The new Parent Visa could swamp Australian hospitals

As per the NSW Treasury Analysis, 37,000 aged parents coming to Australia under the new Parent Visa could swamp Australian hospitals. Dominic Perrottet, NSW Treasurer, says that the Federal Govt. cannot expect the state govt. to pay for their expensive migration policies. If the Labour Govt. comes into power, they promise to slash the Parent Visa fee. Unlimited visits would be granted and parents will be able to apply for a second term of their Visa without exiting Australia. The current Coalition Govt. has capped the new Parent Visa at 15,000 annually. Applications for the same will be accepted from 1^st July 2019. Australia is facing a backlog of almost 100,000 applications for the Permanent Parent Visa. A majority of these applications are from Chinese-Australians. Also, most of these applicants cannot expect to obtain a Visa before 2040-50. These migrants, obviously, will quickly switch over to the new and easy Temporary Parent Visa. The NSW Treasury based its estimate of parent arrivals on the current backlog. The state of New South Wales accounts for 37% of the family visa settlements currently. The Treasury’s estimate is pretty conservative as it has not taken into account the Indian and Middle-Eastern diaspora. Devotion to one’s parents is part of the cultural heritage of these countries. However, parents from these countries often fail to meet the “Balance of Family” test, unlike the Chinese. The Balance of Family test requires you to have at least 50% of your children settled in Australia. Most Indian and Middle Eastern families do not meet this requirement due to their large family sizes. Labour has a budget of $10 million planned for the Parent Visa for 2020-21. This budget will rise to $40 million by 2022-23. This will be equivalent to the cost of 16,000 5-Year Parent Visas. Shayne Neumann, Labour Spokesperson, said that the visa conditions would remain the same as the current Visa. Bob Birrell, a Demographer, has forecasted that around 200,000 Temporary Parent Visas may be issued under the Labour’s first term. Peter McDonald, a population expert, estimates that up to 2 million parents of immigrants could possibly come to Australia. Prof McDonald believes that a rush on the new Parent Visa would increase net migration to Australia. It will also increase the average age of Australians by adding a large number of aged parents to the population. This will put a lot of stress on services for older people, as quoted by The Australian. The Temporary Parent Visa does not provide access to Medicare. The State Govt.’s have often complained that they have to foot the bill after temporary visa holders incur costly treatment and fail to pay. Y-Axis offers a wide range of visa services and products for aspiring overseas immigrants including General skilled migration – Subclass 189 /190/489 with RMA review, General skilled migration – Subclass 189 /190/489, Work Visa for Australia, and Business Visa for Australia. We work with Registered Migration Agents in Australia. If you are looking to Visit, Study, Work, Invest or Migrate to Australia, talk to Y-Axis, the World’s No.1 Immigration & Visa Consultant. If you found this blog engaging, you may also like… Economist McCrann feels Australia is running an immigration scam