CONSTITUENCY STATEMENTS
Ms ALDRED (Monash—Opposition Whip) (09:56): Last week I sat down with Dr Becky Dickinson, a rural veterinarian based in Warragul, who has just been named the Victorian finalist in the AgriFutures Rural Women's Award. I want to congratulate Dr Becky. It's richly deserved recognition for someone who works tirelessly to support our veterinary graduates.
It was wonderful to support her this week at the gala dinner in Parliament House. Dr Becky founded Veterinary Support Services, and it's now 18 months along. The business backs new graduates, strengthens the businesses that employ them and is already delivering real benefit across eight rural communities.
It's exactly the sort of grassroots initiative that shows what's possible when someone decides to build real change in our regions. But my meeting with Dr Becky also confirmed something that is an issue for many members in this place from regional communities. It is that our rural veterinary profession has been undermined by a number of challenges.
In fact, this doesn't just challenge rural vets; it challenges vets Australia-wide. I really want to pay tribute to the 35,000-odd veterinarians across Australia who look after small animals and farm animals and do so in the most challenging of circumstances. I also want to call on this federal government to immediately bring forward the Commonwealth prac payment for veterinary students.
It's been brought forward for students in a number of other areas, and it should be brought forward for veterinary students as well. Vet students, despite six years of study and up to 985 hours of mandatory placement, have in some cases close to $300,000 in HECS debt by the time they graduate, and they've been left off the list again. So I'm calling on this federal government to fix that oversight immediately and extend the Commonwealth prac payment to veterinary students.
Right now, graduates are entering a profession with no structured pathway, being thrown into full responsibility from day one, with none of the supervised progression of, for example, a junior doctor. Many of them are burning out. Some are working second jobs just to make ends meet after six years of study.
If we want a veterinary workforce for the next generation, we need to invest in one as a country. This includes paying tribute to the dedicated vets across the Monash electorate who keep our farms running and our pets healthy day and night. It's the farm animal vets I particularly want to recognise today—the men and women who get the call at 2 am in the morning and drive out to a paddock with no phone reception to help animals and people in distress.
It's physically gruelling work, and it never stops. From all of us in this place: thank you for the work that you continue to do.