Petition to: The Hon Anthony Albanese MP, Prime Minister; The Hon Jason Clare MP, Minister for Education; The Hon Mark Butler MP, Minister for Health and Ageing

Summary:

On 23 July 2026, the government announced the Commonwealth Prac Payment would expand to cover "clinical psychology" students, alongside physiotherapy, occupational therapy, speech pathology, and other allied health professions. This is a welcome step towards addressing placement poverty but the wording has left hundreds of psychology students unsure whether they're actually included.

Why this matters

"Clinical psychology" has two very different meanings in Australian psychology funding, and the announcement does not specify which is meant.

1. Under the existing Job-ready Graduates funding rules, "Postgraduate Clinical Psychology" is an official government category that already covers courses leading to endorsed areas of practice in Clinical, Clinical Neuropsychology, Counselling, Educational and Developmental, Forensic, Health, Sports and Exercise, and Community Psychology. All these degrees involve 1000 hours of unpaid placement and lead to general registration as a psychologist. All will be able to work as psychologists in high priority areas such as the health system. 
2.  Separately, "clinical psychologist" is also a protected Area of Practice Endorsement title, only available after completing a Masters or Doctorate in Clinical Psychology AND two further years of supervised practice. Graduating from a Master of Clinical Psychology does not make you a clinical psychologist, it makes you eligible for general registration, exactly like every other two-year postgraduate psychology pathway.

If the Prac Payment expansion only means the second, narrower definition:

• It excludes students doing identical, mandatory, unpaid placement hours in identical settings, purely based on which Masters degree title they hold.
• It incentivises the already more competitive entry to training at a point where students are not distinguishable in outcome from any other general-registration graduate.
• It directly contradicts the government's own psychology workforce strategy, which through the PsyBA/Ahpra Higher Degree Redesign project is actively trying to produce more generalist psychologists faster, because Australia faces a projected 96.6% undersupply of psychologists by 2038. Privileging the smaller, already oversubscribed clinical-specific pathway does nothing to address that shortage.

Our ask

We are asking the government to publicly confirm, in plain language, that "clinical psychology" in the Commonwealth Prac Payment expansion refers to the existing funding classification; that is, all postgraduate courses that result in eligibility for general registration as a psychologist, and not only Masters/Doctorates in Clinical Psychology.

If the government does mean the first definition, we strongly request that this be reconsidered as it is a direct contradiction to the nature of the training pathway, the government’s other initiatives to grow the psychology workforce, the identical nature of the placement requirement and degree outcome, the increase in demand for a narrower pathway that will follow, and the inequity to all other postgraduate psychology students doing the exact same thing.

One clear public statement would end the uncertainty for hundreds of students who are considering their future.

Sign this petition if you believe psychology students deserve a clear, timely answer, not months of ambiguity while guidelines are drafted.