Tuesday, 12 May 2026

 Trung LUU (Western Metropolitan) (18:09): (2510) My matter is for the Minister for Health regarding the Allan Labor government’s failure to plan for successful employment outcomes for graduates following its free TAFE and nursing degree initiative. The action I seek is for the minister to explain how the government allowed up to 1500 newly qualified Victorian nurses to graduate without a clear pathway to employment and what the government is doing to assist these graduates to find their dream job in the health sector.

In 2022 the former Andrews Labor government announced an initiative to cover university fees for nursing and midwifery students, encouraging more than 10,000 Victorians, many of them young people and mature-aged career changers, to enter the profession. These students were told they were answering the workforce crisis and stepping into a secure, meaningful job in Victoria’s health system. Instead, almost five months after graduating, up to 1500 newly qualified nurses remain unable to secure a graduate position. Many are now working casually in hospitality, retail and petrol stations while looking interstate for employment. Universities estimate that nearly a third of recent nursing graduates in Victoria have failed to secure a graduate role, a dramatic shift from the previous year, when a vast majority found graduate roles after graduation. This is a devastating failure in workforce planning from the Allan Labor government. Graduate nurse programs are not an option; they are essential. Without them, graduates cannot gain the supervised clinical experience required to transition into registered nursing roles. The result is that these nurses are being lost at the very start of their career, while hospitals report ongoing staff burnout, excessive overtime and double shifts.

Experts have been clear that this outcome was entirely foreseeable. The so-called free TAFE policy triggered a surge of enrolment without a corresponding expansion of graduate positions. This mismanagement has left Victoria with an oversupply of qualified nurses who cannot work even as Australia is facing a projected shortage of more than 70,000 nurses by 2035. Young Victorians were encouraged, indeed persuaded, to train for roles that the Labor government has now failed to provide. This poor planning is misleading, demoralising and short-sighted.

I ask the minister: what immediate action will be taken to expand graduate nurse positions, and what is the Allan government doing to retain these graduates in Victoria’s health system and ensure that future free TAFE and degree initiatives are matched with realistic employment pathways so young Victorians are never put in this position again?