While some Australians wait months to see a physiotherapist due to nationwide shortage, Chilean physio Antonio Michell, a trauma specialist with 10 years’ experience, has been driving rideshare and sweeping floors.

After moving to Sydney in 2018, multiple successful exams and about $10,000 in exam fees and travel costs, the 38-year-old is still waiting for Australia to recognise his qualifications to practise in his chosen field.

That is despite a nationwide shortage of physiotherapists, according to the federal government’s Skills Priority List.

“I’ve spent a lot of time with people in rural areas who were waiting months to get a private physio appointment, and at the same time I was sweeping floors in construction sites,” he told the ABC.

“The feeling that you are not welcome from a professional perspective is quite disappointing.”

A new alliance of more than 50 business groups and unions say multiple slow and haphazard skills recognition systems run by industry bodies have resulted in more than half a million permanent skilled migrants in situations like Mr Michell’s, despite severe skills shortages.

The alliance, called Activate Australia Skills (AAS), has released a report which found 44 per cent of skilled migrants are working low-paid, unskilled jobs, despite two thirds of those migrants having arrived on the government’s skilled migration program.

Chief executive of Settlement Services Australia, Violet Roumeliotis AM, is spearheading the group’s campaign to have the federal government take over skills recognition processes, to be launched at Parliament House on Tuesday.

“We get … engineers and doctors who are driving rideshare or stacking shelves,” she said.

“We have qualified nurses who worked for many years in other countries here in Australia, but they’re cleaning, they’re working in retail or hospitality.

“It’s quite an extraordinary situation.”

Recognition schemes ‘cost prohibitive’, experience not recognised

The campaign will be backed by employers such as Allianz and MercyCare, business groups such as Masterbuilders, the Australian Council of Social Services, and the Australian Council of Trade Unions.

Mr Michell has taken years to save the $7,585 required to have his skills recognised by the Australian Physiotherapy Council, which requires candidates to fly to Melbourne on three separate occasions to sit clinical assessments.

He sat his final practical exam last week, and is now awaiting a result.

But despite treating 50,000 patients in Chile, Mr Michell said once he gains his Australian licence, his qualifications would be the equivalent of a new university graduate.

“I will start in an entry level position,” he said.

“It might be too late for me, after eight years of not being working as a clinician. That is time that no one will give me back.”

The Australian Physiotherapy Council fast tracks some countries it says have a similar standard of education, such as the UK, Canada and South Africa.

Ms Roumeliotis said the alliance wants a national governance system for overseas skills recognition, including an online portal that explains exactly what training is required, and an ombudsman with regulatory oversight.

It also wants a loan system, similar to the HECS scheme for university students, to help migrants pay for “cost prohibitive” training and registration requirements.

“We’ve got these highly skilled workers here ready to go,” she said.

“We just need to activate that pool and match them with the skill shortages, because it’s going to increase productivity.”

In health, four in five occupations are in shortage and almost 200 GP clinics have closed across the country in the last year, the AAS report said.

In construction, all trade roles in building and construction are in national shortage, yet 18,400 permanent migrants with architecture & building qualifications are under-utilised.

Skills Minister Andrew Giles said the government had provided $1.8 million in the last budget to “streamline” skills assessments for construction workers, but that the government’s focus was otherwise on giving Australians skills to fill shortages.

“The Albanese government wants to see more Australians filling those essential roles which is why we’ve been working with the states and territories to boost our VET sector through the National Skills Agreement and to remove financial barriers to studying through our FEE Free TAFE program,” he said.