The release of the Draft National Nursing Workforce Strategy has justifiably created concerns for the aged care sector over the future of this crucial workforce in Australia.
There has long been a shortage of nurses in Australia (and indeed globally) and due to our rapidly ageing population, increasing demand, particularly from the aged care sector, has outstripped supply.
One of the most obvious solutions is immigration, an issue that has become political poison for the current government, due to its supposed impact on our current housing crisis.
In response to the Opposition Leader’s constant weaponisation of migrants including international students, the Albanese government has responded by slashing immigration numbers and now has an obsession with halving the net overseas migration figure.
There needs to be some balance and a considered plan, but the Migration Strategy which was so proudly revealed last December, citing the intention for international students to fill skills shortages in Australia, has been largely shelved.
For the last year now, we have seen a dramatic increase in student visa refusals, specifically targeting countries in the Indian sub-continent. This area is where a large percentage of nurses come from and they are sought after, as they have higher English language proficiency levels – a skill so important for this profession.
Indeed to qualify now as a nurse in Australia it is necessary to display a proficient level of English at an exam level, which can test even a native speaker given all the components of speaking, listening, reading and writing.
In addition to the Indian-sub continent, Colombia and Brazil are also seeing high levels of visa refusals and these countries, whilst requiring English first, are also rich source countries for the nursing
profession.
The high cost of the student visa, now at $1600, double the amount it was previously and the most expensive in the world, is proving to be a barrier to entry for many who might have chosen to study nursing here.
The Migration Strategy itself, focussed on the value of international students to the skilled migration landscape, given they had studied here, were already settled and usually already working. Yet Australia is now becoming entirely unappealing as a study destination and education agents, who assist more than 75 per cent of students to come to Australia, are simply focussing their efforts elsewhere.
The overseas student visa is the easiest for the government to ‘switch off’ as there are levers within the visa regulations to do so. Despite the international education industry being an important export industry for the country, it is a way to quickly and efficiently bring down immigration numbers.
It’s also the easiest visa class to target because the others, such as employer sponsorship visas and visitor visas if targeted, would be met with fierce resistance by business councils and Tourism Australia.
Even the employer-sponsored Temporary Skill Shortage visa (482) is currently seeing delays in visas being granted particularly for applications from offshore, which is also aimed at bringing down immigration numbers
The aged care labour agreement has not enjoyed the success it purports to have, since many employers refuse to sign the required Memorandum of Understanding with a Union and prefer to apply for their company-specific labour agreement instead – a more time-consuming and tedious process. Then there’s the skills recognition barrier, with the skills assessment for nurses surely being one of the lengthiest of them all.
Something must give. We cannot have such important concerns overtaken by populist politics. Our politicians need to act in the national interest now – not after either side has won the election. We need to see some solid leadership and responsibility taken for our nursing skills shortage, which is something that is affecting all of us, particularly our parents and grandparents.
