Helen Haines (Indi, Independent) Share this | Hansard source

I move the amendment circulated in my name:

(1) Schedule 4, page 34 (after the table), at the end of the Schedule, add:

2 Review of amendments

(1) The Minister must cause an independent review to be conducted of the operation of the amendments made by this Schedule and any Guidelines, regulations or other legislative instruments made for the purposes of those amendments.

(2) Without limiting subsection (1), the review must consider:

(a) the effectiveness of payments provided to students undertaking courses in teaching, nursing (including midwifery) or social work; and

(b) the appropriateness of expanding payments to students undertaking courses that require university placements, including allied health courses.

(3) The review is to start as soon as practicable after the third anniversary of the day that this Schedule commences.

(4) The persons who conduct the review must give the Minister a written report of the review within 6 months after the commencement of the review.

(5) The Minister must cause a copy of the report to be tabled in each House of the Parliament within 15 sittings days of that House after the report is given to the Minister.

The burden of unpaid placements is hurting students right across Australia, particularly in the regions. In a cost-of-living crisis, students should not be expected to work for free. Students should not be expected to make difficult choices between their studies and their financial security. In Australia, in 2024, that's simply not good enough. When we make it harder for people to receive higher education, we slow the number of graduates studying in or moving to our regions. It means we will fail to address critical workforce shortages in hospitals, schools and aged care, and our regions will be held back.

While I support the government's plans for paid placements, this bill needs to go further if we're to meaningfully address workforce shortages in our communities. Placement poverty isn't fixed yet. The omission of allied health professionals from the government's plans for paid placements is an obvious gap, and it's why I've put forward an amendment requiring the government to consider the inclusion of allied health in the paid placements program. Allied health professionals are vital to our healthcare system. Professionals such as occupational therapists, radiologists and physiotherapists provide life-changing services in the NDIS, the hospital system, the veterans entitlements system, aged care and schools.

Our healthcare system and social services would be worse off without allied health, and they need our support too. For example, occupational therapists and physiotherapists complete more than 130 days of clinical placement, while dietitians complete a minimum of 100 days. Medical radiation practitioners complete 52 weeks of placement over four years. For these allied health students, the impact of unpaid placements can be crippling. Not only is there the cost of undertaking the placements, such as travel and uniforms; there's also the lost income that comes with giving up other paid work. When a placement is in a distant town or city, students must also find and pay for their own accommodation.

Consider Hogan Quinn, a third-year physiotherapy student studying on the border of my electorate of Indi. He says that the compulsory placement requirement means he will need to give up his existing job for up to six months, all while paying additional accommodation and travel costs related to his placement. But Hogan is not alone. A 2022 survey found that more than a third of students lost their entire weekly income because of compulsory placements. Ninety-six per cent of students said they didn't have enough money to pay for food, clothes and travel. I refuse to accept that placement poverty is the cost of getting an education in this country, and that's why I'm calling on the minister to include allied health when the paid prac guidelines are released.

I also have concerns about the design and implementation of paid placements. The minister says that paid placements will be means tested, but we don't know what this will look like in reality. The minister says that payments will be delivered through universities, but universities are not set up to conduct means testing nor to administer complex social security payments. How can we expect universities to suddenly fill the role of the ATO? Regional universities have told a Senate inquiry into the bill that they don't feel equipped to deliver the payments and have asked why they cannot be administered similarly to other social security payments. The department has admitted this is a new payment and that there may be teething issues.

With all of these questions unanswered or unclear, and the glaring omission of allied health, I've had a very positive conversation with the minister. I've negotiated for the minister to amend the bill to include a statutory review clause. Within three years, the minister will be required to commission a review of the paid prac system. My amendment will require the government to consider expanding prac payments to other areas of key skills shortages, especially to allied health. While I won't stop pushing for better paid prac placements in the meantime, this review is now set in the calendar. Put simply, we need this review clause. This is a completely new type of government payment. Putting this review clause into the legislation will ensure any future government is accountable to ensure that payments are as effective as possible both for the students they assist and for the communities who desperately need these workers. I thank the minister for the way he's engaged with me on this topic.

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