Albanese will announce extension of “Paid Prac” at Labor national conference

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese will announce on Thursday the extension of the “Prac Payment” for health professionals undertaking placements to 10 new categories.

The extension begins from July 1 next year.

The payment, which began last year, provides eligible students with up to $338.60 a week while they are doing their clinical and professional placements. The payment is means tested and indexed.

The new categories are:

• clinical psychology
• physiotherapy
• occupational therapy
• speech pathology
• paramedicine
• radiography
• pharmacy
• rehabilitation therapies
• audiology

Albanese will make the announcement during his speech on the first day of the 50th Labor national conference in Adelaide. The speech is titled Delivering Real Change.

Those already covered by the Prac Payment are students enrolled in teaching, nursing, midwifery and social work courses.

The expansion will cost $158 million over the period 2026-2027 to 2029-2030.

It is expected to support more than 20,000 extra students. This would take the total number supported by the scheme to 95,000. The total spending would be $745 million over the period.

In his speech, a part of which was released before delivery, Albanese says the Prac Payment provides “real help with the cost of living for tens of thousands of Australians. And a real investment in the health care workers of tomorrow”.

The three-day conference is being carefully managed to avoid or minimise arguments that could be damaging to the government. It is being attended by some 400 delegates, including parliamentarians, branch members and unionists. Although the left of the party has a slight majority at the conference, factional wrangling will ensure the government retains the whiphand.

In his address, Albanese emphasises the government’s reform credentials and empathises with the difficult situation of many Australians.

“I understand that for many Australians right now, looking to the future runs second to the immediate pressures they are under.

“The last decade has inflicted one global shock after another. And people have been given every reason to feel like the economy is simply not working for them.”

[The government’s] focus remains squarely on helping with the cost of living, on the practical measures that matter to people and make a positive difference to their lives.

Because that is how we demonstrate to Australians that their hard work will pay off, that their effort is worth it, that they can plan and build for their future. And it is how we prove that the status quo is not set in stone.

In an apparent gibe particularly at One Nation, without mentioning it or Pauline Hanson, Albanese says, “You can go a long way in politics, for a long time, by raging against a system that you are a part of, without a plan to fix it.

“Or blaming people who cannot defend themselves for a problem they did not cause. That doesn’t build anything. It doesn’t change anything. It doesn’t take our country forward.

“It doesn’t help anyone find a job, pay their bills, or put a roof over their head. This has always been the fundamental contrast between Labor and all our political opponents. And never more so than now.”

Gas tax

With many in the Labor rank and file urging a gas tax, former Labor leader Bill Shorten, now vice-chancellor of the University of Canberra, has said there is a “national appetite” to consider such a tax.

He told the ABC on Tuesday: “I think probably the time has arrived to consider reviewing the taxation on gas. […] I think there’s a national appetite.

“I mean, the government’s paring back on things like the NDIS. That’s necessary, I get. But I think there’s a lot of people saying, ‘What about the gas companies?’”

Agitation over Middle East

Agitation continues around the draft platform’s section on Israel and Palestine. Some in the party want it changed to be tougher on Israel although they appear unlikely to prevail.

The Executive Council of Australian Jewry in a statement on Wednesday criticised the draft platform, which earlier this week also came under attack from the Israeli embassy.

The council, pointing to positions stated by the Albanese government, said: “It is a reasonable question to ask why the ALP National Conference is not backing in the Albanese government in expressly recognising the government’s position on excluding Hamas and requiring the Palestinian Authority to honour the commitments for governance reform upon which the government’s recognition of a Palestinian State was explicitly based”.

Union call for greater action on housing

The Australian Manufacturing Workers’ Union (AMWU) will launch “Housing Charter” outside the conference on Thursday morning.

AMWU National Secretary Steve Murphy said the charter was “unapologetically pro-worker”. “Working people expect action, not incrementalism,” he said.

He said the charter “calls for tax settings that put homeowners before investors, a dramatic expansion of public and social housing, a new national Housing Commission to coordinate housing delivery, and a government-backed modular housing industry to build union-secured homes faster”.

Michelle Grattan does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.