Prime Minister enforces travel ban on those who owe government

UP TO 150,000 Australians face an overseas flight ban if they do not pay their debts to the Tax Office, Centrelink or any other government agency, as Prime Minister Scott Morrison warns the strong economy will not pay for “welfare fraud”.

UP TO 150,000 Australians face an overseas flight ban if they do not pay their debts to the Tax Office, Centrelink or ­any other government agency.

Prime Minister Scott Morrison on Friday said Australia’s strong economy was not going to pay for “welfare fraud”.

He revealed an international travel ban was in place on the first of the debt dodgers, to help recover up to $800 million owed to the government.

Twenty people have already been slapped with the ban.

CRACKDOWN ON WELFARE FRAUD CAPITAL OF AUSTRALIA

WELFARE FRAUDSTERS OWE $100M AFTER BEING REPORTED

Prime Minister Scott Morrison on Friday said Australia’s strong economy was not going to pay for ‘welfare fraud’. Picture: AAP

“If you’ve got welfare debts but you can afford to get on a plane and go overseas, well — no,” Mr Morrison said.

In his first interview with the Herald Sun since replacing Malcolm Turnbull last month, the PM also declared that ­Melbourne was the “standard-bearer” for multiculturalism, and said he wanted the rest of the country to learn from the city’s record on “bringing Australians together”.

He said both of the nation’s two biggest cities had welcomed large numbers of ­migrants, but Melbourne led the way on maintaining communities which were “very strong, but very Australian”.

An international travel ban is in place on the first of the debt dodgers, to help recover up to $800 million owed to the government. Picture: Kelly Barnes

He said as Australia's fastest-growing city, Melbourne had “the most acute needs in terms of planning”.

Mr Morrison said he was proud of the fact that after years of underspending, the Coalition government had Melbourne’s share of infrastructure spending up to 25.9 per cent over the next 10 years, “which is greater than its population share”.

“Sydney and Melbourne have both had a large number of immigrants but Melbourne, I think, has always been better,” Mr Morrison added.

The Prime Minister has also declared ­Melbourne the ‘standard-bearer’ for multiculturalism.

“There’s no discord in any of that, whether it’s the Indian community or Greek community — the longest-standing immigrant communities — or the Chinese community, there doesn’t have to be a start and end point to these communities and broader society.”

The comments come ­despite attacks from Home ­Affairs Minister Peter Dutton and Victorian Liberal MPs about the state’s over-representation of South Sudanese people in crime statistics and outbreaks of gang violence.

Mr Morrison praised the AFL’s work in new migrant communities and said it had shown other codes how to step up. “There’s a lot for me to draw from there and apply to policy nationally,” he said.

[e-mail]