QUESTIONS WITHOUT NOTICE

Mr ALBANESE (Grayndler—Prime Minister) (14:16): I thank the member for Holt for her question. Indeed, just over a year ago, Labor created paid prac, backing Australians who are studying nursing, midwifery, teaching and social work so that when they're doing their places they get paid for the work that they're doing. Most Australians, I think, would be surprised that, previous to that, if someone had undertaken to be a nurse—a profession that's honourable, a profession where we need more of them—they had to not participate in their part-time job and they had to work out how they would get by, pay their rent et cetera.

But Labor made that change, and that change has made a difference for thousands of people. I've met nurses and teachers for whom it has changed their lives. Now we're building on that success, delivering real change for more Australians, because we're expanding paid prac to a further 10 fields of study: physio and occupational therapy, clinical psychology and pharmacy, podiatry and speech pathology, audiology and radiography, rehab therapies, and our future paramedics as well.

Real help with the cost of living, real investment in Medicare and real investment in skills in the health sector for the healthcare workers of the future—those are our priorities. That's just one example of how Labor governs, making a difference to cost-of-living pressures in the short term but making a difference to the way that our society and economy function in the long term, helping people under pressure here and now while building for the future.

I was asked about alternatives or opposition. Of course, at the last election campaign, those opposite promised to abolish paid prac. It's never a priority for the coalition to build a skilled workforce and, of course, strengthen Medicare.

As we just heard from the health minister, they don't even know what it is, so it's no wonder that it's not a priority. They want to just go back to cuts and neglect. Labor is delivering real change.