Dental students must not be left behind in paid prac expansion

From 1 July 2027, the Commonwealth Prac Payment will be expanded to students in a range of health disciplines, including clinical psychology, physiotherapy, occupational therapy, speech pathology, paramedicine, radiography, pharmacy, rehabilitation therapies and podiatry. Dentistry is not among them.

Announcing the expansion, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said the scheme was already benefiting students in training.

“Paid prac is already making a real difference — it’s helping students with cost of living while they train and that’s why we’re expanding it,” Mr. Albanese said. 

“This is an investment in our future healthcare workforce. We need more of them and this will help more Australians get the qualifications our nation needs.”

ADA Federal President Dr Chris Sanzaro said the continued exclusion of dental students was difficult to justify. Dental students undertake lengthy, compulsory clinical placements as part of every accredited degree, facing the same cost of living pressures, travel and equipment costs, and reduced capacity for paid work as students in the disciplines now being supported. Despite this, they are still expected to carry those costs personally.

Dr Sanzaro said the issue should be considered on its merits, not through selective categories of workforce support. These costs fall hardest on rural students, students from less privileged circumstances, students with caring responsibilities, and those without access to family financial support. If the Government is serious about widening participation and building a diverse, sustainable, and geographically distributed oral health workforce, it cannot ignore the financial barriers faced by dental students.

“There should be no hierarchy of hardship when it comes to mandatory clinical placements,” Dr Sanzaro said.

The ADA said Australia's oral health system already faced significant workforce and access challenges, particularly in rural and regional communities, and that overlooking dental students in workforce support measures ran counter to the Government's own stated priorities. Relative to the public investment required to educate and retain dentists, extending paid prac support to dental students would be a practical and sensible measure that removes unnecessary barriers to participation and signals that the Government values the oral health workforce of tomorrow.

“We know the Government is serious about building the health workforce of the future, and we'd encourage that same commitment to extend to dental students. The evidence already shows we need more dentists in regional and rural areas, expansion of this scheme will help achieve this” Dr Sanzaro said.

The ADA encourages the Government to include dentistry in the next phase of the Commonwealth Prac Payment scheme and looks forward to continuing to work with them on behalf of dental students and the broader profession.