This morning the Prime Minister announced that those International Students in Australia who are studying nursing, some 20,000 of them, will have their work limitations lifted. This is so they can work more to assist in the Coronavirus emergency.
While we think that is a great move, what about the thousands of nurses who have completed their studies in Australia but have not yet been invited to apply for permanent residency (PR)? There are thousands of nurses who have lodged their expression of interest on the Immigration system but have not received invitations to apply for PR.
Nearly all of those nurses are working on some form of temporary residency visa while they patiently wait for the hope for PR. I’m sure they are now on the front line of this Coronavirus fight doing their best and probably scared themselves.
Today one reader posted a comment on our Facebook page in response to my morning post of the Prime Ministers message. He said;
“Use them in crisis and throw them in the bin afterwards I guess. Keep supermarket shelves full and keep the hospitals going.
Once done, Ur just a number to Us hey.”
It made me think, are we doing just that? These student nurses are effectively asked to go out and help Australia by working more hours in a medical setting, so are we, in turn, going to help them when the crisis is over?
Why doesn’t the Prime Minister recognise their contribution by granting them an invitation to apply for PR when they have finished their courses? Why isn’t he offering those thousands of temporary residency nurses (and Doctors too) PR as an appreciation of their help?
Are we a country of users who will just dispose of them when we are done? Is that the Australian way? I don’t think so. Scott seems to be a down to earth decent guy, I’m sure you can see our point and I’m sure you can make it happen if you want to.
Sharif, thank you for your comment and thank you for making us all think twice.
