Anthony Albanese warns against restricting payments to Australian citizens
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said the Chinese and Indian diaspora and people in need of aged care or hospital services were at the forefront of an increasingly divisive fight over citizenship and what it means to be Australian.
Albanese will never make a distinction between citizens and permanent migrants who have proven their loyalty to Australia, he said on Sunday in his harshest attack on the Coalition’s plan to limit welfare payments to citizens only.
Liberal leader Angus Taylor last month announced plans to restrict access to 17 benefit programs to Australian citizens only, declaring the move to “put Australians first”.
People already receiving benefits such as age pension, carer’s payments or the NDIS will be grandfathered, while humanitarian migrants, people experiencing domestic violence or those needing urgent assistance will be exempt from the change, which the Coalition says will save billions of dollars.
Last week the Coalition seized on figures revealed in Senate estimates that 51,000 permanent residents had accessed the federal government’s 5 per cent home deposit scheme. The scheme, which was launched by the Morrison government but has been expanded to include all potential first home buyers, is only open to permanent residents.
Albanese, who opened an urgent care clinic on the Sunshine Coast on Sunday, said it was becoming increasingly difficult to see a difference between the Coalition and One Nation as they fell down a “rabbit hole” on the issue of immigrants becoming permanent residents.
He said the Coalition plan would deny services to people who have lived and worked in Australia for decades and, in some cases, have difficulty renouncing their previous citizenship, such as Chinese or Indian nationals.
“They have to give up their citizenship in the country of their birth, and this may lead to consequences that will lead to them being treated differently, both for themselves and their relations with their relatives in the country of their birth,” he said.
“One of the things you won’t hear me say is making a distinction between Australians and permanent resident immigrants. Permanent residents are people who have pledged allegiance to Australia.”
Nearly 3 million immigrants became permanent residents between 2000 and 2021, according to the Australian Bureau of Statistics. 1.8 million of them became citizens. The highest citizenship rates were seen among citizens of South Africa (74%), Sri Lanka (71%) and the Philippines (68.5%).
Current rules on benefits mean there are waiting periods for permanent residents to access benefits, including four years for JobSeeker and 10 years for the old-age pension.
Albanese said discrimination against permanent residents would ultimately harm all Australians, especially those with health or aged care needs.
“Go into an aged care facility and see how older Australians can get the services they need if we somehow kick out all the permanent residents, if we don’t allow them to own homes, if we don’t allow them to access services,” he said.
“This is the divisive path the Liberals and Nationals want us to go down.”
Shadow treasurer Tim Wilson attacked One Nation on Sunday over its home ownership policy between permanent residents and non-citizens.
During the week, former National leader and now One Nation MP Barnaby Joyce was forced to correct his own understanding of his party’s policy after initially saying permanent residents would have to sell their homes, followed by non-citizens only having two years to vacate their properties.
Wilson said forcing “legal property owners” to sell their homes seemed like a violent way of dealing with people who “pay taxes here.”
But pressing the Coalition’s policy of denying benefits to tax-paying permanent residents, Wilson linked the issue to wider support for immigration.
“I don’t believe everyone should be an Australian citizen, but I certainly believe it’s a good thing for people to come here and make a commitment here and contribute to the future of the country,” he told Sky News.
“If you look at past generations, when there was a high level of public trust in immigration, it was because people came to this country, they committed themselves to this country and they contributed to this country, because Australians rightly understand that if you want to get something out of a system, you have to contribute to it.”
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Shane Wright is senior economic correspondent for The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age.Connect with: X or email.
