VCOSS Policy Tracker

November 2018

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Policy Tracker

About

This is a comprehensive list of the social policies proposed at the 2018 Victorian election.

Throughout the campaign, VCOSS policy experts searched high and low for the Labor, Liberal and Greens parties’ official policy pledges.

Some were easier to find than others.

VCOSS will retain this website as a historical record and reference point for discussion and analysis during the 59th Parliament of Victoria.

Please note, this site has not been updated since 27 November 2018.

Housing, homelessness, renters’ rights Jobs, skills, employment Cost of living, essential services, digital inclusion Education, inc. early learning, inclusive schooling Children, families, 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

Invest $209 million to build an additional 1,000 public housing properties over three years.
Establish Victoria’s first LGBTI Homelessness Grants Program, in recognition of the fact LGBTI people are more than twice as likely to experience homelessness.
Note: this site catalogues 2018 election pledges only. For government policies and initiatives before this point 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.
Expand the Youth Foyer program to Frankston.
Extend the pensioner stamp duty concession to properties valued up to $950,000.
Consult on a new plan for the redevelopment of Markham Estate
Provide a $4 million funding boost to McAuley Community Services for Women, Victoria’s only 24/7 crisis service for women

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.
Require all new urban development to comply with universal design principles.
The Green’s housing policy principles and aims can be found here.

Jobs, skills, employment

Create a Victorian Fair Jobs Code, “recognising businesses that do the right thing and rewarding those that put Victorian workers first”. The specific obligations, scope and coverage of the Code will be a matter for review, consultation and development.
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.
Fully subsidise the Diploma of Early Childhood Education and Care and Certificate III in Early Childhood Education and Care to the ensure Victoria has enough early educators.
Establish a $220 million Building Better TAFEs Fund to upgrade facilities and campuses.
Note: this site catalogues 2018 election pledges only. For government policies and initiatives before this point please read our analysis of the 2018 Victorian Budget and Labor’s 2018 Party Policy Platform.

Change government procurement policy and tender processes to encourage participation of local regional businesses in local projects.
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.

Guarantee a minimum of 70% of government vocational education and training funding for TAFE institutions
Support raising the minimum qualifications for all VET teachers, minimum classroom time for students and
and greater regulatory oversight of private providers.
The Green’s industry and employment policy principles and aims can be found here.

Cost of living, essential services, digital inclusion

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.
Introduce a comprehensive energy regulation package, including measures to;
- Ban door-to-door salespeople
- Crackdown on misleading honeymoon deals to lure back disaffected customers
- Increase fines for energy retailers
- Give the Essential Services Commission extra enforcement muscle.
Extend free public wi-fi to Ararat and the Latrobe Valley.
Note: this site catalogues 2018 election pledges only. For government policies and initiatives before this point 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.
Prioritise an independent inquiry into farm rates in Victoria.
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.
Give the coastal villages of Cannons Creek, Blind Bight, Warneet and Tooradin access to natural gas.
No new taxes.
Abolish the VRET (Victorian Renewable Energy Targets)
Fund a Community Solar Program, providing grants to kindergartens and community groups to install solar panels.

Support the transition to 100% renewable energy by 2030, including by building large-scale, publicly owned renewable energy generators
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.
Campaign for a range of energy measures, including;
- Putting solar panels on schools and 24,000 public housing properties.
- Giving renters and people living in apartments $1000 grants to invest in off-site ‘solar gardens’.
- Making landlords upgrade rental homes to meet energy efficiency standards.
- The Green’s energy policy principles and aims can be found here.

Education, inc. early learning, inclusive schooling

Invest more than $1.68 billion over the next decade, to see around 785 new kinders built and 170 existing services expanded
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.
Ensure a kindergarten is built on or adjoining all new Victorian primary schools from 2021.
Expand the School breakfast club program to 1000 schools
Note: this site catalogues 2018 election pledges only. For government policies and initiatives before this point 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.
Extra funding for Community Language Schools ($6.8m / 4 years).
Implement a ‘Three Strikes policy’, making it easier to expel school children.
Work with Victoria Police to re-establish a ‘Police in Schools’ program.
Continue State Schools’ Relief, securing the continuation of the ‘Glasses for Kids’ program ($16m)
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.
Lobby to increase funding per student in Victoria to the national average over the next eight years.
Campaign for schools funding to be allocated on the basis of equity and need.
Review the funding model for students with disability.
The Green’s education policy principles and aims can be found here.

Children, families, out of home care, HomeStretch

Extend the age of state care to 21 (Home Stretch) and reimburse carers for the additional costs they incur ($11.6 million / 5 years).
A comprehensive parenting package, including the construction of seven new Early Parenting Centres, refurbishing two more and deliver a range of critical services (including day stays, longer residential stays and more support at home).
Providing a ‘Baby Bundle’ to all first-time parents.
Note: this site catalogues 2018 election pledges only. For government policies and initiatives before this point 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.
Give foster and kinship carers an extra $1,500 per year to cover out-of-pocket expenses.
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.
Make a $300,000 investment in The Babes Project, which provides “vital childbirth, education and support program [to] women who face a crisis pregnancy”.
Establish integrated children’s centres in Victoria’s most disadvantaged rural and regional areas ($80 mill) to address the rural education gap. This will be a one-stop-shop for allied health, early childhood, maternal and child health services, and tertiary education.

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
Increase foster care annual allowances by $3,500-5,500 per year, expand the TrACK program by 100 places, and review reinbursements.
The Green’s child protection and OOHC policy principles and aims can be found here.

Family violence prevention and gender equity

Labor has made a broad pledge to deliver on the 227 recommendations of the Royal Commission into Family Violence.
Note: this site catalogues 2018 election pledges only. For government policies and initiatives before this point 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

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.
Cover the cost of check-ups, fillings, x-rays, extractions and root canals for all Victorian public school students from 2022.
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.
Provide an additional $100m to the Regional Health Infrastructure Fund.
Establish an accessible registry for GPs and hospital wait lists, with the aim that country patients can be seen faster.
Note: this site catalogues 2018 election pledges only. For government policies and initiatives before this point 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).
Establish three Community Mental Health Hubs, at Frankston, Albert Park and “Regional Victoria”.
Expand community and home-based care, and support for Victorians with chronic disease who can safely be treated outside hospital ($175 million).
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).
Supply free flu vaccines all Victorian children between the ages of 6 months and 5 years ($7 mill over 4 years)
Subsidise the cost of parking at hospitals; $40 million will be provided over 4 years to subsidise an extra 125,000 car parks each year.
Provide an additional $1 million over four years towards the Community Ice Action Grants program.
Expand home and community care and support for Victorians with chronic disease and other conditions who can safely be treated in their homes ($175 mill).
Provide an additional $140 million to deliver “world class community palliative care” in Victoria.
Provide $1m towards mobile skin checks in Victoria, in partnership with the Lions Clubs Districts of Victoria
Expansion of pain clinics across Victoria. ($40 mill)
Fund the Bowel Cancer Action Plan, including $2 million bowel cancer public awareness campaign.
Scrap the North Richmond medically supervised injecting room within a week.
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’.
Invest $360 million into community health services, including an investment of $160 million to double the number of eligible people accessing public dental treatment.
Replace the ambulance membership system and fees, with the Greens Government making up the shortfall to Ambulance Victoria.
Appoint an Aboriginal Health Commissioner ($20 mill over 4 years)
Invest in health promotion campaigns and preventative health services ($15 mill annually)
Establish two new sexual and reproductive health centres in Victoria ($5 mill)
The Green’s broad health policy principles and aims can be found here.

Disability, aged care, carers

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 2018 election pledges only. For government policies and initiatives before this point 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.
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)
Half-price public transport for the state’s 736,000 carers.

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

Host ‘Melbourne Pride’, a pride celebration street party, in 2021.
Providing dedicated family counselling services for LGBTI Victorians and their loved ones.
Extra funding for mental health support directed towards LGBTI Victorians, including through Switchboard.
Ensure that 160 Victorian kinders are bilingual.
Note: this site catalogues 2018 election pledges only. For government policies and initiatives before this point please read our analysis of the 2018 Victorian Budget and Labor’s 2018 Party Policy Platform.

Invest $6.88 million over four years into Community Language Schools to boost per capita funding, expanding delivery to 2000 pre-school students.
$3.4 million towards multicultural seniors’ organisations and $27.1 million towards multicultural aged care facilities.
Launch a Parliamentary inquiry into the “quality, range and effectiveness of public services, including service gaps, available to the LGBTI community in outer suburban Melbourne and regional Victoria”.
Establish Victoria’s first LGBTI Business Roundtable, to be chaired by Matthew Guy as Premier.
Provide $500,000 in funding to support Joy FM‘s move to the Victorian Pride Centre.
Develop a new LGBTI Tourism Strategy.

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

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
Deliver stage three of the Bendigo Metro project, including new train stations at Goornong, Raywood and Huntly
Duplicate railways on the Cranbourne and Waurn Ponds lines, upgrade the Hurstbridge line, begin construction of the Airport Rail Link, and plan for the Clyde extension
Begin planning work on the Western Rail Plan to electrify the Melton and Wyndam Vale lines, and provide express-Ballarat lines to run fast trains
Build 54 VLocity carriages to make up to 18 new three-car trains for regional Victorians.
Note; this site catalogues 2018 election pledges only. For government policies and initiatives before this point please read our analysis of the 2018 Victorian Budget and Labor’s 2018 Party Policy Platform.

$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
Deliver European-style high speed rail right across Victoria, and build a new Geelong Metro
Build the Cranbourne to Clyde, and Maryborough to Donald rail extensions
Invest $20 million to upgrade rural level crossings, remove three level crossings in Pakenham, and upgrade train stations in Beaconsfield, Windsor, Patterson, and Ferntree Gully.
Increase Ballarat bus service frequency during peak times to 30 minutes on select routes
Complete the Yarra Valley Tourist Railway, and relaunch the Regional Aviation Infrastructure Fund

Provide free public transport on school days for all primary and secondary students.
$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
- Buying 100 high capacity trains and 300 trams over 10 years, allowing for increased train and tram service frequencies.
- New stations in Fitzroy and Fisherman’s Bend, and upgrading South Yarra, Caulfield and South Kensington stations.
- Electrify the Melton Line, build rail Extensions to Wollert, Wyndham Vale, and Clyde, and plan for extensions to Rowville and Doncaster.
$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

At least two “desk officers” on duty at all times at Victoria’s 24-hour police stations
Note: This site catalogues 2018 election pledges only. For government policies and initiatives before this point 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.
Send youth offenders to a military-style booth camp.
Mandatory residential drug and alcohol treatment for young people “whose offending or risky behaviour is a result of substance abuse”.
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
Publish courts “performance data” online, including the sentencing records of judges and magistrates.

A Liberal National govt will make our justice system more accountable; our Courts and Judges must be in touch with public sentiment, we’ll ensure that happens. pic.twitter.com/ahfeeurqJg

— Matthew Guy MP (@MatthewGuyMP) November 19, 2018

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.