870,000 NON-CITIZENS in Australia are claiming 15 billion a year in welfare benefits.

Apparently, Australia is one of the most generous countries in the OECD when it comes to hand outs to foreigners. These bludgers are not even Australian citizens! In most countries, people cannot go straight onto welfare without having worked in the country. In la la land, there is no bar to gaining the dole at all.

And we have a $500 billion debt!

This makes our continuing high immigration more ridiculous than ever. How on earth can it be a good idea to import people who don't have a job to come to? The only thing that I can think of is it allows governments to give a false impression of 'growth'; but it is a 'growth' that is costing established Australians big time- - making us individually poorer as immigration continues.

What proportion of those people went straight onto welfare? And what proportion are retirees who've worked here for years but just never bothered with the formalities of becoming citizens?

It's not our immigration rate that's ridiculous; it's our dumb obsession with the national debt. The government has unlimited credit, yet they (and you) are so spooked by the debt figure that they (and you) want to implement policies that will shrink the economy and make jobs even harder to find.

ttbn - Quote "870,000 NON-CITIZENS in Australia are claiming 15 billion a year in welfare benefits"

Where are these figures from?

If you have a source or link why not include it?

Dear Ttbn,

You obviously do not like welfare. Therefore you should not pay for it.

Let the welfare portion of taxes be voluntary: I will still happily pay my share, but you should feel free not to.

Story,

http://www.businessinsider.com.au/foreigners-living-in-australia-get-15-billion-a-year-in-welfare-payments-2017-5

Just to help, I may comment later.

PhilipS,

Today's Australian.

Yuyutsu,

I have no problem with welfare as long as it goes to Australians who have contributed to it.