‘If Australia is a much less stressful environment to work, then people are going to move’
As a registered nurse of 33 years, Cheryl Hanham feels let down by the Government, especially after the intense past 18 months in the health sector, and expects many of her colleagues to head across the Tasman.
She said Australia was always a popular destination for New Zealand nurses, but now many are putting their words into action.
‘‘Australia, like the rest of the world, is short of nurses. It’s not that we can continue to look overseas to fill the gaps that we have. If . . . things are far more attractive there – ie, leave provisions, tax rebates, everything else that Australia gets– and it’s a much less stressful environment to work, then people are going to move.’’
Taking a few minutes away from giving Covid-19 vaccinations, the New Zealand Nurses Organisation delegate said that if not for her children and elderly parents, she and her husband would ‘‘be gone’’.
She said as the world recovered from Covid, it wouldn’t just be Australia that established nurses and recent graduates would look towards.
Why would a graduate with a $55,000 student loan, who started on an income of $65,000 feel compelled to stay, she asked.
Hanham said more needed to be done to train and retain nurses. That could start with changing the student loan scheme, and putting people on two to three-year bonds to stay and work in New Zealand.
She said this week’s Budget didn’t fill her with hope that the Government would deliver.
‘‘I’m really gobsmacked that they haven’t put it into the Budget to negotiate with us. We have picked up a lot of slack over the Covid-19 response, not only nurses who are working now, but retired nurses, who have given a lot to the country. To not put that in your Budget for the following year defies belief.
‘‘From the PM through to the ministers of finance, health, and education and the public sector, I don’t think they’ve ever spoken to each other. How does one have any confidence that they are actually doing the job for the country that they’re meant to be doing?’’