In its report submitted to the government on Monday, the Productivity Commission urged the Australian government to substantially hike the fee for the contributory parental visa.
Three days later, Immigration Minister Peter Dutton said the government was considering “policy settings” for family visas, .
Productivity Commission in its report said the $55,000 visa fee covered only a fraction of the $335,000 to $410,000 cost to the taxpayers and urged the government to double the fee in order to meet the cost to the community.
The commission said that the 7200 parents arriving in Australia pay relatively little tax, and each year cost between $2.6 and $3.2 billion over their lifetime as they require more services.
Mr. Dutton said this overly complex visa system was supported by ageing infrastructure and required further changes.
"Work to simplify and reform the system must go further to better position us to deal with the increasing demand from travellers,” he said while speaking at the Australian Strategic Policy Institute.
"Each year around 130,000 places are made available for skilled persons and their families to migrate permanently to Australia, and around 60,000 places are available for families of Australians to do the same. These numbers are substantial and capable of having a significant impact on the labour force and welfare costs into the future," he said.
"It is therefore vitally important that we carefully consider the policy settings for the permanent skilled and family streams of the migration program. With the right settings these new entrants to the labour market can be an effective supplement to the labour force, and not a substitute for it," he added.
