On 1 March 2019, Minister Coleman announced that applications to sponsor a parent for a Sponsored Parent (Temporary) visa will be open from 17 April 2019. Many Australians have parents that live in another country and have been eagerly awaiting the details of this visa.

This is a visa that allows an Australian Citizen or Permanent Resident to sponsor their parents to stay in Australia for up to 5 years. This is great news for many people wanting to have more time with their parents. It also creates the opportunity for our grandchildren to have quality time with their grandparents.

To our dismay it seems that the Government has decided to also use this as an income generating exercise by attaching extremely high application fees to the visa. Australia assisted over 18 000 refugees in 2018. We house them, we feed them and we give them opportunities, all free of charge because we want to assist these people. But when Australian citizens wants to bring their parents, they get charged up to $10 000. According to the Australian Government these fees are charged as the parents may use some of the current services. The Government is overlooking or ignoring the fact that these children sponsoring their parents are working and contributing to the Australian economy, And the fact that these children are already paying for the services in tax.

We ask the Minister for Immigration, Citizenship and Multicultural Affairs David Coleman to acknowledge the importance of family and parents by scrapping these high applications fees for subclass 870 Sponsored Parent (Temporary) visa.