{"id":673045,"date":"2026-05-15T17:53:09","date_gmt":"2026-05-15T17:53:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/673045\/"},"modified":"2026-05-15T17:53:09","modified_gmt":"2026-05-15T17:53:09","slug":"angus-taylor-says-migrants-are-a-net-drain-on-australia-the-numbers-say-the-opposite-is-true-australian-immigration-and-asylum","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/673045\/","title":{"rendered":"Angus Taylor says migrants are a \u2018net drain\u2019 on Australia. The numbers say the opposite is true | Australian immigration and asylum"},"content":{"rendered":"

Angus Taylor\u2019s thinly veiled attempt to paint migrants as bludgers<\/a> is not supported by the facts. The typical migrant over their lifetimes pays more in taxes than they receive in government services.<\/p>\n

Far from lobbing up on our shores and demanding welfare<\/a>, most migrants arrive hungry for work and motivated to make a life for themselves and their family.<\/p>\n

Migrants are generally younger than the average Australian, typically 25-30 years old, and they are skilled and more educated. This is not by accident.<\/p>\n

Our migration system may not be perfect, but it does a reasonable job of granting visas to foreigners who have a high chance of making a positive contribution to our country.<\/p>\n

Sign up for the Breaking News Australia email<\/a><\/p>\n

Yet in mere months since becoming leader of the Liberal party, Taylor has described migrants as a \u201cnet drain\u201d on society<\/a>, and claimed too many people seek to use Australia\u2019s generosity \u201cfor self-serving purposes\u201d. Now he is making the case that Australians are missing out on benefits because of migrants.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey\u2019re slashing money to veterans at the same time as they\u2019re handing out money to non-citizens,\u201d he told Sky News on Friday.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s substantial savings in all of this,\u201d Taylor said of his plans to place further restrictions on government payments to permanent residents.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s no evidence that Australia has a problem with a big group of migrants who are here simply to live off welfare. This is just not our experience of migration. In fact, far from a \u201cnet drain\u201d, it has been long understood inside the government that the opposite is true.<\/p>\n

chart<\/a><\/p>\n

Treasury released a paper<\/a> in late 2021<\/a> which modelled the lifetime fiscal impact of our permanent migration program. \u201cWhere migrants pay more in taxes than they receive in government services, it benefits the incumbent Australian population,\u201d it says.<\/p>\n

The analysis shows that 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.<\/p>\n

This is down to the skilled worker visa scheme, where the average net lifetime benefit is $198,000. Family visa holders pay $126,000 less in tax than they receive in services, and humanitarian visa holders $400,000 less.<\/p>\n

The average Australian citizen, in comparison, consumes $85,000 more in services than they pay in taxes. This means that the \u201cfiscal impact\u201d of the average migrant is $127,000 more positive than the average citizen (there\u2019s some rounding in there).<\/p>\n

The modelling \u201cprovides strong evidence that the permanent migration program generates significant fiscal benefits, in aggregate, to Australia\u201d, the paper says.<\/p>\n

This is a narrow way to assess migration, but it\u2019s an important one in the context of the Coalition\u2019s politically motivated attempt to paint migrants as a drag on the country\u2019s coffers.<\/p>\n

Alan Gamlen, the director of the ANU\u2019s migration hub, says the Coalition\u2019s promises to restrict entitlements to permanent residents are a solution for a problem that does not exist.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s just a kind of slightly nasty opportunism<\/a>, really, because by and large it\u2019s taxpayers who pay for those benefits and migrants as a whole contribute more in taxes than in benefits,\u201d Gamlen says.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf we care about social cohesion and people doing their best job and supporting productivity as well, taking away their social security nets is not a great thing to do.\u201d<\/p>\n

Patrick Commins is Guardian Australia\u2019s economics editor<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Angus Taylor\u2019s thinly veiled attempt to paint migrants as bludgers is not supported by the facts. The typical…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":673046,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[64,63,44],"class_list":["post-673045","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-australia","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/673045","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=673045"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/673045\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/673046"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=673045"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=673045"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=673045"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}