that 1.5 million to 2 million migrant Australian families could seek to bring their elderly parents to Australia under Labor:
Melbourne University population expert Peter McDonald estimated that 1.5-2 million migrant Australians could be interested in Labor’s visa and predicted an early rush to take advantage of its generosity before a likely tightening of the rules by a future government.
Under Labor’s policy, each migrant family would be permitted to bring up to four elderly parents (i.e. two per spouse). This means that Australia could be looking at millions of elderly migrant arrivals.
Moreover, without policy adjustment, numbers would skyrocket over time as each additional permanent migrant would be permitted to bring their elderly parents into Australia – effectively a ‘buy one, get three policy’.
The irony in all this is that Peter McDonald has falsely argued for a strong immigration program to mitigate an ageing population. Now this rationale is being obliterated by Labor, whose immigration policy will unambiguously age Australia and destroy the federal budget.
