The Federal Government has been urged to impose a more substantial visa fee on migrant families wanting to bring their elderly parents to Australia so that it reflects the subsequent drain on resources.
The Productivity Commission, in its final report on migration intake said that aged parents were unlikely to pay taxes or work but made considerable demands on the nation's health, aged care and social security system. The report called on the federal government to increase substantially the charge for contributory parent visas and also recommended narrowing eligibility for non-contributory parent visas to cases where there were strong compassionate grounds to do so. The commission did, however, suggest that the impact of such a tightening could be partly offset by the introduction of more flexible temporary parent visa arrangements, subject to the parents or their sponsoring children meeting the costs of any income or health support during their period of residence in Australia.The aim is to limit the burden on Australia's health system, Medicare
by introducing a 5 year renewable temporary parent visa with emphasis
on private health insurance and restricting access to Medicare.
It is estimated that the cumulative lifetime costs for a parent visa holder in 2015-2016 was between AUD335,000 and AUD410,000 which is considerably more than the current revenue generated via the current 2nd Visa Application Charge of A$43,600. The commission estimated that the net liability to the Australian community resulting from the assistance required by parents over their lifetime based on an annual intake of 8,700 to be in the region of AUD2.6 billion and AUD3.2 billion.
Despite the recommendations outlined above, Concept Australia estimates that most parents migrating from the UK are homeowners and therefore have on average AUD850,000 to transfer to Australia to meet their settlement needs.