My sister and I are both Australian citizens and have lodged contributory parent visas (subclass 143) for our Parents in January 2022 (acknowledgement received on 31/01/22). My sister first came to Australia 10 years ago and since then has been working in the retail and management industry. Currently, she is on maternity leave as she just had her first baby in March 2022. While our parents were fortunate enough to get visitor visas and travel to Australia to help with the baby and spend quality time with their first and only grandchild – and also meet my sister and myself after almost 3 years (border closures due to covid meant they could not visit). And while our parents have 3-year visitor visas, they have 8503 (no further stay) conditions applied and 8558 (maximum 12 months stay in 18 months) conditions. This makes it a hassle that they need to keep travelling and applying for visas every now and then – even after applying for Parents Contributory and happy to pay approx $100,000 for both parents.
Since they cannot stay in Australia continually, they return to Dubai, UAE where my father currently works. He just works to keep himself busy, he is a qualified electrical engineer with almost 40 years of experience working in 5 countries and if he is allowed to stay in Australia, he will not be a “burden” on the government (as Minister Alex Hawke has claimed in his response to the petition to increase parent visas ceiling values) – in fact, he will be running a small business to keep himself busy, which will provide employment and stimulate the economy further.
The current wait time for contributory visa (with 3,000-4,500 places in a FY) is 16+ years. It’s an incredibly long time for our parents who are 60 years old right now and want to spend the last segment of their lives with their children and grandchildren. That’s what gives them happiness. They will have private health insurance here and look forward to no pension or aged care benefits from the government. They can be fully supported by my sister and myself (I am an IT Business analyst).
Australia is a country that gave my sister and myself a fair go – we are thankful for this beautiful country and the amazing people here. But why can’t it increase the ceiling value of parent visas to ensure our parents can also share this with us – it can take pressure off of child care services (grandparents help with minding the grandchildren). This would mean my sister can go back to her job much sooner. There are far more economic and humanitarian benefits to having our parents here. The humanity quotient has been conveniently ignored by the migration minister and we humbly request for that to change.