‘In some industries, such as technology, big companies are raising salaries to attract talent and making it even harder for smaller businesses and start-ups to hire.

However, employers are optimistic their staff won’t leave with one third of companies anticipating six to 10 per cent will move on, and a quarter expecting 11 to 20 per cent will go elsewhere.

Almost three in four employers surveyed found it challenging to attract new staff with 27 per cent identifying border closures as the most common barrier.

In addition, employees looking for their dream careers (26 per cent) and having extremely high work-life balance standards (24 per cent) created significant hurdles attracting new workers.

‘Employers anticipate they will spend more on upskilling over the next year and employees value this investment, with many noting that it is a sign their employers want to invest in them, and they care about their development.’

Multicultural aged care sector is being battered by staff shortages, experts say

The multicultural aged care sector heavily relies on multilingual migrant workers and in the absence of a proactive immigration program the sector is suffering unprecedented staff shortages, industry insiders say.

A stalled migration program and a lack of effective government initiatives have led to an acute shortage of aged care workers in multicultural communities in Australia, industry experts say.

“I have been working in multicultural community services for 30 years and I have never seen this level of workforce shortage,” Elizabeth Drozd, CEO of Australian Multicultural Community Services (AMCS), said.

“We have seniors who are asking us to help them live at home and support them and, unfortunately, we are really struggling to recruit enough staff,” she said.

With a team of 140 volunteers and 230 paid staff, AMCS has been serving multicultural seniors in Victoria for the past 39 years.

While many of its 1,700 clients speak English, those who have dementia often revert to their mother tongue, Ms Drozd said.

To provide adequate support to these clients, AMCS heavily relies on migrant workers who speak multiple languages.

“Before COVID, Australia used to accept 80,000 to 200,000 immigrants every year. During COVID, that has reduced to 40,000 and that has really impacted home care and aged care for those from multicultural communities,” she said.

An Australian Bureau of Statistics report, released in March 2021, charts the drop in Australia’s migration numbers.

According to the report, in the 12 months to September 2020, Australian net overseas migration was 85,100, which was 64.5 percent lower than the previous 12-month period.

The number of migrants has continued to decline since the report was filed, Ms Drozd said, and little is being done by the government to fix that issue.

“Unfortunately, I just don’t see enough is being done to alleviate the situation,” Ms Drozd said.

She said a special visa needs to be created to incentivise migrants overseas to work in the industry and fill the sizeable staff shortages.

In the absence of immediate action, Ms Drozd said, many seniors such as 88-year-old Maria Mesiano may lose the critical support they need.

Ms Mesiano lives in the suburb of Altona North in Melbourne’s west, has dementia, and heavily relies on the company and the support she receives from aged care worker Tina Parisi.

“At the moment, I have 11 clients of three nationalities: Italian, Maltese and Polish,” Ms Parisi, who works six days a week and hasn’t had a holiday for more than a year, said.

In an ideal world, the 60-year-old carer would prefer to work five days a week, take a holiday every six months and tend to eight clients instead of the 11 she is currently taking care of.

But Ms Parisi knows that is not an option. “The demand is too high,” she says, adding she refuses to abandon the people who desperately need her.

Ms Parisi admits her job is taking its toll and she is not sure how long she can go on for.

“Sometimes the mental strain is more than physical because when you go to clients, [often] they’re upset or sad or reminiscing things and it drains you a bit,” she said.

As well as taking care of senior citizens, aged care workers like Ms Parisi play a pivotal role in communicating crucial pandemic-related information on the importance of vaccines and booster shots to their aged care clients.

“When someone doesn’t speak English and gets information in [different] languages, they tend to bundle them up together and [misconstrue] things,” Ms Parisi said.

In a statement, a federal Department of Health spokesperson highlighted a range of initiatives the government has launched since the start of the pandemic to support culturally and linguistically diverse (CALD) elderly people in Australia.

“On 8 December 2020, the Culturally and Linguistically Diverse Communities COVID-19 Health Advisory Group was established … The advisory group meets monthly and publishes a communique following each meeting. The advisory group membership includes public health and medical experts and representatives from a range of organisations representing multicultural seniors in Australia,” the spokesperson said.

“As part of the 2021-22 Budget, the Australian government is investing $5.1 million to continue the Embrace Multicultural Mental Health Program, delivered by Mental Health Australia, which ensures the mental health system reflects and responds well to Australia’s diverse CALD population and provides quality and culturally responsive care.”

While Ms Drozd acknowledges the support – including $1.2 million in Victorian government funding announced on 17 January to tackle COVID misinformation in multicultural communities – she feels a lot more needs to be done urgently.

“I would like to acknowledge that the federal and state governments have been implementing various initiatives, but whatever has been done is not enough,” she said.

“Make a special visa for those who want to come from overseas and work in the key industries and support the senior population,” she said.

Tourism operators say staffing demand a challenge as international border reopens

In January 2020 Go West Tours had 132 staff on its payroll; as of this week the company has five employees and the managing director Terry Smit is back driving buses for the first time in nearly 15 years.

While Mr Smit welcomes the easing of border restrictions for international travellers, he says restarting his business after two years of “hibernation” will be extremely challenging.

“It is very good news that the border is being reopened again, but I fear that for me and other tourism operators the hardest months are to come,” he said.

“We’ve got a long way to come back and, you know, I guess what we would say is that we will muddle through it the best way that we possibly can.”

His biggest concern is coaxing staff back into tourism after being forced to find work in other industries during the pandemic.

Owner of Hidden Secrets Tours Fiona Sweetman is also nervous about the coming months.

“I think the misconception is just because the 21st of February happened (international borders being opened to tourists), that suddenly we will get clients — it just doesn’t work that way,” she said.

“My biggest problem is trying to manage bookings with a very reduced, skeleton staff.”

Waking business from hibernation costly

Since Go West Tours was founded in 2000 it has relied almost solely on international tourists, taking them to popular Victorian destinations including the Great Ocean Road and Phillip Island.

When Australia’s border closed in 2020 and tours ceased, Mr Smit said the company’s revenue went from 100 per cent to zero.

“When JobKeeper ended we had to say [to staff] go and get another job, we don’t have any work for you,” Mr Smit said.

Two years on Mr Smit believes every single person has found new employment, even he took a short-term position working in COVID testing and logistics.

“There are effectively no tour guides who are match fit and registering vehicles is expensive,” he said.

Refugees who fled Syrian war become citizens in emotional Australia Day ceremony

An Armenian family that fled Syria during the civil war were among the 16,000 people who became Australian citizens in ceremonies around the country on Australia Day.

With two young children, Nayiri Injejikian and her husband Nerses Chuljian fled the war in Syria in 2012 and arrived at a refugee camp in Lebanon.

Six years after being granted humanitarian visas by the Australian government, the Armenian family became citizens in an Australia Day ceremony in Parramatta in Sydney’s west.

“We kept [staying] there hoping everything would be finished soon … but the war got worse and we fled the country and went to Lebanon,” Ms Injejikian said.

“From there we choose Australia to emigrate because it’s a wonderful country, it’s safe and it’s multicultural, we can have all the opportunities for the kids to get educated and having a good future.”

Ms Injejikian said she feels grateful for all the opportunities provided to her family after moving to Australia.

“I’d like to express my appreciation for Australia. We have great opportunities to live safely, to study, to work, even we had the chance to buy our first home,” she said.

“I’m sure we will have lots of opportunities to give back to this wonderful country.”

When asked what becoming a citizen meant for her family, Ms Injejikian said it was about “making a commitment to Australia and our shared values like respect, value and fairness.”

Her family was joined by more than 16,000 people from over 150 nations who became citizens on January 26 at 400 ceremonies across the country.

Tatenda Chitsungo and Eliska Sy both came to Australia from their home countries on the same day, unknown to each other.

Eight years later, the pair are now married with two children, and now among the newest Australians after taking part in the national citizenship ceremony in Canberra.

Mr Chitsungo, originally from Zimbabwe, and Ms Sy, originally from the Philippines, arrived as international students in 2014.

“We met through my (husband’s) sister and he came to visit her that day and that’s how we met, and then we found out that we moved to Australia less than 24 hours apart from our own countries,” Ms Sy said.

The couple and their eldest child Tanatswa, aged three, were among the 19 people conferred as citizens during the ceremony on Australia Day.

Mr Chitsungo said becoming an Australian citizen was a long process, but worth it.

“We now have a sense of belonging, we now know that we belong here, and that is what is most important to us,” he said.

“We came here as international students and then we decided to be permanent residents, and now there’s lots of privileges to be a citizen.”

While the pandemic has seen less people attending ceremonies in person, Ms Sy said it was a privilege to be conferred on Australia Day.

“We’re going to celebrate the rest of the day with family,” she said.

“We have our children here and a multicultural community, that’s one of the most important things.”

Prime Minister Scott Morrison said the country’s newest citizens would be inheriting Australia’s history and future.

“You don’t come to our national story empty-handed, either. Like so many before you, you add your threads to Australia’s rich tapestry,” he said at the ceremony.

“You now write your own chapters in Australia’s story.”