From what I've heard, most places do not offer international students internships in the first round.
There might only be a handful of hospitals in the country that do.
Yeah, I think that's spot on.
Federal law stipulated that Australians and permanent residents got priority for internship, so "first round" (aka "The Ballot" in Qld) would refer to the initial allocation of those students. Then it would go down the priority levels for the remaining spots until they're all filled. This has been the general process for as long as I remember.
If what was planned is indeed happening this year in NSW, int'l students continue to be down the list at priority 6 out of 8 (correct me if I'm wrong -- in their lingo, I think they call it something like Priority 3.4).
However, NSW will apparently next year be cutting down to a two priority system -- Commonwealth Supported domestic in-staters as priority 1, and then everyone else as priority 2 competing for the remaining spots based on merit. This will put all int'ls on the same playing field as out-of-state Australians and Kiwis, but also with out-of-state int'l students and AMC candidates (foreign docs in the process of getting Australian full registration). Of course this implies that not all int'ls will be getting a job there -- unless of course the NSW int'l students are superior -- and the losers will have to go to a state with extra spots, like SA.
I'm not sure how NSW will be getting away with breaking the rules (
maybe the rules were superceded as part of the CoAG (Council of Australian Governments) agreement between the states and the federal govt stipulating each state "guarantee" spots for their own Commonwealth Supported in-staters), but then again, NSW always managed to violate a past agreement among the states to coordinate the timing of each 'round' (thus giving itself an edge by offering spots before other states). For example, it would "unofficially" solicit pretty much
anyone wanting to do internship in the northern border town of Tweed Heads, before the other states even held their first rounds.
But even before the CoAG agreement, a number of years ago SA got away with bumping the priority of their int'ls to above that of the AMC candidates who had Permanent Residency. Then Qld did the same in 2007, bumping their int'ls up the list (now they're P4 out of 8, with out-of-state int'ls P5, and AMC candidates dropping to P6) in a slight of hand they justified by some implications of a newly (federally) created visa class which in the end didn't even pertain to doctors.
You have to appreciate the history here of policies being...bent, er...obfuscated in practice, particularly when it comes to states' interests. It's one of the many endearing traits of Australia IMO.
