Thursday, 5 March 2026

 Georgie CROZIER (Southern Metropolitan) (18:10): (2393) My adjournment matter is also for the Minister for Health, and it is in relation to graduate nurse and paramedic positions. Despite what the minister said in the Parliament today, there are thousands of graduate nurses and paramedics that cannot get a job in this state. There were thousands last year and there are thousands this year. This is not setting up the workforce for the future. I receive emails from concerned parents, family members and others – and nurses themselves – around their inability to get into a graduate placement program in this state. As one concerned mother wrote to me just on Wednesday:

In September 2025 more than 2,000 Victorian Nursing and Midwifery students did not secure a 2026 Graduate year position. As you know a Graduate year is crucial to cementing knowledge and securing a role in a hospital. None of the current advertised Nursing positions will consider someone with no experience, and very few state they will accept less than 12 months experience.

Nursing Employment Agencies currently advertise for ‘Experienced Nurses’ to fill casual and relief positions in understaffed hospitals. This is false economy and poor planning for predicted Nursing shortages in the future.

This woman is absolutely spot on. This is absolutely a false economy and poor planning for predicted nursing shortages in the future, because in just two or three years time we are not going to have the nurses that we need in our health system. We need these nurses in these positions now so that they are trained and they are in the system. It is just a disgrace to say, ‘Yes, we’ve got nurses now,’ but in three years time, let me tell you, we are not going to have the nurses we need. This government has failed these graduates. They continue to fail the health system and, more importantly, the Victorian community through the lack of planning and the mismanagement that is going on in health. What is the minister doing for these young women and others? She talked about women today in the Parliament – about how they are the majority in the healthcare sector, which is true – but it is not just women, it is others. The action I seek is: what is she doing for these young people who have done their training, who have done their studies and who want a career in nursing or paramedicine?