ADJOURNMENT

Dr HAINES (Indi) (17:14): I seek leave of the House to table a petition. Leave not granted. Dr HAINES: I'm disappointed that leave is not granted, but I rise today to present a petition which I'm not able to table from Allied Health Professions Australia with more than 43,000 people calling on this government to expand Commonwealth prac payments to all allied health and medical students.

Every Australian relies on doctors, pharmacists, physiotherapists, occupational therapists, psychologists and numerous other health professionals, but not everybody knows that these people had to do hundreds—and, in some cases, thousands—of hours of unpaid placement to get their degrees. Placement is like an apprenticeship. It's where the students learn the practical skills they use for the rest of their careers.

It's an essential part of their training, no two ways about it, but the way we expect many students to complete these placements is neither fair nor sustainable. We've heard stories of students skipping meals, sleeping in swags or cars and wondering whether they can afford to finish their degrees. This is known as placement poverty, and it's happening during a cost-of-living crisis, when rising costs of groceries, utilities and petrol are making it even harder for students to get by.

In regional and rural areas, where placements can be far from home, these costs are even greater. New data shows how serious this is. A Charles Sturt University survey found that almost half of all undergraduate students said that financial pressures could force them to withdraw before completing their degree.

A similar survey from La Trobe University found that 65 per cent of students reported that cost-of-living pressures were impacting their studies. Transport and fuel costs were the most commonly identified pressure point, and I hear that concern time and time again. Chloe, a fourth-year occupational therapy student, told me that she travelled just short of 3,500 kilometres in her own car for placement related activities over nine weeks, costing more than $500 in petrol, just to complete her compulsory prac.

For many students, $500 is a heck of a lot of money to fork out on top of their daily living expenses when they're on placement and unable to earn. These financial impacts are also felt by families. I recently heard from Lou, a farmer in Cudgewa in my electorate.

Her daughters, Grace and Genevieve, are studying medicine and radiography, which is exactly what we want from rural students. We know that when rural students study the health sciences they come and work in regional Australia as health professionals. Both these young women work to make ends meet.

Next year, Genevieve will undertake eight months of unpaid placement in Melbourne to complete her degree—eight months! Lou wants to support her daughters and is doing all she can to help them through uni, but Lou's farm was burnt in the Victorian bushfires earlier this year, the second time after being burnt out in the 2019 Black Summer bushfires, and, while recovering from this disaster, there is only so much financial help she can give.

All parents want to help their kids succeed. Of course they do. But completing a medical or allied health degree should not depend on your family's money.

The solution is clear: expand the Commonwealth prac payments to include medical and allied health students. This proposal has been costed by the Parliamentary Budget Office and is backed by the more than 43,000 people who've signed this petition. It is targeted.

It's non-inflationary cost-of-living relief for students who need it most. And, most of all, it's an investment in the students who will become the health professionals our communities desperately need, especially in regional and rural Australia. With the rising cost of living, high fuel prices and growing demand for allied health professionals to deliver Thriving Kids, we can't afford to wait.

We must do this now. I call on this House to join me and to join along with Senator David Pocock, who's also tabling this petition in the other place. I elevate the strong voices of the 43,000-plus people.

Together, we call on the government to expand Commonwealth prac placement payments to include all allied health and medical students, because no student should be forced to drop out simply because they can't afford mandatory unpaid placement. No community should miss out on care because future health workers were priced out of their training. It's time to get this done.