Stop the boats by ending the welfare state

Political rumblings over "boat people" in this federal election campaign seem to have largely missed the point.

Yes, in paying-up to reach Australian waters illegally by boat, foreigners risk their lives in unseaworthy vessels and enrich some very shady individuals. If they manage to reach Australian waters, they are generally rescued by Australian military personnel, who themselves risk serious injury in undertaking these dangerous rescue operations.

In addition, all of these things are massively expensive. Asylum seekers are rescued by a taxpayer-funded vessel and taken to a taxpayer-funded housing facility where they receive taxpayer-funded health and welfare services, income support, legal assistance and Medicare whilst they await the taxpayer-funded processing of their refugee applications. This costs the Australian taxpayer over a billion dollars per year.

But that is just the beginning.

Easy permanent residency and citizenship opens the door to the vast cesspool that is the Australian welfare state. Here are just some of the taxpayer-funded payments that an asylum seeker who becomes a permanent resident, and eventually a citizen, could have access to:

Quite apart from asylum seekers, the welfare state costs the Australian tax-payer many billions, pushes down economic growth, lowers the standard of living and eliminates community activism and private sector welfare. This, as well as tax-payer funded multiculturalism, results in a society that lacks any organic cohesion, with morality outsourced to bureaucrats in exchange for your tax dollars.

The reason Australia is a ‘soft target’ for illegal immigration is not because of weak border security but rather because people know they can easily become eligible to receive this vast array of taxpayer-funded welfare payments. Of course, there is the occasional person who is genuinely persecuted, but given Australia’s relative geographic isolation, it is clear that we are targeted by those who realise we are stupid enough to be susceptible to the usual politically-correct, white guilt trip, and we will pay up as a result.

The welfare state, and the economic degradation it causes, has the other unfortunate effect of degrading social cohesion by breeding suspicion of legal immigrants, even though many of them do not have intention to leech off the tax-payer. Without a welfare state, we would have the added benefit of knowing that everyone coming to Australia wanted to work hard and support himself.

Until Australia’s welfare obsession ends, we will always be an immigration target for those seeking a free ride. Ending the welfare state incentive for illegal immigrants will mean we will not see people risking their lives in leaky boats, we will not see shady people smugglers enriched and we will not see our military personnel put at risk. It will also mean we will save, not only the costs of asylum seeker rescue, housing and processing, but also on the endless billions spent on the welfare state itself, with the added benefit of increased economic growth, higher standards of living and greater community cohesion.