Hollie Hughes: Taylor says migrants are a net drain on Australia

hollie hughes, Angus Taylor said migrants are a “net drain” on Australia and argued for tighter limits on payments to permanent residents. Treasury’s late-2021 modelling points the other way, finding the average migrant across the skilled, family and humanitarian streams pays $41,000 more in tax than they receive in government services over their lifetimes.

That same Treasury paper said the fiscal impact of the average migrant is $127,000 more positive than the average citizen. It also said the permanent migration program generates significant fiscal benefits in aggregate to Australia.

Taylor’s Friday remarks

Taylor told Sky News on Friday that the government was “slashing money to veterans at the same time as they’re handing out money to non-citizens”. He also said, “There’s substantial savings in all of this,” referring to further restrictions on government payments to permanent residents.

His comments set up a direct clash with Treasury’s numbers. The paper said that where migrants pay more in taxes than they receive in government services, it benefits the incumbent Australian population.

Treasury’s late-2021 paper

The Treasury modelling split the permanent migration program into three main visa streams. Average skilled worker visa holders have a net lifetime benefit of $198,000, while family visa holders pay $126,000 less in tax than they receive in services and humanitarian visa holders pay $400,000 less.

The same modelling said the average Australian citizen consumes $85,000 more in services than they pay in taxes. On that basis, the average migrant comes out better for the budget than the average citizen by $127,000.

Alan Gamlen’s response

Alan Gamlen, director of the ANU’s migration hub, dismissed the Coalition’s promise to restrict entitlements to permanent residents as a solution for a problem that does not exist. He said, “It’s just a kind of slightly nasty opportunism, really, because by and large it’s taxpayers who pay for those benefits and migrants as a whole contribute more in taxes than in benefits.”

For readers tracking the policy fight, the argument now turns on which fiscal picture lawmakers use: Taylor’s claim about payment restrictions, or Treasury’s model showing permanent migration delivers a net gain overall.