Like the rest of Australia, Brisbane is experiencing complications due to workforce shortages following the rapid spread of the COVID-19 Omicron variant.
These shortages have been caused by many international visitors and temporary visa holders deciding to return to their country of origin after travel restrictions were relaxed.
Another contributing factor is the slow nature of bureaucracy, which means that visitors with working holiday and student visas will not arrive for the next three to four months.
The hospitality and catering sectors have been hit particularly hard by this delay.
Matteo Montevecchi, the manager of a well-known restaurant in Brisbane, says that the hospitality industry has been on the decline since March 2020.
“It’s now clear that Australians and permanent residents don’t want to work evenings and weekends,” he said.
“Managers, chefs and waiters are almost exclusively young Europeans and South Americans with working holiday or student visas.
“Border closures have taken away our business.
“What we expected to be our busiest time of the year - the Christmas and New Year period - was constantly disrupted by positive COVID-19 cases and the sudden reopening of international borders, which meant that many staff returned to their home countries indefinitely.”
For Irene Castelli, who lives in Brisbane with her Australian husband and two children, the lift of the ban on international travel presented her with a tough decision.
“These two years have been very difficult as my mother is alone in Italy,” she said.
“We’d been planning to go back to Italy for a while and as soon as it was possible to travel, we chose to return indefinitely.
“The psychological stress, feeling ignored by authorities, and being ‘locked up’ in isolation have taken their toll and we need a break.”
To combat this exodus, the Australian government has implemented measures to replace the missing workforce by refunding the cost of working holiday and student visas for people travelling to Australia in the next eight weeks.
“These measures, while positive, haven’t been thought through,” Montevecchi said.
“Business owners and professionals in these sectors weren’t prepared to deal with the effects of the government’s decision, as the opening of the borders was so sudden.
“It takes time to prepare to travel to Australia, and while we’re in contact with staff who’d like to get started right away, obviously it won’t be possible for them to arrive immediately.”
While Brisbane’s hospitality sector will take a long time to recover, this transition period is key to ushering in a new workforce that will replenish staff shortages across the city.
“Italians have been instrumental in keeping the hospitality sector afloat,” Montevecchi said.
“They’ve worked hard in difficult conditions and maintained a high level of service.
“We hope to be able to facilitate a quick ‘changing of the guard’ and get new staff in as soon as possible.”
