Key Points
- Italian Debora Tabbia is receiving breast cancer and fertility treatments.
- As a Student Visa holder she has no access to Medicare and high out-of-pocket expenses.
- From July 1, work restrictions for Student Visa holders will be re-introduced and working hours capped at 48 hours fortnightly.
In a matter of weeks, Debora Tabbia will face uncertainty when the federal government re-introduces a work-hour cap for international students.
In response to the COVID pandemic, the government allowed student visa holders like her to take on full-time employment after relaxing the cap on the number of working hours permitted.
The - which came amid the closure of Australia's international borders - temporarily replaced the set cap of 40 hours per fortnight.
Ms Tabbia said the changes mean she will be forced to return to part-time hours while studying for her chef's diploma at Hilton Academy in Melbourne.
A Home Affairs spokesperson told SBS Italian: “Student visa work restrictions were relaxed throughout the pandemic, and completely removed in January 2022 to allow primary and secondary student visa holders to work over their normal limit of 40 hours per fortnight to address workforce shortages."
The changes come when students like her are already hard-pressed by the cost of living pressures and education fees, Ms Tabbia said.
Furthermore, she has had to deal with unexpected medical bills that began piling up in early 2023.
Debora Tabbia and Fabio Peretto set up a GoFundMe campaign to help raise money to cover medical bills. Credit: Image provided
In January, a year into her Australian "dream", Ms Tabbia was diagnosed with stage three breast cancer, a locally advanced but treatable cancer although aggressive.
Following an initial surgical procedure in February, when the tumour and 13 lymph nodes were removed, she underwent three additional operations and is currently receiving her first round of chemotherapy.
Ms Tabbia will now have to endure a round of radiotherapy and further surgeries.
As an international student without access to Medicare, she has to take out private health insurance, but the plan only partially covers her medical treatments.
“Until now my partner and I could face the medical bills because we have both been working full-time for a year,” she said.
“This allowed us to save a little bit to face at least part of this unplanned journey.
“My partner set up a fundraising campaign on GoFundMe and friends, family and many good-hearted people helped. Without these contributions, we would have never been able to cover all expenses until now.”
Dealing with medical expenses on a Student Visa
As soon as Australia's international borders reopened in November 2021, the 34 years old Italian packed her bags and made for Melbourne where she aspired to become a chef and find the "right place" to start a family.
Now, she is unsure whether any part of her plan will become a reality.
Besides the treatment targeted at defeating cancer, Ms Tabbia opted to undergo two rounds of IVF to freeze her eggs to be able to conceive in the future amid fears chemotherapy could compromise her fertility.
Up till now, Ms Tabbia and her partner have faced over $30,000 of out-of-pocket expenses.
“Still, we have been lucky to face this whole situation while we can still work full time.
"The most difficult part will start in a few weeks."
From July, Ms Tabbia said she will have to cover the costs of breast reconstruction surgeries and therapies that she potentially will have to follow for the next five years.
She hopes to complete her diploma in December but she fears her plan of staying in Australia could be impacted by her diagnosis.
Debora Tabbia and her partner Fabio Peretto. Credit: Image provided
“It is very complex. Illnesses that can lead to an increase in medical expenses can inevitably compromise the approval of a visa," she said.
"It all depends on the medical cost that must be faced, the type of illness - whether chronic or not - the type of visa that is required, permanent or temporary residence."
At present, the maximum allowable state or health spending by a visa holder or applicant is calculated at approximately $51,000, Ms Comandini explained.
"If the medical condition requires a higher cost, then various factors must be calculated to see if the visa will be refused or not."
A by the Grattan Institute determined that 16 per cent of migrant workers who arrived in Australia in the past five years were paid below the minimum wage and called for measures to stop exploitation.
"There is a real urgency to make this change because we know the cap on international students on working hours is coming back on the 1st of July," Bassina Farbenblum, Associate Professor at the University of New South Wales, explained.
"We know international students are under tremendous financial pressure and it's likely that many will exceed that cap - and the problem for those students is that right now there is no protection against cancellation of their visa if they come forward and report exploitation.
"So we're going to end up with a massive silent underclass of exploited workers again."
READ MORE
Australian visa changes for 2023-24
Ms Tabbia fell in love with Australia but decided to move back to Italy due to the pandemic.
And, despite all this, she said she doesn’t want to let go of her Australian dream for the second time.
"We would throw away another year of our lives and I hoped I would become a mother before I turn 40.
"We have already made the mistake of moving back to Italy once and it was the biggest mistake we could have made. I am not ready to give it up again."
