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

The cost of tertiary education shouldn't hang over Australians' heads for the whole of their working lives, and, while they're studying, they shouldn't be anxious about where they're going to sleep and what they're going to be able to eat because they can't cover the cost of their practical placements. Earlier this year, I welcomed the introduction of the Commonwealth prac placements for nursing, midwifery, teaching and social work students, but my position has always been—as the member for Indi's has, and I thank her for moving this motion—that this payment should apply to all courses in the care sector.

When I was a medical student, accommodation was free. Caffs were cheap, but those days are gone. Medical students now have to cover the cost of professional registration, working-with-children checks, police checks, travel and accommodation, all while they are strictly limited in their ability to work to support their living expenses. Cost-of-living pressures mean that the proportion of students who have to support full-time study with full-time work has doubled, from one in 14 students in the 1990s to one in seven in 2023.

In expecting students to undertake unpaid prac placements, we're therefore asking some of them to effectively work three full-time jobs. Medical students are required to undertake 2,000 hours of unpaid clinical placements, often well away from home in rural and regional settings. Occupational therapy students are required to undertake 1,000 hours of unpaid placement, including regional rotations with no travel support and no accommodation support. It's similar for podiatry students, who undertake up to 1,200 hours.

The Australian Society of Medical Imaging and Radiation Therapy recently found that placement poverty, which they define as experiencing significant financial hardship while on tertiary placements, affects 75 per cent of medical imaging students during their 56 weeks of placement. Nearly a quarter say that they cannot support themselves. Many consider dropping out. Others have already left their courses because the financial strain is just too great, especially for those students who are juggling work, study and care responsibilities.

When Australia faces significant and ongoing shortages of GPs, medical specialists and virtually all allied health disciplines and mental health supports, it is inexplicable that the government is not doing everything possible to help all students complete their training. Education and training should be an opportunity available to every Australian. It shouldn't be a financial burden, but, for too many of our students, prac placements mean stress and anxiety more than they mean engagement, fulfilment, skills development and learning.

Every time I raise this issue on social media, my DMs and my email inbox are flooded with stories from students from around Australia, which reinforces that prac-placement poverty is real and it is hurting our future workforce. I've heard from young women who are being forced to sleep in their cars, to skip meals and to then defer their studies so that they can save for a year so they can complete their prac placements. Some give up because of the stress and the financial burden; they never go back to study. Those young people will be left with debt and regret, but no diplomas or degrees. That is a failure of policy and it's a failure of government.

Prac placements are also a question of gender equity because more students in the care sector are female than male, and it's a question of intergenerational equity. The young people who are now undertaking tertiary studies are the generation which in the middle of a compounding cost-of-living crisis, housing crisis and climate crisis are being burdened with unprecedented levels of personal debt simply through their desire to train and to equip themselves with the skillsets that they need for their adult lives.

This is a generation which understands that Australian university students contribute more to government revenue than the oil and gas industry do in resources tax. What does that say about our government, what does that say about its principles, and what does that say about its priorities? I call on the government to recognise this education crisis for what it is. We owe it to the next generation to do better for these students. If we invest in them now, we invest in the future wellbeing of every Australian.

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