ADJOURNMENT
Senator POLLEY (Tasmania) (19:59): I rise to speak about the Albanese Labor government's commitment to easing the cost-of-living pressure and ensuring that financial hardship does not stand in the way of students and the qualifications they need to build a better future. For too many students, mandatory practical placements have meant an impossible choice: complete the training required for their degree or keep the paid work that covers rent, groceries, petrol and household bills.
We believe that these students need our support, and, for those students who must travel or relocate, those costs can increase just as their capacity to earn income falls. Labor understands that placement poverty is real. That's why we established the Commonwealth prac payment—practical cost-of-living support for students completing practical training.
Eligible teaching, nursing, midwifery and social work students already receive support during mandatory placements. In 2026, the payment is $338.60 a week—means tested, benchmarked to the single Austudy rate and indexed annually. Now the Albanese Labor government is extending paid prac to 10 more frontline allied health disciplines.
These include clinical psychology, physiotherapy, occupational therapy, speech therapy, paramedicine, radiography, pharmacy, rehabilitation therapies, audiology and podiatry. This means that, from 1 July 2027, eligible students in these courses will be able to receive the payment while undertaking their compulsory placements. This expansion will support around 21,000 additional higher education students and lift the total number supported each year to around 95,000.
It means more students can spend less time worrying about how to pay the next bill and more time concentrating on their studies, developing their professional skills and completing their qualifications. On Thursday 27 August, the Minister for Education, the wonderful Jason Clare, visited northern Tasmania to meet university students who will benefit from these extensions.
He listened and spoke with students because they know firsthand what it means to balance study, placement, paid employment, family responsibilities and rising everyday costs. That visit also highlighted why this reform is especially important for regional communities like my own. A placement can require a student to drive long distances, pay for parking, find temporary accommodation—to then maintain two households is a real challenge.
These barriers are often greatest in the very places where shortages of healthcare workers are most acute. By easing these costs, we're supporting educational attainment and opening the door to jobs for tomorrow. Allied health professionals are essential to our modern health care.
They help people recover from injury, regain mobility and communication, manage chronic illnesses, respond to emergencies and live with greater independence and dignity. Growing Tasmania's workforce is crucial. We need more health professionals in our hospitals, clinics, pharmacies, disability services, aged-care settings and regional communities.
Supporting Tasmanian students to qualify and undertake placement locally strengthens the pipeline of skilled workers who can build their careers in Tasmania and care for their fellow Tasmanians. This extension is therefore both immediate affordability relief and long-term investment in better health outcomes. It strengthens Medicare by investing in the people who make our health system work.
It supports students today so they can provide care for the communities of the future. There is a stark contrast between us as a Labor government and the new coalition of the Liberals, Nationals and One Nation, who always want to talk about the difficulties but never come up with the solutions—unless, of course, the Liberals are trying to 'outpolicy' on issues where they believe that One Nation has got some runs on the board compared to them.
Well, the reality is we're a government who are responsible for delivering outcomes. Investing in the health professionals of the future is beneficial not only for our health outcomes but for communities like mine in Tasmania.