On Thursday, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese announced paid placements will be extended to 10 more allied health degrees.
The Government rolled out its Commonwealth Prac Placement (CPP) program in 2025 for degrees including nursing and teaching, and will now expand it to courses including physiotherapy and paramedicine.
While some students welcomed the news, the Australian Medical Students’ Association told TDA their exclusion will disproportionately impact students from rural, low-income and First Nations backgrounds.
Background
Since July 2025, nursing, social work, teaching, and midwifery students have been able to access payments for compulsory placements that are more than 30 hours per week.
Since January, the payment has been $338.60 per week.
In a full-time week (38 hours), this is equivalent to $8.91 per hour.
Nursing students are required to complete 800 hours (20 weeks) in a clinic or hospital.
Teachers need to do about 600 hours (16 weeks) in a classroom.
Expansion
On Thursday, Albanese announced the Government would expand the program to 10 additional allied health degrees.
These are physiotherapy, speech pathology, occupational therapy, radiography, pharmacy, audiology, psychology, podiatry, paramedicine, and rehabilitation therapies.
Albanese said the Government was expanding the scheme “because [students] shouldn’t have to choose between paying the bills and graduating.”
Health Students Alliance (HSA) President Sebastian Harper told TDA he is “ecstatic” to see the expansion to pharmacy and allied health students, which he said the HSU had “advocated for... over the last two years”.
The HSU conducted a survey in 2025, asking 1,374 students about their experiences with living costs during placements.
It showed 42% of respondents “went hungry” during placement, while 53% said they considered leaving their degree due to the burden of placement.
Your contribution ensures The Daily Aus can continue doing the work you love.
I want to give $10 monthly to help TDA keep doing the news.
Your details:
Medical students
Medicine – which requires up to 4,000 hours of placement – has not been included in the expansion.
Australian Medical Students’ Association (AMSA) President Seniru Mudannayake said balancing paid work to afford living costs is difficult, noting that some students are homeless and rationing food during placements.
Mudannayake said that this exclusion disproportionately impacts students from regional, First Nations, and low-income backgrounds, who often “just don’t have the family financial support to be able to do [placements].”
Mudannayake said these students are more likely to return “to serve their communities,” but the cost of placement is “shutting them out of these degrees.”
AMSA data shows First Nations medical students make up 4% of the first year cohort, but 2% of graduating classes.
On Thursday morning, Albanese told the ABC “there aren’t shortages of people who want to do medical degrees,” compared to other allied health fields.
In response, Mudannayake said “if you have money, you can do this,” adding “medicine [is] not being reflective of the patients that we’re meant to serve”.
Opposition
Shadow Education Minister Julian Leeser told TDA the announcement is “ironic and very sad.”
“The reason the Government is even considering payments like this is because life has become so expensive,” he said.
TDA audience
Elly, a postgrad psychology student, told TDA she and her peers “often end up doing more than our required 1,000 hours because we have three placement blocks that are five months in length”.
She said students resort to working night shifts and weekends to cover work costs such as fuel, vaccines, and mandatory checks, on top of regular uni study and living costs.
Midwifery student Abbey told us she is ineligible for the payment due to being rostered for 23 hours, rather than 30.
Her placement was also allocated in her summer break.
