Medical Deans called for the Government to make urgent changes to include medical students in its plans to extend Commonwealth Prac Payment announced today. “Medical students complete about 2,000 hours of unpaid clinical placements – the highest requirement for any health professional degree,” Professor Forest said.  “Over 61.4% of these students are working paid jobs alongside their studies, income that has to stop the moment they go on placement, creating student poverty at exactly the point they can least afford it.”  An increasing proportion of students from diverse backgrounds are now studying medicine: from lower SES backgrounds, first in family to go to university, First Nations students, and over one third of students are from a rural background. MDANZ's 2026 National Data Report shows that 54.9% of medical students rely on government assistance (Centrelink) to get through the degree.