Have your say about the new Temporary Parent visa proposal
Australian Department of immigration and border protection (DIBP) is introducing a new temporary visa for parents of Australian Permanents/Citizens which will commence on 1 July 2017. The department is inviting the public to share their view about this new visa and everyone can submit their thoughts via a written submission. All submission should be send by 31st of October 2016 to this email address: temporary.parent.visa@border.gov.au .
The main question is if this visa proposal benefits the community and help to ease the parent visa system or it is just another way of making money by the Government.
The answer is simple. Australian Government is about to make a huge amount of money by introducing this new visa proposal. Please keep reading and share your view by sending a written submission to the provided email address and hope for the government to change its view.
DIBP provided a discussion paper called “Introducing a temporary visa for parents” and provided some information about the parents visa options. The information provided by DIBP explain about permanent parent visa options and why government proposing this new temporary visa for parents. The DIBP proposal discussed that due to difficulty of permanent visa pathways for parents, government should provide another option for parents who wants to stay with their children in Australia. The proposal by DIBP mentioned that having parents in Australia for many Australian citizens or permanent residents is beneficial, but most of these benefits would go to family members, rather than the community and the community should not be impacted for the financial assistance that might be provided to those parents, especially to those Australian who lived in Australia throughout their working life and has contributed to government through tax (It is like saying that because I do not want to have children or I am not disable, I should not pay for the services government providing to Children or people with disability).
Australian government clearly seeing this matter as a financial matter and it is logical if you accept the government as a large business. The question is if the government provided all the financial figures in this visa proposal.
There are many financial benefits for the Australian government and community to have parents of permanent residents or citizens in Australia with a temporary visa. Lets be honest, having a Parent in Australia on a temporary visa is like having a tourist in Australia for a very long time. As a business owner, would you rather a returning customer who would use your business service everyday or a one time customer? Tourism in Australia is an important component of the Australian economy. In the financial year 2014/15, tourism represented 3.0% of Australia’s GDP contributing A$47.5 billion to the national economy. Same as other tourists, the Temporary parents visa holders will have to pay for their own medical and health insurance costs, they would bring money to Australia, they would contribute to Australian tax system by paying GST for all the money they would spend in Australia, they would be a benefit for the private businesses, they would pay road tolls or car registration costs if they wants to use roads, they cannot work and they need to pay for all other services they receive from Australian community.
So, why the government is trying to represent this in its proposal that temporary parent visa holders might have negative impacts in Australian community? It is called marketing. It is like buying a bottle of normal milk for $100, because it was written “essential for life milk”. You might think there should be a reason that the price of that milk is $100 compare to a $2 bottle of milk.
Basically, the new proposed temporary parent visa will replace a temporary visitor visa for parents which is currently available to parents of Australian citizens/permanent residents.
This current temporary parent visitor visa application, is cost $135 for offshore applicants and $340 for onshore applicants. The applicants do not need to do medical examinations, but they need to obtain private health insurance (from Australian or overseas health insurance providers). The applicants do not need any sponsor or assurance of support. Same as other visitor visa holders, there is no work permission and there is also other visa conditions. This visa can be granted for up to three years (up to 5 years if the applicant submitted a permanent parent visa as well). This visa to certain extent, is satisfactory for many parents of Australian citizens or permanent residents. The only downturn with this visa is a condition which only allow parents to stay 12 months in Australia in every 18 months period. Many of these visa holders who wanted to stay more than 12 months in Australia, wished to have a new visa system without this condition. The new temporary parent visa proposal supposed to be in response to that need and allow the parents to stay in Australia as a visitor visa holder as long as they want.
Unfortunately, the new temporary parent visa proposal is designed to make it hard for the parents to get this visa. The only good point is that this visa allow parents to stay in Australia as long as they want for 5 years. On the other hand, parents who wants to apply for this visa need to pass a medical examination and pay it costs, Health insurance should be from an Australian health insurance provider (tax benefit for the government), The children who wants to have their parents with them need to be assessed financially and sponsor their parents and ensure that their parents do not become a burden on the Australian community, Sponsors need to provide a Bond for recouping costs where sponsorship obligations have not been honoured. The proposal also mentioned that the visa application fee should be higher than what it is currently. It was stated in proposal that:
- ” The new visa will require a VAC to be paid. The level of the VAC will need to be set in consideration of the potential budget impact of temporary parent visa holders who will not be in the workforce. This would include their impact on all services and infrastructure that are in day-to-day use. This reflects that people who arrive in Australia at the end of their working life have not made financial contributions to the development and maintenance of infrastructure and services, such as roads and public transport.”
In my view, there is no financial negative impact to the government or Australian community if a tourist or a parent (long term tourist visa holder) comes to Australia. They would definitely make positive impacts for the Australian community and government. Moreover, it is not logical to ask a tourist to pay an expensive visa application fee. Is Australian government planned to ask for a sponsor or a bond from a tourist visa applicant? What is the government plan to ensure that a tourist does not become a burden on the Australian community or how tourists would recoup costs to Australian community if unexpected happened? Why parents of Australian citizens/permanent residents need to be sponsored or provide a bond?
The easier proposal could be to remove the 12 months of 18 months limitation condition with the current temporary parents visas. Simple solution which was ignored by the government.
Please have your say by sending a written submission to Department of Immigration and border protection to: temporary.parent.visa@border.gov.au .
Please contact us if you need more information about this new visa proposal or you need help with currently available parent visa applications.
If you need more information about the government proposal for the new temporary parent visa please go to the following links:
