![\""Sydney,](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/02493385d04db004d10960aa3ff34ca6b8995f73.jpeg\")
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The government has extended its paid prac program to 10 new professions. \u00a0Nine<\/p>\n
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese<\/a> will announce the change during a speech to the Labor Party conference in Adelaide<\/a> on Thursday. <\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019ve heard from students who had to go straight from their hospital placement to their part-time job, just to pay the rent. Others who had to move back home to get through,\u201d he will say.<\/p>\n \u201cPaid prac has changed their life, and today we build on its success.<\/p>\n \u201cToday I announce we will expand paid prac to physio and occupational therapy, clinical psychology, pharmacy and podiatry, speech pathology, audiology, radiography, rehab therapies, and our future paramedics.\u201d<\/p>\n Paid practical payments were introduced in the 2024-25 budget, with $427 million to support students over the following three years.<\/p>\n The rate is means-tested, benchmarked to the Austudy rate and indexed annually. <\/p>\n It already covers teaching, nursing, midwifery and social work students and has now been expanded to the 10 new professions. <\/p>\n Students are unpaid for the work they do during their practical placements, which can sometimes take up to 12 months. <\/p>\n Some also have to relocate or travel to complete their training. <\/p>\n \u201cThis is one of those reforms where it is hard to believe that it didn\u2019t already exist,\u201d Albanese will say. <\/p>\n More healthcare workers will be supported through their practical placements. \u00a0Supplied<\/p>\n Health Minister Mark Butler said supporting healthcare students was crucial for the country. <\/p>\n \u201cThese are people who are going to look after us when we\u2019re sick or old, helping women during childbirth, helping Australians living with disability,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n \u201cThis expansion means that if you\u2019re training to be a pharmacist, physio or psychologist, you\u2019ll also now have a bit of extra help to get through.<\/p>\n \u201cThis will make a big difference for students doing placements in the bush who face extra costs when they\u2019re training away from home.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Tens of thousands of healthcare students are expected to get up to $338 per week as the federal…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":817080,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[43,44,41,39,42,40],"class_list":["post-817079","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-headlines","tag-news","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/817079","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=817079"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/817079\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/817080"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=817079"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=817079"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=817079"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/8d38aa61a7b2210bc9638e23a22ba40bf5e21866.jpeg\")
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