Ezzarelli

So let’s get this straight. Australian citizens are apparently the only people who deserve support. Everyone else? According to Angus Taylor and Pauline Hanson, they’re just a burden. But here’s the reality. To become an Australian citizen, you must first be a permanent resident for years. For many migrants, becoming Australian also means giving up the citizenship of the country they were born in. Plenty choose not to do that because they want to keep their heritage and family ties. That is their right. Then you have people on skilled working visas and permanent residents raising families here. Their kids go to school with Australian kids. They work here. They pay taxes here. They contribute to the community every single day. Yet apparently Taylor thinks they should receive no assistance at all. Now let’s look at the numbers. Taylor claims non-citizens cost Australia $15 billion a year. What he doesn’t tell you is they contribute around $40 billion a year in taxes alone. That’s a net contribution of roughly $25 billion annually before you even count the businesses they build, the jobs they fill, the skills shortages they solve, and the communities they help support. So what exactly is the logic here? Punish one of the most economically valuable groups in the country to distract from decades of policy failures on housing, wages and infrastructure? This is what scapegoating looks like. Blame migrants. Blame permanent residents. Blame foreigners. Anything except the governments and policies that actually created the problems. And once again, they stand in front of Australians assuming nobody will check the facts.