Elderly parent visas are Australia’s most costly and should be abolished.
Around 8,500 permanent parent visas are issued every year. The 2023 Migration Review from the Australian Treasury estimated that each parent visa costs Australian taxpayers $393,000:
The Treasury has estimated that each parent permanent migrant costs $393,000 over their remaining lifetime in Australia.
Older migrants increase demand for services, particularly health and aged care, which are already under considerable pressure due to the rapid decline in Australia’s age dependency ratio.
While a demand-driven parent program may be highly valued by sponsoring migrant families, this would be at a very high economic cost to the Australian community as a whole.
The Productivity Commission likewise estimated that the cost of 8500 parent visas issued yearly was between $335 000 and $410 000 per adult in net present value terms. The PC also warned that these visas divert scarce taxpayer funding from other government programs:
“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”.
“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”.
The bulk of an individual’s healthcare costs occur in their final years.
Therefore, it is a foolish policy to import 8500 elderly parents per year who have made no contributions to Australia.
There is no “magic pudding” in Australian public finances. Parent visas significantly burden taxpayers, limiting financing for other programs, including schools, hospitals, the Aged Pension, JobSeeker, the National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS), and infrastructure.
The financial cost of parental visas is enormous and threatens the survival of Australia’s health system and welfare state.
Parent visas also contradict the claim that a strong migration program is essential to address an ageing population. Instead, these visas directly accentuate the ageing issue.
With this background in mind, it was disappointing to see Coalition leader Peter Dutton refuse to include parent visas as part of his proposed migration cuts:
“We’re going to cut migration by 25%”, Dutton told reporters on the weekend.
“In relation to parents, I’ve been clear about this — it’s an important part of the migration program. We’re not going to reduce those”, he said.
Unfortunately, the migrant vote has become so large and vocal that chain migration is now official government policy.
