The idea of using high immigration to support Australia’s ageing population is like a giant pyramid scheme, MP Kelvin Thomson said at a public meeting in Canberra on 10 February.
Addressing an audience of 150 at the meeting organised by the ACT Branch of Sustainable Population Australia, Mr Thomson said bringing in more migrants to counter ageing was “a fraud”.
“It’s a fraud, because the more migrants that come in, the more older people we will have to look after further down the road,” he said. “If the idea is that we will then bring in still more migrants to look after them, this is just a giant pyramid scheme – sooner or later it’s going to collapse.”
Mr Thomson argued that a greying population would actually be a good thing for Australia, because it would help solve the problem of youth unemployment. As an ageing workforce created labour shortages, employers would give jobs to 100,000 youths aged between 15 and 24 who dropped out of the labour market last year. (Click here for the full text of Mr Thomson’s speech).