I've received more than 100 such emails over two years, and I've just phoned Centrelink and the Department of Immigration for the facts. I knew the emails were full of lies, because I made the same phone calls two years ago, but this time I wanted chapter and verse, which I've spelt out in more detail in my column in The Herald (on Monday 18.5).

The fact is that refugees who have been granted permanent residency, with a permanent protection visa, are eligible for exactly the same Centrelink payments as every other permanent resident. The one concession is that the usual two-year wait for welfare payments for new arrivals to Australia is waived.

The other fact is that until their case is determined, and only if they are in the community rather than offshore or in detention, asylum seekers are eligible for no more than 89 per cent of Special Benefit payments. These special benefits are the same as the dole or youth allowance, and both those are significantly less than the pension. And, remember, just 89 per cent of these lower payments.

Happy? Or do you think, as I do, that we can afford to be and should be more generous to asylum seekers?