Mehreen Faruqi (NSW, Australian Greens) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Amidst the cost-of-living and rental crisis, placement poverty is pushing students to the absolute brink. Saddled with soaring student debt and paying ridiculously high course fees, students also have to struggle with the burden of working hundreds of hours without pay in mandatory placements. Students who are already struggling often have to work all the time to save up for placements. Some have taken a year off university just so they can save up to do a placement. Working around the clock, they are too exhausted to learn and many are forced to drop out.

Placements should be designed to benefit student learning, not exploit their labour with onerous hours and conditions without any payment. As James from Students Against Placement Poverty has said:

Industries are relying on the unpaid labour of students, who are then paying universities for the privilege of being exploited.

It's the most basic expectation that students, like everyone else, are paid for the work that they do. Education is a basic right, and students should be guaranteed a liveable income.

Another budget is just weeks away, and now is the time for the government to get rid of this really cooked system and implement the Universities Accord recommendations to ensure all student placements are paid. I've long worked alongside students and staff to end placement poverty, and I thank the tireless campaigning of Students Against Placement Poverty, the National Union of Students, the Australian Council of Heads of Social Work Education, the Australian Services Union and many others. The Greens will not stop fighting for students until they are paid for mandatory placements, until all student debt is wiped and until TAFE and university are made free.