Federal Labor has slammed Immigration Minister David Coleman for calling the opposition’s parent visa policy a “cruel hoax” and that it would be unsustainable to give an unlimited number of visas.
“There are many visas that David Coleman would know about where there is no cap on those visas.
“He is disingenuous, he has broken his promise to migrant communities. The Liberals’ visa is still not in place, still not operational. And this is yet another pack of lies and scaremongering by the Liberals,” Shadow Immigration Minister Shayne Neumann said.
Mr Coleman, in response to Labor’s Temporary Sponsored Parent Visa policy, said it would be unsustainable to get an uncapped number of parents in Australia.
Shadow Minister for Immigration Shayne Neumann during Question Time at Parliament House in Canberra, Tuesday, September 11, 2018. Source: AAP
“Labor knows full well that this proposal would be completely unsustainable. It is trying to perpetrate a cruel hoax on migrant communities,” the Immigration Minister said last month.
Some demographers have expressed concerns that uncapped parent visas could lead to higher demand for healthcare services.
Mr Neumann said the Coalition's cuts to healthcare funding is to blame.
“If we have a problem with health and age care resources in this country, it’s not because of migrant grandparents, it’s because Liberals have cut billions of dollars, $3 billion out of age care and $2.8 billion out of health care in this country,” he said.
“If they are concerned about that, why don’t the Liberal match Labor’s commitment for all the health funding?”
Labor has announced it would uncap the number of visas to be issued each year, currently capped at 15,000, and remove the restriction of visa to just one set of parents besides slashing the fee to one-fourth of what it is now.
Source: Getty Images
Labor is also promising to reduce the fee for a five-year visa from $10,000 to $2,500 and a three-year visa from $5,000 to $1250.
However, the minimum income threshold of $83,400 for families sponsoring parents will remain unchanged.
“We will ensure that people maintain private health insurance by an Australian provider, we’ll make sure that the debts are covered by visa holder, we’ll make sure that families who are sponsoring have a taxable income of $83,454.80,” Mr Neumann told SBS Punjabi. “But we also want to make it cheaper for people to come here."
