VCOSS Policy Tracker
Social policy repository for the 2018 Victorian election
Welcome to your home for social policy announcements this Victorian election.
VCOSS policy experts are searching high and low for the parties’ official policy pledges.
When we find a policy document, we will post it here.
If no formal policy document exists we will piece together a fair representation based on available speeches, public statements and media releases. We will also share videos and links to politicians’ media appearances, where relevant.
Housing, homelessness, renters’ rights
Jobs, skills, employment
Cost of living, essential services, digital inclusion
Education, inc. early learning, inclusive schooling
Child protection, out of home care, HomeStretch
Family violence prevention and gender equity
Health, inc. mental health, oral health and community health
Disability, aged care, carers
LGBTIQ+, CALD and diversity
Transport
Justice, courts, fines, policing
Housing, homelessness, renters’ rights
Election pledges will be posted as they become available. Have we missed something? Let us know.
- Invest $209 million to build an additional 1,000 public housing properties over three years.
- Note: this site catalogues election pledges only. For existing government policies and initiatives please read our analysis of the 2018 Victorian Budget and Labor’s 2018 Party Policy Platform.
- Fast-track the release of up to an additional 290,000 residential housing lots to help make more houses more affordable.
- Introduce financial penalties for authorities such as local councils that unreasonably delayed the supply of new land.
- Appoint a Victorian Housing Ombudsman to settle disputes across the housing sector in a free, fast and fair manner.
- A commitment to cap rents at inflation.
- Advocate for the construction of 40,000 new public housing dwellings including necessary refurbishment over the next six years, from 1 January 2019.
- Promote alternative forms of home ownership, such as community land trusts, leasehold schemes, co-housing, self- build schemes and shared equity.
- Greater tenants’ rights, including a complete ban on rental bidding.
- The Green’s housing policy principles and aims can be found here.
Jobs, skills, employment
Election pledges will be posted as they become available. Have we missed something? Let us know.
- Invest $1.2 million to develop and promote a Certificate III in Shearing qualification at a selected TAFE from 2020 to grow Victoria’s agriculture industry.
- Establish a $220 million Building Better TAFEs Fund to upgrade facilities and campuses.
- Note: this site catalogues election pledges only. For existing government policies and initiatives please read our analysis of the 2018 Victorian Budget and Labor’s 2018 Party Policy Platform.
- Create a Rural Tertiary Network to connect students who have moved to Melbourne or one of Victoria’s regional cities to study ($0.6million/4yrs)
- Recognise volunteers’ contribution by implementing a coordinated, whole of government media campaign to celebrate and recognise the volunteers.
- Watch this space.
- The Green’s industry and employment policy principles and aims can be found here.
Cost of living, essential services, digital inclusion
Election pledges will be posted as they become available. Have we missed something? Let us know.
- Increase Victoria’s Renewable Energy Target (VRET) to 50 per cent by 2030.
- Abolish energy ‘standing offers’ and force power retailers to offer a fairer Victorian Default Offer.
- Introduce a Solar Homes Program, connecting an estimated 650,000 owner-occupied homes to rooftop solar.
- Expand rooftop solar rebates to renters who are in a position to make make a 25% co-contribution.
- Note: this site catalogues election pledges only. For existing government policies and initiatives please read our analysis of the 2018 Victorian Budget and Labor’s 2018 Party Policy Platform.
- Give low-income earners discounts so they can upgrade to more energy efficient fridges and TVs.
- Construction of a new Victorian power station of at least 500MW to cut electricity prices.
- Invest $30 million to boost mobile connectivity across rural and regional Victoria.
- $100 savings on annual water bills under “fairer water policy”.
- Offer car registration discount of around $295 for Red P-Platers.
- Subsidise and partially regulate hospital car parking fees, cutting costs by “up to $20 a day”.
- Buy electricity and gas in bulk and on-sell at a discount rate to pensioners and healthcare card holders.
- No new taxes.
- Abolish the VRET (Victorian Renewable Energy Targets)
- Push for the establishment of a publicly-owned electricity retailer, to be called Power Victoria.
- Advocate for Victoria to phase out fossil fuels, using a combination of energy efficiency, energy storage, energy conservation and renewable energy.
- The Green’s energy policy principles and aims can be found here.
Education, inc. early learning, inclusive schooling
Election pledges will be posted as they become available. Have we missed something? Let us know.
- Invest more than $1.68 billion over the next decade, to see around 785 new kinders built and 170 existing services expanded
- Build 100 new schools over 8 years, an $850 million investment
- Provide 15 hours of three-year-old kinder to all Victorian children by 2022. ($5 billion / 10 years)
.@DanielAndrewsMP: If Labor is re-elected, we will provide universal three-year-old kinder right across our state so that every three-year-old can get all the benefits later in life that come from a proper early childhood education.
MORE: https://t.co/oczxtEiUqR #SkyLiveNow pic.twitter.com/k8Habk7Fe8
— Sky News Australia (@SkyNewsAust) October 4, 2018
- Employ more than 190 mental health professionals (including counsellors, youth workers and psychologists) to work in every state secondary school.
- Build 45 new schools and plan for a further 55 to be built, to keep up with population growth.
- Build 785 new kinders and expand services at 170 existing services.
- Ensure a kindergarten is built on or adjoining all new Victorian primary schools from 2021.
- Note: this site catalogues election pledges only. For existing government policies and initiatives please read our analysis of the 2018 Victorian Budget and Labor’s 2018 Party Policy Platform.
- Introduce “the biggest school anti-bullying program in Australia” to be run by the Alannah & Madeline Foundation.
- Abolish Safe Schools and reinstate religious instruction classes.
- Commission Dr Jennifer Buckingham, a senior research fellow at conservative think tank the Centre for Independent Studies, to review the Victorian school curriculum.
- Work to put solar panels on the roof of every Victorian public school by 2025.
- Pay for school textbooks for secondary students at government schools.
- Implement a ‘Three Strikes policy’, making it easier to expel school children.
- Work with Victoria Police to re-establish a ‘Police in Schools’ program.
- The Coalition’s broader ‘School Education Values Statement’ can be found here (pdf).
- Provide free toy library membership for 5,000 Victorian families in financial need.
- Push for the establishment of a new Independent School Resourcing body.
- Oppose the right of public schools to charge ‘voluntary’ fees for ‘non-core’ activities.
- Repeal Part 2.7 of the Education Training Reform Act which guarantees that non-government schools will receive 25% of recurrent funding provided to government schools
- The Green’s education policy principles and aims can be found here.
Child protection, out of home care, HomeStretch
Election pledges will be posted as they become available. Have we missed something? Let us know.
- Extend the age of state care to 21 (Home Stretch) and reimburse carers for the additional costs they incur ($11.6 million / 5 years).
- Note: this site catalogues election pledges only. For existing government policies and initiatives please read our analysis of the 2018 Victorian Budget and Labor’s 2018 Party Policy Platform.
- Enable foster and kinship carers to have access to the medical history records of children placed in their care within 48 hours.
- Pilot the HomeStretch program and provide funding for 75 places per year over two years for young people transitioning from state care, to support their education, employment, housing, physical and psychological goals.
- Develop strategies to support young people who have left care up to the age of 25.
- Lobby for the establishment of a reparations fund for the victims of neglect and abuse in Out of Home Care
- The Green’s child protection and OOHC policy principles and aims can be found here.
Family violence prevention and gender equity
Election pledges will be posted as they become available. Have we missed something? Let us know.
- Labor has made a broad pledge to deliver on the 227 recommendations of the Royal Commission into Family Violence.
- Note: this site catalogues election pledges only. For existing government policies and initiatives please read our analysis of the 2018 Victorian Budget and Labor’s 2018 Party Policy Platform.
- The Coalition has not committed to the full delivery of the Family Violence Royal Commission recommendations. The Shadow Minister for Prevention of Family Violence, Georgia Crozier, told the October 2018 Unite Against Family Violence election forum a Coalition Government would “look through and work through” the outstanding recommendations “with the focus being on safety”.
- Extend mandatory minimum jail sentences to family violence offenders.
- Pilot a Family Violence Disclosure Scheme to release information about a person’s history of offending
- Introduce ten year jail terms for people who engage in non-fatal strangulation.
- Fully support the funding and implementation of the Royal Commission into Family Violence recommendations.
- The Green’s broad ‘women and gender equality’ policy principles and aims can be found here.
Health, inc. mental health, oral health and community health
Election pledges will be posted as they become available. Have we missed something? Let us know.
- Establish public IVF services – bulk-billed and subsidised for low-income Victorians, and boost regional IVF services.
- Conduct a Royal Commission into Mental Health (Australian first) with a commitment to implement all recommendations.
- Contribute $1.6 million to expand Melbourne Victory’s successful Our Game, Our Community program.
- $1.38 billion pledge to employ an additional 1100 nurses and midwives, employ 90 more paramedics and buy 23 new ambulances, build or expand 10 new community hospitals and fund 500,000 extra specialist medical appointments
- Provide free sanitary items in all female, unisex and accessible bathrooms at all government schools from term three, 2019.
- Note: this site catalogues election pledges only. For existing government policies and initiatives please read our analysis of the 2018 Victorian Budget and Labor’s 2018 Party Policy Platform.
- $60 million over five years for a revitalised Life. Be in it. campaign to promote positive health and wellbeing.
- Expanded mental health support for members of Victoria Police, emergency services, ambulance workers and public sector prison officers.
- $1.14 million in grants over four years for headspace to provide outreach services to communities in Regional Victoria and Melbourne
- Invest $3.6m in rapid HIV testing and commit to the 2030 95-95-95 United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) target by 2025.
- Significant increases in the reimbursement rates for the Victorian Patient Transport Assistance Scheme (VPTAS).
- Give emergency workers who make a WorkCover claim for PTSD or depression an upfront $10,000 payment.
- $1 million over four years to the Retired Police Association of Victoria for the expansion of peer support programs for former members with PTSD.
- Develop a “comprehensive state-wide health workforce strategy” to address staffing shortages ($1 million).
- Scrap the North Richmond medically supervised injecting room
- Give women access to the contraceptive pill without prescription.
- $270 million commitment to restore funding to mental health
- Champion ‘public preventative health’, promote ‘positive health and lifestyles’ and help develop a health and wellbeing strategy to address ‘systemic barriers to health and wellbeing’.
- The Green’s broad health policy principles and aims can be found here.
Disability, aged care, carers
Election pledges will be posted as they become available. Have we missed something? Let us know.
- Fund an extra 100,000 hours of respite care each year ($49.5 million over 4 years)
- Expand eligibility of respite care to include carers of people with a mental illness
- Note: this site catalogues election pledges only. For existing government policies and initiatives please read our analysis of the 2018 Victorian Budget and Labor’s 2018 Party Policy Platform.
- Better support disability social enterprises to start-up and expand ($10m).
- Partner with disability respite service providers in growth suburbs and regional areas to assist with building costs ($5m)
- Develop and promote an accessible tourism campaign and Accessible Tourism Action Plan.
- Help rebuild Guide Dogs Victoria’s Arnold Cook Centre in Kew ($2.5 million)
- Ensure foster carers and kinship carers have access to children’s medical histories within 48 hours.
- Expand community and home-based care, and support for Victorians with chronic disease who can safely be treated outside hospital ($175 million).
- Invest in support for people and families with autism, including a 24 hour helpline, grants for community support groups, and support for inclusive education (more than $50 million over 4 years)
- Lobby for a $100m package to help cover service gaps during the rollout of the NDIS, including in advocacy.
- Campaign for all tram stops to be accessible.
- Support the manufacturing of 300 accessible trams for Victoria.
- Require all new urban development to comply with universal design principles.
- Support broader access to free legal advice and advocacy where disability limits the individual’s capacity to put their case forward.
- Push for a funded scheme to undertake minor home renovations, including installation of communication technologies, in order to enable older people to remain in their own homes.
- Champion an expansion of community-based education for older people and improved support for older workers who wish to take up skill development and educational opportunities.
LGBTIQ+, CALD and diversity
Election pledges will be posted as they become available. Have we missed something? Let us know.
- Watch this space.
- Note: this site catalogues election pledges only. For existing government policies and initiatives please read our analysis of the 2018 Victorian Budget and Labor’s 2018 Party Policy Platform.
- Watch this space.
- Support equal access to adoption, fostering, surrogacy and assisted reproductive treatment regardless of sex characteristics, sexuality, gender identity and marital status.
- Champion equal parenting rights for LGBTIQ+ parents.
- Push for the establishment and expand gender clinics at hospitals and health services
- The Green’s broad health policy principles and aims can be found here. Multicultural policy principles and aims can be found here.
Transport
Election pledges will be posted as they become available. Have we missed something? Let us know.
- Remove an additional 25 level crossings by 2025.
- Build an orbital rail loop around greater Melbourne ($50b/30years).
MAJOR ANNOUNCEMENT:
We’ll build an underground suburban rail loop connecting Melbourne’s train lines. It will get you where you need to go, wherever you live – and that’s what our growing state needs. pic.twitter.com/7CCBr5GNlP— Daniel Andrews (@DanielAndrewsMP) August 27, 2018
- $1 billion over ten years in a new Road Fix Blitz program for country and regional roads.
- $20.5 million to overhaul traffic lights and replace with ‘Smart Traffic Lights’ to ease traffic congestion.
- Speed up Victoria’s regional trains ($19 million).
Melbourne is bursting, we must take control of population growth by decentralising growth. The Liberal Nationals 200kmh high speed rail vision will enable this to happen. Every regional and country rail line, major upgrades. pic.twitter.com/Z4pznZMkMx
— Matthew Guy MP (@MatthewGuyMP) October 2, 2018
- $100 million to start planning for Melbourne Metro 2 which includes:
- A rail tunnel from Clifton Hill to Newport, connecting to the South Morang/Mernda line at Clifton Hill
- More services with high capacity signalling on the Werribee and Mernda lines
- New stations in Fitzroy and Fisherman’s Bend
- Rail Extensions to Wollert and Wyndham Vale.
- $500 million for a network of SmartBus routes to be rolled out across Melbourne
- Push for the construction of Melbourne Metro 2.
Justice, courts, fines, policing
Election pledges will be posted as they become available. Have we missed something? Let us know.
- At least two “desk officers” on duty at all times at Victoria’s 24-hour police stations
- Note: this site catalogues election pledges only. For existing government policies and initiatives please read our analysis of the 2018 Victorian Budget and Labor’s 2018 Party Policy Platform.
- Include three more sex offences relating to the abuse of children to the current list of 14 mandatory minimum jail sentences.
- Station Protective Service Officers (PSOs) on select railway stations during the day.
- A new 1,300 bed prison facility at Lara with sections for maximum security, medium security as well as a remand centre.
- Partner with the private sector to build a new mega prison at Lara, consisting of 700 maximum-security beds, 300 medium-security beds and 300 person remand facility.
- Create a new ‘Victorian Serious Sex Offenders Public Notification Register’
- Change the bail system to ‘one strike and you’re out’
- Introduce mandatory minimum sentencing for violent re-offending
- Extending support and including victims of crime in decision-making about future legislation
- Give Tasers to Victoria Police officers.
- Restrict access to bail and parole
- GPS track people on parole after serving a jail term for a home invasion or car jacking, and potentially some offenders who were not sentenced to jail.
- A suite of “urgent public security and counterterrorism measures” including
* New Terrorism Restriction Orders
* More training for police in advanced counterterrorism operations
* Employing extra analysts and surveillance staff at the Victorian Fixated Threat Assessment Centre and Counter Terrorism Command
* More police in the CBD
- Stop building new prisons and redirect funds to establishing an Independent Centre for Justice Reinvestment and $80 million in crime prevention grants.
- Build two new drugs courts in regional Victoria to target substance abuse and related crime.
- Repeal untargeted laws that arbitrarily increase levels of imprisonment, such as mandatory sentencing.
- Provide $132 million over four years to the legal assistance sector (including Victoria Legal Aid, Community Legal Centres and Aboriginal Legal Services).
- Champion justice reinvestment approaches.
- Continue support for expanding specialist courts, such as Koori Courts, Drug Courts, the Family Violence Division of the Magistrates’ Court and Neighbourhood Justice Centres.
- The Green’s broad justice policy principles and aims can be found here.