30 January 2026
ASMIRT has joined a national petition, sponsored by MPs David Pocock and Helen Haines, to include all allied health students in the Commonwealth Practice Payment scheme. This would give university students double Austudy payments during compulsory placement periods. The petition is being championed by all allied health professions and medical students.
We have gone a step further however, drawing specifically on the plight of our students. Hundreds of posters have gone up in Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Adelaide and Perth to share a message: Too many Medical Radiation Science students are hungry, homeless or dropping out.
From 27 January to 10 February, our posters are on display across inner suburbs of Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Adelaide and Perth. We are also specifically targeting locations close to major transport hubs and hospitals.
By promoting these messages across capital cities, and social media (on Facebook, LinkedIn and Instagram) we’re making placement poverty impossible to ignore. The posters contain a QR code to our website meettheperson.asmirt.org, an ASMIRT initiative to remind people that tomorrow’s healthcare starts with today’s students. The petition can be accessed through that website.
In 2024 a petition successfully moved the government to act on higher education reform after gaining nearly 300k signatures. Independent MP Monique Ryan (who also supports our campaign) initiated the petition, pointing out the unfairness of the at-the-time HECS indexation and repayment system. Six weeks after the petition launched, and once Monique Ryan MP had delivered it to Parliament, the Australian Government announced reforms to the HECS system. This saved three million Australians $3 billion in student debt.
Petitions can and do work. Please share our petition among your friends and colleagues to end placement poverty.
