Public school fees in New South Wales are hindering a state government push to attract more overseas nurses, according to a major employer.
NSW offers incentives to nurses such as sign-on bonuses, relocation assistance and additional leave.
But a nurse coming from overseas must pay thousands of dollars to send their children to public schools.
Royal Freemasons Benevolent Institution chief executive Frank Price said temporary visa holders had to pay $5,600 annually for public primary schools despite working in areas in need of nurses.
"When they come over here, they're being flooded with a whole bunch of additional costs, which you and I wouldn't even have considered," Mr Price told ABC Radio Sydney.
"We've got a couple of nurses coming over with four children.
"So that'll cost them about $24,000 [annually] in after-tax dollars, which really doesn't make it viable for them to bring their families to Australia."
Mr Price said he was concerned about meeting a July federal government deadline for residential aged care centres to have at least one registered nurse on-site for 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
"The registered nurses simply don't exist in Australia, so we've gone overseas to bring them in," Mr Price said.
"The challenge to us is if we don't have the 24/7 nurses at this stage, there'll be a financial penalty imposed."
Federal deadline
Mr Price may also be competing with the incoming NSW Labor government.
Premier Chris Minns promised 1,200 new nurses and midwives in four years, as well as enforceable nursing staffing levels at public hospitals.
A NSW Health spokesperon said the government offered incentives for "hard to fill" roles in regional and rural areas.
"Packages may include a range of additional benefits including salary boost, sign-on bonuses and retention payments of up to $10,000 per annum, relocation assistance and housing, additional leave, and access to training and education," a spokesperson said.
"Packages are scaled and increase in value in more remote locations."
Interstate competition
Other states are also providing incentives to attract nurses to work in their state.
Queensland offers critical health staff free or subsidised accommodation for workers heading to regional areas.
"Healthcare workers choosing to make rural and remote Queensland their home will be supported by a $115 million injection into the delivery of staff accommodation," a Queensland Health spokesperson.
The Victorian government is also offering international travel reimbursements to support international and returning Australian health workers.
Skilled migrants prioritised
Migration Institute of Australia president Julie Williams said while some of her clients struggled with the public school fees, they were there to cover their children's education and intensive language classes some students needed before the academic year.
"These fees are covering other tuition costs and access support services such as student welfare, counselling services," Ms Williams said.
She said some visa class holders could get access to exemptions to the education payments if they were committed to working and living in a regional area.
She also said qualified nurses could apply for permanent residency immediately, and the Department of Home Affairs was prioritising offshore skilled migrants.
"That might be a solution also for Frank [Price] and his employees, being able to bring their family sooner rather than later and avoiding those school fees," Ms Williams said.
Mr Price said the definition of a registered nurse could be reviewed as a transitionary period.
"The nurses we're bringing across from overseas have got at least five years' experience, some of them have got 10-15 years," Mr Price said.
"They're very competent, let's include them at least for the first 12 months as part of the RN numbers."
