Monique Ryan (Kooyong, Independent) Share this | Hansard source

I thank the member for Brisbane for this motion which raises the importance of economic equality for Australian women. In recent decades we've seen greater workforce participation, higher levels of educational attainment for Australian women, a reduction in the gender pay gap and the narrowing of the retirement income gap. Achievements of the Albanese government that I advocated for and supported in the 47th parliament included expansion of paid parental leave, superannuation on PPL and increased wages in female dominated workforces. All of these were really significant moves towards gender equity in our workforce.

There are, however, persisting and significant gender inequities in the Commonwealth Prac Payment scheme. This initiative, which was announced earlier this year, was a welcome recognition of the financial hardship faced by students undertaking mandatory unpaid placements in teaching, nursing, midwifery and social work. These students will now receive $331 per week during those placements, and that support is long overdue. However, the scheme continues to exclude students in other care-sector disciplines—medicine, allied health and veterinary science—even though those students face the same, if not even greater, burdens of unpaid placements. Those students also have to complete hundreds—sometimes thousands—of hours of practical training, often in rural or remote locations and often at the expense of their paid work at home. They too have to pay the cost of insurance, registration, equipment, accommodation and transport to their prac placements, while still often having to pay rent in the city, pay the cost of their child care and sort out the care of their dependents.

This exclusion is not an oversight by the Albanese government. It was deliberate, and it perpetuates structural inequities in our workforce. The fact is that fields like physiotherapy, occupational therapy, speech therapy and veterinary science are female dominated. Women make up 74 per cent of students in health related degrees in Australia. These are the very students who are being asked to work for free—to train for free—for months on end, while they have to juggle their rent, their cost of living, and sometimes their care of children or other dependents. I've heard their stories time and time again. They are stories of anxiety and sadness, of worry and of frustration—stories which reflect the chilling effect of placement poverty.

Unpaid placements push women into debt. They can delay their graduation and they can limit their career choices. They worsen gender inequities before women even have the opportunity to enter the workforce. This fact has been recognised time and time again. In fact, the government's own Women's Economic Equality Taskforce found that women are more likely to study or train in areas that attract debt or that require unpaid placements to qualify and that this creates inequality from the start of their careers. That inequality can have lifelong implications. It can include an inability to escape or recover from violence, homelessness or housing insecurity. It can result in lower superannuation balances and less security in retirement. The WEET suggested that the government should support equitable access to education and skills building. It suggested that the government should remove those disincentives and inequities that perpetuate occupational gender segregation and sustained pay and wealth gaps. The current settings for paid prac placements do not do that.

This is not just a matter of fairness for women; it is a matter of national interest. Australia faces critical shortages in its healthcare and veterinary services. We need more graduate in these fields, not fewer, but we continue to ask students to pay for the privilege of being, effectively, exploited. While we do that, we will drive them away from their studies or slow their progression. We will lose talented individuals who can't afford to work for free and who have to defer their studies, go part time or fail to complete their studies. This is a short-sighted, tragic false economy. I call on the government to expand the Commonwealth Prac Payment scheme to include all care-sector students, regardless of their discipline. Let us recognise the value of students' work and the cost of their training, and let's build a system that supports every student who chooses to care for others.

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