That would be the big roadblock to implementing something like that in the US.
In the US, when evaluating whether or not to do (or continue) some program that provides aid or assistance, there are a lot of people who focus primarily on whether or not it is possible to cheat the system. It doesn't matter to them if 99 out of 100 people getting the aid are following the rules and having their lives greatly improved (and indirectly improving things for the country as a whole). It is that 1 out of 100 who gets aid who did not qualify that is all they see.
> If they earn no taxable income here, they never have to pay it back no matter how much they earn overseas. I can't really think of an easy way to resolve this because it's impossible to garnish income from another country.
This should be solvable. Change the law so that payment is owed on foreign income, even if that income is not taxable in Australia, and make it so that the Australian government can bring a civil suit for a monetary judgement against those who do not pay.
I believe (but someone should check me on this) that at least in the US, Australia could enforce that judgement. The US would recognize the Australian court's jurisdiction (assuming the defendant is still an Australian citizen), and would recognize Australia's right to tax foreign income. That, combined with whatever treaties I am almost certain the US and Australia have, should be enough for the US to consider the judgement enforceable, and to enforce it for Australia.
My recollection is that due to various treaties between most pairs of first world countries, escaping debt in one by going to another is fairly difficult, unless the debt in the first involved something that is morally frowned upon in the second. E.g., if you owed a pimp for prostitution services in some country where prostitution is legal, countries where prostitution is not legal might not recognize this even if they otherwise recognize debts from the first country.
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