There are claims being circulated today that more than a million refugees could be brought to Australia over the next 10 years if a Shorten Labor government is elected. The unsubstantiated source is the Chinese social media platform WeChat.
The Conservative Party's policy on immigration is to halve immigration immediately and to reform the heavily rorted and gamed visa system which allows students and relatives of immigrants to jump the immigration queues.
The Weekly Times reports, one post, written in Chinese, claims each refugee granted a visa under Labor would be able to bring five or six relatives with them, increasing the refugee intake to 150,000 a year at an annual cost to taxpayers of $10 billion.
The translation says, "Australia should consider human rights, but enough is enough. Can you afford to vote Labor? Can our schools afford this? Can our hospitals afford this?"
Another post claims that under Labor, when the refugees arrive in Australia they'll be given a three or four-bedroom luxury home with a water view, free WI-FI, a pool and gym.
WeChat is a Chinese multi-purpose messaging and social media platform created in 2011, and now one of the world's largest standalone mobile apps, with over one billion monthly active users.
In March this year, Conservative Party leader Cory Bernardi told Peta Credlin on Sky News, Labor, the Coalition and the Greens all support high immigration levels because they grow our economy but at the same time they markedly reduce everyone's standard of living.
