Non-citizens, including permanent residents, will be barred from accessing welfare under a updated migration crackdown promised by the Coalition.
The Coalition proposes to restrict access to more than a dozen social services including the NDIS, parental leave and carers allowance.
“If you’re not an Australian citizen then you do not get the privileges of an Australian citizen,” Opposition Leader Angus Taylor said.
“When you commit to this country we’ll commit to you.”
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Certain social service programs are currently available to non-citizens, including some visa holders and permanent residents, but many involve a waiting period.
Access to the NDIS is, at the moment, available to permanent residents and Protected Special Category visa holders, which includes some New Zealanders.
“The NDIS would be restricted to Australian citizens, it would be grandfathered for those who have already been on it,” Mr Taylor said.
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The plan, Mr Taylor said, would save “many billions” over the forward estimates, but he said detailed cost estimates would be released closer to the election.
Under the policy 17 welfare programs would be put on a citizen-only list.
Many of those programs already have waiting period, ranging from one year to a decade.
Mr Taylor’s policy would attach a 10-year residency requirement to the age pension and disability support pension, even for migrants who become citizens.
“We’ve got many people who stay here for many years, and I encourage them to become an Australian citizen,” Mr Taylor said.
Becoming a citizen can be an expensive process and takes a minimum of four years once a person is already living in Australia.
Social services included:Age PensionDisability Support PensionJobSeekerYouth AllowanceCarer PaymentParenting PaymentFamily Tax Benefit, AFamily Tax Benefit, B Austudy Farm Household Allowance Special Benefit Mobility Allowance Pensioner Education Supplement Carer Allowance Parental Leave Pay Commonwealth Seniors Health CardLow Income Health Care Card
Exemptions to the rules would be carved out for certain defence, intelligence and law enforcement cases.
There would also be exemptions for domestic violence and child protection services, emergency assistance programs and for people in the country for humanitarian reasons.
It would retain bilateral agreements, protecting the right of New Zealanders to Australian services, under the special visa program.
“Hard working Australians out there now, I think many of them would be surprised to hear that non-citizens, as soon as they arrive here, can get access to family tax benefits for instance,” Mr Taylor said.
Existing rules restrict the family tax benefit to Australians and people on certain visa categories, including partner provisional and temporary protection visas.
To be eligible the person must also be living with a child who is either Australian or on a permanent visa, or a child on a special visa, which covers some New Zealand citizens.
The Coalition policy announcement comes ahead of Angus Taylor’s Thursday-night budget reply speech in which he will also lay out plans to tie migration to housing construction on a one-to-one basis.
‘Become a citizen’ Taylor advises
Mr Taylor was asked what someone who suffered a life-changing injury while working towards becoming a citizen would do under his policy, if the NDIS was unavailable.
“At the end of the day they can become a citizen,” Mr Taylor advised.
He made the point health services would still be open to people who were not Australian citizens and said that should be sufficient.
“We’ve had good heath services to deal with those situations for a long time,” he said.
“I’m sure they’re more than capable of dealing with exactly that situation, and that’s why health is not part of this and shouldn’t be.”
The “citizen only” policy builds on the Coalition’s first migration announcement from a month ago which committed to “making non-citizens wait longer for access to our social security system”.
At that point Mr Taylor promised to prioritising access to taxpayer support for home ownership to Australian citizens.
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Specifically, he said he would restrict access to the five per cent deposit scheme.
This latest version of the migration policy looks to bar them entirely from all social services, except health care.
“Others who come to the county will get access to them [services] when they become citizens,” he said.
The policy announcement comes just days after a crushing by-election defeat to One Nation that saw the Liberal vote collapse.
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