In October 2022 Victoria experienced its wettest month on record and major floods devastated communities across our state.

The consequences of the floods were deep and long-lasting, causing ripple effects for communities that are still being felt today.

Sixty-three of Victoria’s 79 local government areas were affected. Two people tragically lost their lives, 5,017 homes and businesses were destroyed or damaged, and more than 5,000 known Aboriginal cultural heritage sites were impacted.

Disasters like the 2022 floods affect everyone, but not equally.

This report finds that certain Victorians were more likely to live in flood-affected areas, including people experiencing socioeconomic disadvantage. A majority (59%) of regional flood-affected areas had rates of poverty above the regional average.

Almost one-third (32%) had very high rates of poverty of more than 15%. In Shepparton South East and Mildura North, for example, approximately one in five people were experiencing poverty in 2021. 

In 2021, more than one in three (33.96%) households in regional flood-affected areas were experiencing the highest levels of socioeconomic disadvantage according to the ABS Index of Household Advantage and Disadvantage. This is almost 6% higher compared with unaffected regional areas.

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people were also more likely to live in regional flood-affected areas. The Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander population was higher in 93% of flood-affected regional areas than the average in unaffected regional areas.

In regional Victoria, culturally and linguistically diverse people were more likely to live in the flood-affected areas. In Melbourne, almost one in two people in hard-hit Maribyrnong were culturally and linguistically diverse.

Disasters like the 2022 floods affect everyone, but not equally.

This report also considers community-level outcomes after the floods.

After the floods, inequality was exacerbated in affected areas.

• After the floods, disposable income was $22,818/year lower for households in affected areas compared with similar households in unaffected areas.
• Poverty increased after, with one in five people experiencing poverty in affected areas in 2023, and poverty 6.1% higher compared with unaffected areas.
• After the floods, unemployment and nonparticipation in the labour force increased along with the need for government income support.
• The floods had negative impacts for social, physical, and mental health outcomes.

Following the 2022 floods, the Australian Government, Victorian Government and local governments put in place a number of supports for Victorians impacted by the floods, with $1.66 billion spent on flood relief and recovery by June 2023. Supports for households included relief and reestablishment payments as part of the Personal Hardship Assistance Program and the Flood Recovery Support Program.

However, this report makes clear that more needs to be done to support those most impacted, and to address the risk that future emergencies will further entrench spatial injustice.

Support for the community sector

Join the VCOSS Disaster Resilience Network 

The VCOSS Disaster Resilience Network is a space for Victorian community organisations to present and discuss key lessons and best practices in disaster resilience, and share upcoming reports, consultations, and events.  

The Network meets every two months online, with updates sent in between meetings. 

To join, please sign up here or email Lucy Manne, Disaster Resilience Policy Advisor

Useful resources

Vic Emergency website and app: The Vic Emergency app and website provides a centralised location to access emergency information and warnings.

DFFH’s emergency management policy and resources: DFFH’s website contains a range of helpful resources, including:

• The social services emergency management policy
• A guide to emergency psychosocial supports
• Person-Centred Emergency Preparedness

Victorian Emergency Management Planning Toolkit for People Most at Risk: The Planning Toolkit is a practical resource providing a range of guidance and support materials, to help emergency management practitioners to consider and plan for the needs of groups of people and communities most at risk in emergencies.

The Country Fire Authority’s People at Higher Risk resources: The CFA has developed a range of resources to build the capability of the Community and Social Service Sector to develop bushfire plans with their clients at greatest risk in a bushfire.

ERV’s resource library: The Emergency Recovery Resource Portal provides a central point to access resources for the disaster recovery workforce in Victoria.

The Australian Disaster Resilience Knowledge Hub: The AIDR Knowledge Hub is a national, open-source platform that supports good practice in disaster resilience.

Emergency Management plans

• The State Emergency Management Plan explains Victoria’s emergency management arrangements, including the roles of different agencies.
• Regional Emergency Management Plans can be found on the EMV website.
• Contact your local council for your Municipal Emergency Management Plan.

Resources for community members 

Emergency assistance and payments  

Centrelink and Disasters – Tips and Common Issues (Social Security Rights Victoria): Information on disaster and crisis payments, Centrelink, and mutual obligations. Includes contact information for SSRV. 

Emergency relief support (Australian Red Cross): Information on emergency relief payments for people on temporary visas, including how to apply.  

Emergency assistance and accommodation (Disaster Legal Help Victoria): Information on emergency relief payments, financial counselling services, and short-term emergency accommodation. Includes contact details for Safe Steps (family violence support) and Department of Fairness, Families and Housing. 

Replacing lost documents (Financial Counselling Victoria): How to replace lost or damaged identification documents (passports, citizenship certificates, driver’s licences, certificates from Births, Deaths and Marriages Victoria, damaged banknotes).  

Insurance 

Steps to take after a disaster to stay safe and start your insurance claim (Vic Gov): This webpage contains information about starting an insurance claim after a home has been flooded, but is also applicable to bushfire. 

Practical information on what to do during and after a disaster (Insurance Council of Australia): A series of articles from the Insurance Council of Australia about insurance before and after a disaster. 

Insurance law (Financial Rights Legal Centre): fact sheets to help answer insurance questions and concerns. 

Legal assistance  

Do you need legal help after a disaster? (DLHV): Web link, QR code, and phone number for Disaster Legal Help Victoria.  

Disaster Legal Help (Victorian Aboriginal Legal Service): Contacts for assistance from VALS for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Victorians. Includes a checklist of areas one may require assistance with (e.g., housing, debt, employment, insurance, etc).  

Disaster support for renters (Tenants Victoria): Guidance around rights and responsibilities, and seeking legal support, for renters after a disaster. 

Legal Health Check (Disaster Legal Help Victoria): Assists with the identification of legal needs and issues., with a corresponding resource for each legal area (e.g., safety, court, housing, insurance, employment, money, children, crime, legal documents).  

Email disasterlegalhelp@vla.vic.gov.au for further assistance.  

Recovery and psychosocial support 

Coping after a crisis (Australian Red Cross): What you or others might experience after a crisis, and how to manage it. Includes information about returning home after a crisis, cleaning up, maintaining wellbeing and staying healthy.  

Dr Rob’s six tips for disaster recovery (NZ Red Cross): Dr Rob Gordon is a psychologist and disaster recovery expert. In this video he provides six tips to assist people in the immediate aftermath and months following a disaster. This video was recorded after the 2013 NZ earthquakes, but is applicable to all disasters.  

Young People and Disasters Resource Hub (Youth Affairs Council Victoria): Bushfire resources for Victorians with disability, and resources for disaster preparation.

Blktrx service directory (VACCHO): Find culturally safe and responsive mental health, social and emotional wellbeing (SEWB) and suicide prevention services to support Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander individuals, families, communities and workforce across Victoria

For other support, please visit a recovery hub, call the numbers available on Vic Emergency’s website, or call the recovery line. 

Emergency preparedness 

Protect what matters most (Australian Red Cross): A disaster preparedness guide to help prepare an emergency plan.  

Resources to help you (Australian Red Cross): A range of resources around how to help after a disaster, preparing for disasters, multilingual preparedness resources, responding to disasters, and recovering from disasters. 

Health

Virtual women’s health clinic Free, specialist reproductive and sexual health care.

The Victorian Virtual Emergency Department Ambulance Victoria: The Victorian Virtual Emergency Department allows you to access care for non-life threatening emergencies, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. You will be connected to doctors and nurses via a video call and receive medical advice from the comfort of your home.

Family Violence

During the recovery phase family violence increases and services are harder to access.  Family violence can happen to anyone.

Dial Triple Zero 000 if you are in immediate danger.

1800 Respect

• For people experiencing or at risk of experiencing sexual assault, domestic or family violence.

Call 1800 737 732 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.

• Child Protection

For children and young people whose safety is at risk – after hours Child Protection Emergency Service.

Call 13 12 78 from 5:00 pm to 9:00 am Monday to Friday (24 hours on weekends and public holidays).

Child protection contacts

• Men’s Referral Service

The Men’s Referral Service is the national counselling, information and referral service for men who use violence and abuse to change their behaviour. They can have a conversation with you, help you with some short-term tactics and put you in touch with some supports that can help you along the journey.

Call 1300 766 491 available 24/7.

Men’s Referral Service

• Orange Door

The Orange Door provides help for adults, children and young people who are experiencing family violence.

Orange Door

• Safe Steps

For women and children who are victims of family violence.

Call 1800 015 188 crisis phone line 24/7.

Safe Steps

• Sexual Assault Crisis Line

For victims of sexual assault.

Call 1800 806 292 after hours from 5:00 pm to 9:00 am (including weekend and public holidays).

Sexual Assault Crisis Line

Resources for community service organisations  

Emergency management information for service providers from the Department of Families, Fairness and Housing (DFFH).  DFFH’s website includes several key resources for community organisations:

o   Social services sector emergency management policy;

o   A guide to emergency psychosocial supports;

o   Victorian Emergency Management Planning Toolkit for People Most at Risk; and

o   Person-Centred Emergency Preparedness (P-CEP) Toolkit.

Total fire bans and fire danger ratings (CFA): Includes current ratings and status of fire bans.  

Relief and recovery 

Disaster Legal Toolkit (Justice Connect Not-For-Profit Law): Guidance to help your not-for-profit organisation navigate disaster-related legal questions and issues. 

Youth-Focused Disaster Recovery Protocol (Youth Affairs Council Victoria): This protocol has been developed for all levels of government and community services who engage with young people in disaster affected areas. It provides guidance on key matters for inclusion in post-disaster recovery and rebuilding to ensure positive outcomes for young people. 

Bushfire safety and preparedness 

Fire Safety for the Care Sector (CFA): Resources, links, and information community service organisations can use to enhance bushfire safety for clients.  

Bushfire Preparedness (CFA): Slides, including info and links, on how to prepare for bushfire safety as a community service organisation. 

Victorian emergency preparedness briefing for community and not-for-profit organisations (Emergency Management Vic): Slides, including info and links, on emergency management arrangements in Victoria, risks and priorities for the 2025-26 high risk season, relief and recovery.  

Find your fire weather district (CFA): Map and search function for the nine Fire Weather Districts based on council boundaries. 

Preparedness for the 2025-26 high risk weather season (VCOSS Disaster Resilience Network): Meeting recording, minutes and slides from the November 2025 meeting.  

Victoria’s State Emergency Management Plan (Emergency Management Vic): Provides the details of emergency management arrangements at a state level. 

Young People and Disasters Resource Hub (Youth Affairs Council Victoria): A range of resources to enable organisations to empower young people in bushfire recovery, including a guide to meaningful youth engagement, use of trauma informed language, and more. 

Community Recovery Toolbox

East Gippsland Shire Council’s Community Recovery Toolbox provides useful information to support communities across East Gippsland. It will help local groups establish and build recovery processes before and after an emergency.

Reflections and Lessons Learned by the Community Recovery Committees (CRCs) of the 2019-20 East Gippsland Bushfires.

The Reflections and Lessons Learned by the CRCs report captures the experiences of the CRCs from the 2019-2020 black summer bushfires and what they thought worked well, opportunities for improvement, and what to pass on to help communities in future events.

‍Reflections and Lessons Learned – Executive Summary

Reflections and Lessons Learned – Report

Reflections and Lessons Learned – video

Inquiry into the 2026 summer fires across Victoria

The Legislative Council Environment and Planning Committee has announced a Parliamentary Inquiry into the 2026 summer fires across Victoria. The deadline for submissions is 19 April 2026.

It is crucial to have as many community voices and community organisations putting in submissions as possible. This will ensure community voices, leadership, and recovery priorities are front and centre in this Inquiry.

VCOSS has prepared a submission guide for community organisations. Please consider putting in a submission, and reach out to VCOSS’ Disaster Resilience Policy Advisor, Lucy Manne, if you have any questions or would like support in relation to this Inquiry: lucy.manne@vcoss.org.au

Tough times are exactly when we must invest in what matters most.

When things are hard, it’s tempting to tighten our belts and batten down the hatches.

But that’s not how you build a strong, safe, thriving Victoria.

Every Budget tells a story about the state of our State — what we value, what we fear, and what we’re willing to walk past.

Right now, Victoria’s story sits against a backdrop of growing economic inequity and social fragmentation – fuelled by the realities of rising cost of living, the housing crisis, community safety concerns, reverberations of international conflicts and intensifying climate impacts. Our social and economic fabric is under real strain.    

Meanwhile, the public purse is under pressure. There’s lots of talk about debt, budget repair, fiscal austerity and ‘efficiencies’.

In this context, some might say that now is not the time to invest in tackling root causes of entrenched problems like housing insecurity, family violence, climate-related impacts, social cohesion or the sharp edge of poverty. Some might say that’s in the ‘too-hard basket.’

They’d be wrong.

Now is precisely the time for smart investments that prevent social and economic problems from escalating and compounding, or ideally from starting in the first place.

With the political will to prioritise what matters most, we can break vicious cycles of crisis-end spending, avoiding long-term costs through prevention and early intervention.

By investing in what will pay off in the long run, Victorians can have secure housing, good healthcare, and genuine safety and security in their families and communities.

And critical to this is Victoria’s community sector – the fastest growing industry in the State, whose workforce shows up every day for people doing it tough.

Community services are operating under immense pressure, with rising demand, a changing regulatory landscape and a highly feminised workforce carrying the emotional load of the state’s most difficult and complex social issues.

No austerity agenda can fix entrenched problems like housing insecurity, family violence, social cohesion or the sharp edge of poverty.

Our sector deserves respect, fair funding and industry development support to meet the challenges of our times and keep doing what Victorians rely on. 

If we want a stronger, safer, fairer Victoria, we must invest across the whole spectrum of support – from crisis response to long-term recovery – but especially in the early intervention and prevention efforts that stop harm before it takes root. And we must invest in a skilled, flourishing, future-focused community sector that delivers across that spectrum of support.

That is how we stabilise our communities.

That is how we strengthen our economy.

And that is how ensure the things that matter most are never pushed into the too-hard basket.

Juanita Pope
VCOSS CEO

Watch ‘Adaption for All’ online launch

ANALYSIS

2024 was Australia’s second-hottest year on record. As climate change progresses, Victoria is experiencing not only hotter days and more frequent disasters, but significant impacts to people’s health, wellbeing and livelihoods.

These impacts are not felt by all Victorians equally – those who are already living in poverty or facing other forms of disadvantage experience the impacts of climate change first and worst. 

This report views the impacts of climate change to Victorians on low incomes through the lens of their capacity to adapt – to adjust to these impacts while maintaining their health and wellbeing. 

This report finds that as climate change progress, it’s fuelling a feedback loop that erodes the capacity of Victorians experiencing poverty and disadvantage to adapt. During heatwaves, for example, some Victorians remain isolated at home for days. Many are adopting drasticmoney-saving behaviours such as avoiding using any energy-consuming equipment at homeor rationing food. People are not choosing these actions because they’re desirable, but rather because they have very few options as the cost of living rises and making ends meet becomes more and more difficult.

This research also finds that the capacity of people experiencing poverty and disadvantage to adapt to climate change mirrors the same structural drivers that perpetuate inequality — such as income insecurity, housing precarity, and systemic marginalisation. As climate change progresses in Victoria, existing social and economic inequities are being compounded. 

If the people with the least capacity to adapt aren’t adequately supported as climate change progresses, the gap between the amount of adaptation needed and people’s capacity to do it will continue to grow. With this, we risk a widening chasm between those who can adapt and those who can’t.  Expecting Victorians on low incomes to support their own adaptation, without adequate support, will exacerbate existing inequalities. 

To close this gap, Victoria must prioritise transformative adaptation — adaptation that addresses systemic inequities and improves health and wellbeing for those on the lowest incomes. If individuals and communities with the least capacity to adapt are the focus of adaptation efforts, wellbeing outcomes can be improved, while growing inequity curbed.

Despite significant cost-of-living pressures, people experiencing poverty and disadvantage – where they are supported by community service organisations – are taking positive steps towards adaptation. Reducing the burden for adaptation on individuals by strengthening action within community organisations and the Victorian Government can help achieve transformative adaptation. 

We have the tools we need to support Victorians living in poverty or experiencing disadvantage to adapt to climate change. Victoria must prioritise transformative adaptation to ensure all Victorians can thrive under a changing climate. 

Recommendations

To work towards transformative adaptation, we recommend the Victorian Government to:

1. Continue to urgently invest in climate mitigation to reduce the scale of climate change impacts. This includes: 

a. Ensure access to electrification, energy efficiency upgrades and solar for people on low incomes — so no one is left behind in the energy transition.

b. Expand minimum energy efficiency standards in rental homes to protect renters from heat and other climate risks.

c. Align planning decisions with climate mitigation goals and more equitable social outcomes.

2. Target adaptation investment towards Victorians experiencing the most significant climate impacts

a. Identify the most climate-vulnerable communities and support them with community-led adaptation planning.

b. Invest in the equity-centred actions in Victoria’s Adaptation Action Plans.

c. Develop and implement an Aboriginal Climate Justice Strategy to respond to climate threats to Country, health and wellbeing.

d. Strengthen the resilience of Victoria’s housing stock through targeted upgrades and support for low-income households.

e. Expand minimum rental standards to include resilience measures that protect renters from a wider range of climate risks.

3. Increase funding for community service organisations (CSOs) and Aboriginal Community Controlled Organisations (ACCOs)

a. Create a climate adaptation fund for CSOs and ACCOs.

4. Strengthen whole-of-government accountability on climate change and intergenerational equity

a. Create and fund an Office of the Commissioner for the Wellbeing of Future Generations to hold the whole of government accountable for decision-making that promotes the health and wellbeing of future generations.

b. Embed collaboration between Victorian Government departments to address climate change by legislating and strengthening the climate budgeting process.

c. Transparently report progress against Victoria’s Adaptation Action Plans.

These actions are essential for a fair and effective response to climate change—one that ensures no Victorian is left behind as we adapt to a changing climate.

VCOSS submission to Victoria’s Climate Change Strategy 2026-2030

VCOSS strongly supports the Victorian Government’s commitment to climate action including a clear pathway to achieving net-zero emissions by 2045 or sooner, building resilience and taking steps to adapt to the impacts of climate change. 

This action is urgent, as we are already seeing the devastating impacts of climate change on people’s health, wellbeing and livelihoods across Victoria. These impacts are exacerbating existing inequalities in our state as climate change disproportionately impacts people who are already experiencing poverty and disadvantage.  

Climate impacts hit these people first and worse because they experience economic barriers that mean they’re more exposed to climate change through their home, their geographic location, their health or their job.  

The Victorian Climate Change Strategy 2026-30 is an opportunity for the Victorian Government to address this growing inequality by taking transformational approach to climate action. This means investing in systemic changes that address the root causes of vulnerability to climate change, putting equity at the heart of the response. 

This means Victoria’s Climate Change Strategy must include:  

1. A continued focus on mitigation via renewables, electrification, planning and the circular economy 

2. Greater investment into adaptation and disaster resilience, targeted at Victorians who are experiencing the most significant climate impacts  

3. Increased support for community organisations and Aboriginal Community Controlled Organisations (ACCOs) that are already supporting people experiencing disadvantage to reduce emissions and adapt 

• Accountability across the whole of government for climate action and intergenerational equity  

All systems and actors involved in disaster management are motivated by the goal of mitigating harm and building resilience. But to build a more resilient society in which all Victorians can thrive, the way these systems work together matters. 

Community organisations play a key role in collaborations for disaster resilience due to their trusted role in the community.  The community sector provides supports that knit together to form a safety net for Victorians who are most impacted by emergencies. 

In 2024, VCOSS conducted research to capture lessons from disaster resilience collaborations between the community sector, government and emergency management agencies in Victoria, and identify actions to strengthen collaboration. The report showcases six case studies of collaborations across a diversity of geographies, emergencies, and project aims 

The report identifies: 

• Outcomes of collaborations in practice 
• Challenges encountered 
• Four key enablers of collaboration  
• Practices by collaborations that support each enabler 
• Policy recommendations to strengthen each enabler 

The six studies featured in the report include: 

• Climate Partnerships Project, a partnership between Jesuit Social Services’ Centre for Just Places, ARC Justice, Eastern Community Legal Centre, and the Federation of Community Legal Centres.  
• Emergency Planning Advice Service, a collaboration between CFA, Australian Red Cross and the Victorian Council of Churches Emergencies Ministry.  
• Gippsland Lakes Complete Health’s recovery casework 
• Mornington Peninsula Resilience, Relief and Recovery Network, convened by Mornington Peninsula Shire.   
• Mount Alexander Connectors program, convened by Mount Alexander Shire Council.   
• Multicultural Community Engagement Network, supported by enliven Victoria (part of Each) 

Work status
Complete

Key contact
Lucy Manne

Partners
Community Connector for Resilience

Joint Submission to the VDO Review 2025-26 Draft Decision

This is a joint submission made by the Victorian Council of Social Service (VCOSS), Brotherhood of St. Laurence, Consumer Action Law Centre, Council on the Ageing Victoria, Energy Consumers Australia, Financial Counselling Victoria, and Uniting. This group brings a deep knowledge of people’s experiences navigating the Victorian electricity market and the impacts of energy hardship and poverty. Collectively, we work towards a Victoria free from all forms of hardship, where everybody can experience genuine wellbeing. 

The Victorian Default Offer (VDO) is a crucial safeguard for consumers who face structural barriers to engaging with the electricity retail market. We strongly support the VDO’s continuing role in the Victorian energy market, and the Essential Services Commission’s (ESC) role in regularly reviewing and renewing the VDO. 

Consumer advocates are pleased to see that the ESC’s draft decision on the VDO for 2025-26 keeps electricity costs stable, on average. However, it does represent around 1 per cent average rise across the distribution zones during a cost-of-living crisis.  

While this is a better outcome for Victorian consumers when compared to other jurisdictions, where the Default Market Offer draft price increased between 2.5 per cent and 8.9 per cent, we do stress that consumers are still dealing with very high prices. Electricity prices have been increasing over time since the establishment of the VDO, and especially with the 2023-24 VDO which increased prices 25 per cent. We also note that while the average cost in the 2025-26 draft price is stable, in CitiPower’s distribution zone, consumers will face a rise of up to 5 per cent under the draft decision. 

On a positive note, we acknowledge that the ESC has adjusted the methodology for wholesale load profiles to exclude solar exports. We support this decision. This is in line with the VDO’s role as a consumption price, and the ESC’s remit to set an efficient cost stack. This decision helps contain rises to the VDO price. 

This submission is made at a time when high costs for essential services like electricity are causing severe financial hardship in Victorian communities. For many people supported by the community sector, incomes are simply not sufficient to cover expensive energy as well as the costs of other essentials, especially if they are living in poor quality housing that is difficult to heat and cool.  

The ongoing impact of high energy costs is that tens of thousands of Victorians are in energy debt. Social services report that community demand for assistance is at unprecedented highs. Meanwhile, large energy businesses make record profits. 

In this context, we encourage the ESC to consider the costs of pricing decisions holistically, and to centre the consumer in decisions, rather than businesses. This is especially important for vulnerable and low-income households, for whom costs and benefits are a required consideration for the ESC, under the Commission’s statutory obligations. 

We also urge the ESC to undertake deeper analysis of retail behaviours and seek more granular detail of operational costs and, where possible, make that information public. This would provide for greater scrutiny on retailer behaviour and help to address the information asymmetry experienced by consumer advocates representing Victorian households in processes such as the VDO review. 

Finally, we note that, although the VDO works as a crucial regulatory safeguard, it is ultimately a price calculated on the costs of an unfair and unaffordable market. As such, consumer advocates urge regulators and policymakers to investigate complementary measures above and beyond the VDO, such as a targeted social tariff, to deliver electricity to low-income households at a truly affordable rate. 

This submission includes case studies detailing the lived experience of electricity consumers who have been supported by community sector organisations. The names of individuals have been changed. 

ANALYSIS

The Victorian Council of Social Service welcomes the introduction of Victorian Energy Upgrades (VEU) legislation into state parliament.

The VEU program has a strong record in achieving energy savings and emissions reductions and embedding it in law will ensure it continues as part of Victoria’s energy framework.

The changes to the scheme create new opportunities for targeted assistance for lower-income and other households facing particular challenges due to energy prices and the upfront cost of updating appliances. Similarly, the introduction of stronger consumer protections and stronger Essential Services Commission powers are welcome reforms.

VCOSS CEO, Juanita Pope, said that households on lower incomes often stood to gain the most from upgrades but faced the highest barriers to change.

“VCOSS welcomes this move to embed the VEU in law and strengthen its operation. Victorians have benefitted from this scheme in terms of lower household costs and reduced energy consumption. Our state has benefitted through reduced carbon emissions and more efficient use of energy.”

“The VEU is a key tool in Victoria’s energy transition toolbox, delivering cost-of-living relief to Victorians while setting us up for a cheaper, healthier and cleaner energy future.”

“These changes lay the groundwork for targeted programs to break down the barriers for lower-income households to access upgrades. Added consumer protections and new regulatory powers will limit abuse of the system. Victorians need strong regulatory safeguards to navigate the home energy upgrades market and ensure high-quality services and products.”

“We all want to see Victoria move to a cheaper, healthier and cleaner energy mix – and this bill will help us do that.”

VCOSS submission to the Building Electrification Regulatory Impact Statement

The Victorian Council of Social Service (VCOSS) strongly supports getting fossil gas out of homes. Electrification is the best pathway to decarbonising the residential sector, and efficient electric appliances are cheaper to run, healthier, and create fewer emissions. 

Historically, Victorian households were encouraged to connect to gas and use it liberally. Often this abundance led to the use of less efficient appliances, and the building of homes that were extremely energy inefficient – that is, difficult to cool in summer and difficult to heat in winter.  

Depleting gas fields, high demand, policy settings favouring export, and international market forces mean that gas is no longer a cheap source of energy for Victorians. Modern electric appliance technologies such as heat pumps are far more efficient than fossil gas alternatives. They are therefore cheaper to operate, consuming less energy for the same tasks. 

It is now also clear that burning fossil gas is a key contributor to greenhouse gas emissions that drive climate change. Meanwhile, our electricity network is increasingly based on renewable energy sources. As such, getting off gas is essential to reaching our net zero targets. 

There is also a growing body of evidence that burning gas in the home is damaging to health, with fugitive (unintentional) emissions linked to increased rates of asthma and respiratory illnesses, especially among children. As much as 12 per cent of all childhood asthma cases in Australia can be attributed to gas cooktops.¹ 

Victoria uses more fossil gas for residential and commercial purposes than other states, accounting for two-thirds of national household and commercial consumption, and three times more than the next highest user, New South Wales. ² In fact, Victoria is the only state where the residential use of gas is higher than industrial usage. Victoria is also the only state where fossil gas usage is higher than electricity usage in the homes.³ 

In this context, VCOSS has long supported the Victorian Government’s policy of gradual household electrification, and reversal of historic policies that encourage new gas connections. 

If planned well, electrification, as with all climate policies, has the potential to address many of the drivers of inequality in our economy, such as the quality and energy efficiency performance of housing. The reverse is also true: a poorly handled transition will entrench and exacerbate existing inequalities.  

Low-income households already spend a disproportionate portion of their income on energy bills. As such, any effort that assists low-income households to electrify their homes will see a significant reduction in bill stress. This is particularly true when costs for all of life’s basics are high, stretching household budgets from all angles.  

The government has a crucial role to play in ensuring all Victorians can access the benefits of electrification, as some households face structural barriers to electrifying their home. This includes the upfront cost of appliances, the potential costs of rewiring homes, differing rights over modifications to properties between owner-occupiers, renters and people in apartments, the costs of goods and services in rural and regional areas, and language and digital barriers. Often those that would benefit the most from electrification are those that face the most challenging barriers. 

These obstacles can be overcome only through government interventions. We cannot leave the energy transition to market forces.  

In this submission, VCOSS details its support for the Victorian Government’s proposed regulatory changes and recommends: 

• The Victorian Government lead the way with social housing retrofits. 

• Support for low-income households to benefit from electrification. 

• Phasing out gas cooktops. 

• Enacting strong enforcement and compliance measures, alongside proactive community outreach. 

• Planning long-term for the eventual end of fossil gas usage in the home. 

Alongside the proposed building electrification requirements discussed here, VCOSS is also a strong supporter of the Victorian Government’s proposed energy efficiency minimum standards for rentals.⁴ Taken together, these policies represent a significant and ambitious step forward in improving the quality, liveability, and affordability of housing in Victoria. 

People are hurting. It’s time for a budget focused on care – and the care economy.

A note from VCOSS CEO Juanita Pope

In a time of constrained fiscal conditions and mounting social disunity, there’s one thing most of our state – indeed our country – can agree on: people are hurting.

The current cost of living is placing immense strain on Victorians. Many people are being pushed to the brink, an increasing number skipping meals just to pay the rent.
This is not a new phenomenon – it’s just more visible. Well before the cost-of-living crisis became a media talking point, 800,000 Victorians were living in poverty. The current situation is symptomatic of deep rooted social and economic inequality.

Now is the time for strong, compassionate, smart responses from government. And bold action on poverty and economic exclusion.

Governments make choices about how public funds will be spent. That’s what budgets are for. The choices that government makes – who it chooses to invest in – send a powerful message, especially to people who need support. If decisions are made that prioritise commercial interests over the wellbeing of people, this is not only socially and morally unsound, it’s economically shortsighted.

A truly prosperous economy is one that enables all citizens to thrive – that lifts them up when they are down. It’s an economy underpinned by robust, holistic foundational supports – things like housing, healthcare, good schooling, childcare, community connections and the skills to get a decent job and lead a fulfilling life.

Investing in these foundations – and in the services that provide them – is key to Victoria’s economic and social prosperity. Drip-fed, short term, siloed support will not cut it.

In 2025, Victoria needs a budget that values care and focuses on the care economy. When we invest in care and wellbeing, we unlock the potential for a more resilient, inclusive economy.

The organisations that deliver care and social supports for Australians – including health and human services, children’s early education and community development – represent the largest employing industry in the country. They offer enormous potential for economic and social returns.

As more Victorians turn to care services in hard times, Victoria should invest in the sector that has caring at its core. Investing in the care economy not only generates real jobs, but also builds a solid social foundation – both for Victorians who are hurting right now, and for future generations.

When we invest in care and wellbeing, we unlock the potential for a more resilient, inclusive economy.

Victoria’s investment in the care economy must be approached strategically. We need to ensure support for the workers who make the industry successful and sustainable. Boosted resources for workforce development, core operations and care infrastructure will ensure that the care economy remains a stable, sustainable driver of good jobs, social wellbeing and economic growth. This allows us to tackle both immediate needs and long-term challenges, like the ageing population and the escalating impacts of climate change.

It’s about priorities.

Compassionate and smart policy-making puts social equity and human wellbeing as its central tenets.

It’s time for leaders to return to the basics: alleviate poverty, provide essential services, help people and invest in care that works.

Only when we prioritise these fundamental pillars will we achieve an inclusive, sustainable economy that our society desperately needs.

Juanita Pope
VCOSS CEO

ANALYSIS

We must build homes to withstand the weather of the future now.

It’s no secret that Victorians who experience disadvantages like poverty and rental stress tend to be locked out of safe, high-quality and comfortable housing.

High prices leave people with little choice about where to live, often forcing them into areas that expose them to higher temperatures and other climate-related harms. And in these areas, people get stuck with substandard and poorly maintained homes.

Energy efficiency standards help ensure new homes have critical, basic features that keep them comfortable and keep energy bills affordable: things like insulation, air tightness, efficient heating and cooling, and double-glazed windows.

However, most of Victoria’s homes were built before energy efficiency standards were introduced into the National Construction Code (NCC) in 2006. On the National House Energy Rating Scheme (NatHERS), these homes achieve an average rating of just 1.8 out of 10 stars.

Energy efficiency advocates refer to these homes as ‘tents’.

Homes built today, with stricter energy efficiency requirements, must achieve at least 7 stars under NatHERS.

This wide disparity creates a divide between those who can afford to live in efficient, healthy, comfortable homes and those who can’t. Newer or recently renovated homes command higher purchase or rental prices, locking out people on low incomes.

But lower quality homes tend to have higher running costs. This is a trap: while rents may be lower, energy bills are much higher. These homes also expose occupants to unhealthy indoor temperatures, often leading to poor health outcomes. 

And the situation is about to get much worse.

That’s because homes built today are constructed to withstand the temperatures of the past. They’re not built with a view to what temperatures will be in the coming decades, let alone 50+ years from now.

According to recent research, homes built to today’s 7-star standard could become as uncomfortable in the heatwaves of 2070 as today’s very inefficient homes are now. The homes we currently consider energy efficient will require more air conditioning to stay comfortable during heatwaves and in hotter day-to-day conditions.

homes built today are constructed to withstand the temperatures of the past. They’re not built with a view to what temperatures will be in the coming decades, let alone 50+ years from now.

This is obviously a problem on many levels. Not everyone can afford air conditioning, and people who do have it can’t always afford to use it. And using air conditioning is maladaptive, contributing to climate change and creating an endless feedback loop.

Reverse cycle air conditioners are efficient and can reduce this effect, particularly if they’re run on renewables, but this expensive technology is out of reach for many people.

And if homes that are currently considered ‘energy efficient’ are going to leave people unsustainably dependent on air conditioning in coming decades, this begs the question: what about the ‘tents’.

The answer is that they will be unlivable. And this will expose many of the most vulnerable people in our communities to far higher temperatures, to heat-related suffering, and even to death.

The way forward is to amend the NCC to require new homes to be built to withstand the temperatures of the coming decades, and to ensure that all Victorians – including those experiencing disadvantage – have equitable access to them.

VCOSS and others have called for this necessary change to the NCC in submissions to the Government’s Plan for Victoria, which presents an opportunity to build this kind of forward-looking planning into the state’s regulatory infrastructure and keep communities safe.  

If you’re a social justice advocate, the intersection between climate change and housing is an important one that affects everyone. VCOSS convenes a network of advocates in this space called the One Million Homes Alliance. Get in contact with Julianne Tice if you’d like to get involved.

You can read the research by Renew and Sweltering Cities here.

VCOSS Submission on Energy Efficiency Minimum Standards for Rental Properties and Rooming Houses

VCOSS strongly supports the Victorian Government’s proposal to introduce new minimum energy efficiency standards in rental properties.
The proposed standards for ceiling insulation, draught sealing, water heating, and heating and cooling are a good start for comprehensive minimum standards for energy efficiency in Victorian rental properties. Safety standards for securing blind cords, and the introduction of a heating standard for rooming houses, are crucial and timely measures.
VCOSS recommends strong implementation measures that will ensure the efficacy of the current suite of proposed standards. We also note some improvements that are required now and in future rounds of reform.
Energy efficient homes are critical for people’s health and wellbeing, their wallets, and the planet. They are more comfortable to live in, cost less to heat and cool, and help reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
In terms of thermal performance and energy efficiency, the rental sector currently serves up some of the worst quality homes in Victoria. More Victorians are renting, the impacts of climate change are increasing, and energy costs are consistently high. Improving the quality, comfort and safety of rental homes to a basic, liveable standard is critical to mitigate the impact of these factors on renters. Benefits include reductions in the rates of chronic illness like asthma, reduced depression and anxiety, and even prevention of suicide.

Feedback to the Inquiry into Climate Resilience in the Built Environment.

The Inquiry into Climate Resilience in the Built Environment provides an important opportunity to examine how the Victorian Government can improve our buildings and infrastructure, and ultimately better protect people experiencing disadvantage from the impacts of climate change.

Public and community buildings and infrastructure are vulnerable to our increasingly extreme climate. Many of these buildings have already been badly affected by heavy rainstorms, floods, extreme heat, or bushfires. Across Victoria, public and community buildings tend to be insufficiently insulated and have ineffective, inefficient heating and cooling systems. In many community facilities, regular maintenance is often delayed due to insufficient financial resources.

These spaces should be safe for both community members and for the people who staff them even during extreme weather. The consequences of their structural vulnerability can be devastating, leaving people literally exposed to the elements.

This submission addresses what must be done to better prepare Victoria’s built environment and infrastructure, and therefore the community, for future climate disaster events. The submission focuses on extreme heat as the main risk of climate change facing the entirety of Victoria, but also discusses climate change risks that will be more localised in Victoria including flooding, bushfire, increased intensity of rain events, and sea level rise.

A key message of this submission is that prevention is key. While we cannot fully prevent the impacts of climate change from occurring, we can prevent them from getting worse through climate mitigation activities across society. Many of these mitigation activities within our buildings and infrastructure also contribute to climate resilience, which prepares us for the unavoidable impacts of climate change. Adequate preparation of our buildings and our people will ultimately require fewer financial resources than waiting until climate impacts hit and then supporting repeated recovery efforts over the coming decades. It will also head off avoidable suffering and death and reduce inequality.

FLAGSHIP REPORT

In the context of the ‘global boiling’ we are anticipating and starting to experience, Victorians will face a range of unprecedented challenges. In this world, rolling heatwaves will be the norm, food and water security will become increasingly tenuous, and natural disasters will threaten more homes, organisations, livelihoods and lives. All these impacts will disproportionately affect the most vulnerable in our society, including people experiencing poverty, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Victorians, people from culturally and linguistically diverse communities, and those with disability.

Climate change is exacerbating pre-existing disadvantages, making the work of community sector organisations (CSOs) even more vital.

This report explores how community organisations are responding to climate change, and what they need in order to ramp up that response to continue meeting the needs of their communities. It is the product of extensive qualitative and quantitative research and engagement with CSOs

The anticipated impacts of climate change on Victorian community organisations include:

• Damage to organisations’ assets, including buildings and vehicle fleets;
• Staff being unable to remain safely housed in the local vicinity of their employing organisations;
• Workers being unable to get to work during climate events like bushfires or flooding, or even on hotter-than-normal days; and
• Reduced ability of staff to visit clients in their home.

We find the sector’s important role in the context of climate change must be adequately recognised and resourced, and work is needed to map services and service gaps across the state.

Vitally, the sector needs consistent and long-term funding to continue meeting demand for its services (which will increase as climate change progresses), and to prepare its workforce and operations to mitigate and adapt to climate change.

Work is also needed to build awareness and knowledge within the sector, in order for community organisations to survive and thrive as supports for their communities. Organisations cannot afford not to plan for the major risks that climate change poses.

The community sector also plays a critical influencing role in raising awareness within communities on climate change, and advocating for change on communities’ behalf.

A well prepared, resourced and resilient community sector will lead to a stronger, healthier and safer Victoria in the decades to come.

FLAGSHIP REPORT

In 2024, we know a lot about climate change.

We have the scientific evidence of its devastating impacts, we have copious academic dialogues about what the right response should be, we have political debates and technical understanding.

What we don’t tend to hear much of – still, in 2024 – is the voice of regular people.

Through a series of ‘Community Climate Conversations‘, VCOSS set out to hear from those who don’t often get a say on decisions around climate change. We wanted to know:

• What do ‘everyday’ Victorians think about climate?
• What are their primary areas of concern?
• What do they want to see done?

For a fair transition to a clean energy future and a safe climate, we must listen to the voices of those who will be most impacted. This includes people living in rural and regional areas. It includes recent migrants and culturally and linguistically diverse people, people living in social housing, young people, women, and people experiencing various forms of disadvantage.

Hearing from these groups about how climate change is affecting them – and incorporating their needs and desires into decision-making around climate change – will ensure that all Victorians can benefit from the transition we have to make.

This report offers an important contribution to our understanding of climate change: an understanding from the lived experiences of those who might otherwise go unheard and be left behind.

The conversations we held were wide ranging and the participants were diverse. Six per cent of participants were First Nations people

This report distils the recurring themes that came up during the conversations.

Issues brought up by participants – what we heard – are paired with the solutions – what we can do – that participants want.

Images from VCOSS ‘Community Climate Conversations

Where visited (click to enlarge)

Presented at the 6th International Conference on Countermeasures to Urban Heat Islands as ‘A Comparison Of Disadvantage and Urban Heat Island Effect In Melbourne, Australia’, December 2023

ABSTRACT

The Australian Bureau of Statistics’ 2016 Index of Relative Socio-economic Disadvantage¹ scores were compared against the urban heat island effect of all 27 ‘city’ local government areas in metropolitan Melbourne in Victoria, Australia. It found a correlation (r2 value of 0.4435) between disadvantage and urban heat.

15 of the 16 variables that generated the Index of Relative Socio-economic Disadvantage were then calculated and compared against the urban heat island effect for those same local government areas. It found correlations (r2 values of more than 0.4) between urban heat and four variables including people with low household income.

The equivalised income of each household in those local government areas as reported in the Australian Bureau of Statistics’ 2016 Census was then compared against the urban heat island effect. It found a strong correlation (r2 value of 0.7405) between high incomes and low urban heat and vice versa. For example, households in the lowest bracket earning $1 to $7,799 each year live in an area with an urban heat island effect of 8.77oC compared to 8.17oC for households in the highest bracket earning $156,000 or more each year.

The implications for policymakers responsible for addressing urban heat are that data should be used to target interventions at local government areas with high levels of disadvantage and high urban heat island effect. For example, the City of Brimbank has the highest UHI effect (+10.75oC) in Melbourne and the second lowest IRSD score (921).

Heat or eat

POVERTY

HEAT

ANALYSIS

Have you ever driven past a new housing development and clocked a sea of dark roofs with barely any trees or grass in sight?

More housing for a growing Victorian population is good. But as climate change increases the danger of the kinds of heatwaves we’re already seeing this summer, we need to pay closer attention to where and how people live.

If you live in a ‘concrete jungle’ you’re likely to suffer from what’s called the urban heat island effect.

In areas where there are less green spaces like trees and grass, and more urban surfaces that absorb heat and then release it at night, everything feels hotter. Everything is hotter.

Heat or eat

POVERTY

HEAT

And this is particularly dangerous because Victorians living in urban heat islands are also likely to be more vulnerable to heat-related harms on a number of other fronts.

That’s because there’s a correlation between disadvantage and urban heat islands, as new research from VCOSS has confirmed.

We found that the six most disadvantaged LGAs were within the eight hottest areas.

Looking at individual local government areas (LGAs), we found that the six most disadvantaged LGAs were within the eight hottest areas.

For example, Greater Dandenong is the most disadvantaged LGA in Melbourne and is 1.8 degrees hotter than Boroondara.

The ‘top 5’ hottest and most disadvantaged LGAs

We also found a correlation between financial hardship and urban heat – in other words, if you live in a poorer area, you’re more likely to also live in a hotter area.

If you earn $1 to $7,799 a year, the area you live is about 0.6 degrees hotter on average than if you make more than $156,000 a year.

This should raise alarm bells because it means the people least able to keep cool are living in the hottest areas. The people who most need air-conditioning are the least able to afford it.

And it’s more dangerous when you consider the other factors likely to compound and make extreme heat a severe or even lethal health risk – all of which are again more likely to affect people living in poorer areas.

These include:

• Living in poor-quality housing without proper insulation.
• Having disabilities or pre-existing health issues.
• Being new to Australia or having low English skills.
• Doing outdoor or insecure work.
• Being a woman dealing with family violence and/or pregnancy.

VCOSS is pushing for the 2024 Victorian Budget to include measures that help low-income households keep cool, including free housing retrofits to enhance the energy efficiency, comfort and safety of people’s homes.

Minimum energy efficiency standards for rental properties are also needed to keep renters safe. Previous VCOSS research showed that homeowners were twice as likely to have insulation as renters.

• Read the VCOSS ‘heat island’ research.

Insurance companies’ “cavalier and combative” attitudes retraumatised flood affected communities and pushed some people further into poverty, VCOSS has told a Federal Parliamentary inquiry.

VCOSS CEO Junita Pope and Thriving Communities Director Libby Buckingham detailed the stories of people affected by the 2022 northern Victorian floods at a public hearing of the inquiry into insurers’ responses to flood claims on Wednesday 31 January.

After the floods, VCOSS held a series of one-on-one consultations with social service bodies and individuals across northern Victoria and convened a community feedback event in Echuca (see report).

“As we consulted after the floods, one of the biggest issues raised was the inadequacy of insurance,” Ms Pope told the Standing Committee.

“The message, loud and clear, was that the insurance system isn’t working.”

During the public hearing, Ms Pope outlined findings that insurance companies adopted a “cavalier and combative attitude” after the 2022 floods, and that flood victims were “retraumatised” as they lodged and pursued insurance claims.

“Too often, insurers push back against insurance claims — and then push back some more — until a person simply gives up,” Ms Pope said.

“A massive power imbalance exists. All the hard work and mental load is on the shoulders of the person who’s just been flooded.”

The Standing Committee also heard that the cost of insurance is too high for many people, especially those on low incomes, leading to insurance gaps and under-insurance.

Roughly 60% of homes affected by the October 2022 floods were either underinsured, or not insured at all.

“Adequate insurance simply costs too much and premiums will continue rising in disaster-prone aeras,” Ms Pope said.

“People living in flood-prone areas without adequate insurance are being pushed into poverty.”

Ms Buckingham urged the Committee to recommend increased investment in mitigation and community resilience programs, so people, homes and infrastructure are better prepared for future natural disasters, and pressed on the importance of safe, secure housing for people that have been displaced.

“The impact of temporary housing, and unsafe housing, is devastating to the people in these communities,” she said. “It has such impacts on people’s mental health, physical health, education, ability to participate in society. We’ve really heard that people are putting their lives on hold because they have very insecure housing while they wait for their claims to be heard.”

Ms Pope praised the work of community organisations, amid rising demand on services in disaster affected areas.

“The community sector has put in a Herculean effort to support people directly with their insurance problems, and to help people with the flow-on impacts of insurance failure,” Ms Pope told the inquiry.

The Standing Committee also heard evidence from consumer advocates the Consumer Action Law Centre, CHOICE and the Financial Rights Legal Centre.

• You can read their joint submission here.

The community sector’s relief and recovery efforts for the 2022 Victorian floods

Whether it is the Hazelwood Mine Fire, the Black Summer bushfires or the 2022 floods, community services experience the impact of disasters on Victorians firsthand. Organisations are embedded across the state and are regularly relied on to provide relief services in the aftermath of emergencies and help people recover.

The community sector provides a diverse range of supports that knit together to form a safety net for Victorians who have limited resources to stay safe during extreme weather events and emergencies. Crucially, community services help build individual, household-level and community-level resilience to compounding disasters. But we know that extreme weather events will increase in frequency and severity with climate change,[1] further exacerbating the demand for the community sector’s services.

In crises, governments and emergency management agencies often depend on the knowledge, networks and high-trust relationships held by community services. The sector’s specialist skills – such as advocacy, case management and counselling – are key to relief and recovery efforts in the short and long term following a disaster.

VCOSS consulted 36 community services organisations in flood-affected areas to learn about their relief and recovery programs and find out what they need to continue helping their communities cope with future extreme weather events. At the heart of our recommendations is sustainable, ongoing funding to build resilience before disasters and immediately help people recover when emergencies strike.

We also drew on our knowledge of past emergencies to identify systemic issues that are exacerbated by disasters and require long-term sustainable solutions. Insurance challenges and the lack of affordable housing options in flood-affected areas are major problems trapping people in unsuitable temporary accommodation and impeding their recovery journey.

[1] CSIRO, ‘Victorian Climate Projections 2019 Technical Report’, 2019.

Extreme heat kills more Australians than any other form of natural disaster, and people experiencing disadvantage are the most impacted.

For some people a heatwave means blasting an air-conditioner all day or taking a dip at the local pool. For others, it means physical sickness, mental illness, financial hardship, family violence, social isolation, and being cut off from essential services. People are more vulnerable to heat if they:

• Are young or older
• Can’t afford air-conditioning or a car
• have arrived in Victoria recently or don’t speak English
• Live in a rental home or public housing
• Sleep rough (homeless)
• Are pregnant or experiencing family violence
• Work outside or have an insecure job
• Have a disability or health condition

Community services organisations are instrumental in helping people cope and keep cool.

They open up air-conditioned offices for people to shelter, call vulnerable clients to check on their welfare, and provide advice to clients about thermal comfort and energy usage. Organisations are rarely funded for this critical work.

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 Launch event recording

More than 600 Victorians were hospitalised by the 2014 heatwave.

The number of very hot days in Victoria is on track to double by 2050.

There’s no official data on how many Victorians are killed by extreme heat every year.

Related VCOSS research

Power struggles
August 2017

Battling On
November 2018

A climate of fairness
October 2019

What you told us.

Report launch – public event

Recorded live on Thursday 3 June, 2021

The pre-recorded videos played during this live event are all available higher up on this page.

xxx

ANALYSIS

The impacts of climate change are overwhelming.

Every year we are confronted by images of bushfires, floods, droughts and storms.

But although there’s less attention paid to the dangers of extreme heat, it’s a major killer in Australia we should all be thinking about and planning for.

This is the top-line message from a VCOSS event that brought community organisations together with representatives from government, local councils and academics.

Extreme heat also makes people sick, causes financial hardship, and exacerbates violence in families and the community.

People working in the community sector see these impacts on their clients all the time.

And the organisations they work for aren’t immune from the impacts either.

Experts at the event discussed how extreme heat affects vulnerable people, and how communities and organisations can adapt.

Emma Bacon from Sweltering Cities made the point that heat-related vulnerability relates to a range of other issues.

“It’s about structural inequality,” she said. “It’s about where you live, it’s about your income, it’s about your health, it’s about your gender.”

Urban heat islands are a huge problem, particularly in Melbourne’s west and north and around Dandenong.

And Emma shared stories of renters who’d been stopped from making simple heat-safety alterations to their homes, like putting up curtain rails.

“The minimum standard for renters is you need curtains that block light and have privacy, but nothing to do with heat. There’s nothing to do with having a safe cool home in the summer. That’s something we really need to change.”

Heat-related sleeplessness is a huge issue, as is mental health.

“Suicides, mental health presentations, domestic violence and assaults all go up in higher temperatures. There is this really intense mental health impact.”

Air conditioning helps a lot of people keep cool, but it can’t be the whole solution.

“We need to provide funding so people on low incomes can turn it on, or make sure that … it always has renewable energy attached to it so people aren’t worrying about whether they can stay safe during heatwaves.”

Deaths from heatwaves are vastly underestimated because they’re not systematically recorded as heat-related. And Emma pointed out that we have a limited understanding of how bad extreme heat is going to get. In Melbourne we’re projected to have a doubling of heat-related deaths by 2050.

“Every summer heat records will be broken. We’re going to use the word unprecedented a lot.”

One of the problems, she said, is that we treat extreme heat as an individual problem with individual solutions. It’s not enough to tell people how to ‘look after themselves’.

“Feeling hot is not about being uncomfortable for a lot of people; it’s a life-threatening situation… And when you don’t have a lot of money for extra food; when your home is a hotbox that’s unsafe to be in, telling people to turn on a fan and put a wet towel on their neck is really inadequate. People are trying their best.

“Heat waves are environmental disasters where we know when and where they’re going to happen and we can plan for them. And so we need to be doing that now. That’s why we need to be telling decision-makers that they’ve got to act for safer suburbs, for safer homes, for better health outreach, and to make sure our most vulnerable aren’t left struggling to take care of themselves in those situations.”

The impact of extreme heat is also extremely gendered, as Margareta Windisch from RMIT University discussed.

Older women who live alone are at higher risk of heat-related mortality and morbidity, because of factors relating to systemic oppression, discrimination and lack of resources.

Margareta interrogated the concept of vulnerability, and the responsibility it implicitly assumes.

“What we are actually saying is it’s not just there’s something wrong with me – I’m not healthy enough, what am I doing that is creating my vulnerability? – but it is the social environment. It’s the political, the economic environment that actually makes me vulnerable.”

She pointed out that some suburbs have a lot more resources dedicated to their welfare than others, and that life-saving emergency services are under-funded and over-stretched.

“The catastrophic dimensions of heat wave mortality are concentrated amongst particular population groups. They’re higher in particular neighbourhoods… They’re exposing the existence of systemic and spatial inequality.

“What is the role of the state in creating the crisis or responding to the crisis? Why are some neighbourhoods experiencing higher mortality than others?”

Older women also face multiple barriers in accessing cool public places such as libraries and shopping centres. These community safe spaces don’t have adequate funding for transport and don’t consider things like people’s pets and their sense of personal safety.

“We’ve got to listen to what communities need so that older women don’t become the shock absorbers of the climate crisis.”

There are also other intersecting circumstances that make some people more vulnerable to heat-related death and disease.

Kaye Graves from Bendigo Community Health Services talked about risk factors for people from refugee backgrounds.

Language barriers and low literacy in people’s language of origin are major drivers of heat vulnerability.

“We talk about the recognitions of warnings,” she said, “and what that means in a very simple context and knowing when to act.

“I want to reinforce the need for emergency warning systems to be accessible for all local people of refugee background.

“I don’t believe there’s enough research done on how we can embed these messages into orientation to Australia.”

But there is amazing work being done by community organisations to keep people safe.

Mary Farrow from Emerald Community House talked about some of the innovative ways organisations are responding.

“We have free internet, recharging power backup, showers, toilets, generators, laundry, public computers.”

They also run emergency scenarios so community members can plan and prepare ahead for unexpected contingencies.

“When there is an extreme heat event, the power goes out because of the demand on the grid … Design your own scenario. There’s loads of software out there to help you to do this kind of stuff. Work with your group and say, Okay, this is what’s happened. We have a fire or we have a heat event. We’re in a house or we have these people, what are we going to do? Use your imagination.”

Organisations, she said, “have the capacity, the knowledge, the lateral flexibility, the agility to respond to disasters.”

This event was about sharing that capacity and knowledge, learning from those on the front line and from each other, as a matter of survival

As Emma Bacon said, “This is an urgent issue. We should not be waiting until there is a deadly summer and thousands of deaths before we actually start to take this seriously.”

ANALYSIS

Numbers, stats and percentages.

This is how we’re used to getting information about the world: in quantifiable blocks.

Sometimes though, the figures that float around the most contested subjects become so well-circulated that they risk being leached of meaning.

Figures like 1.5 degrees and 2 degrees of global warming.

And emissions reduction targets: 28 per cent; 45 per cent; 75 per cent.

These numbers are in particularly heavy circulation at the moment because the Victorian Government is in the process of setting its emissions reduction target for 2035, and is taking input through an Independent Expert Panel.

VCOSS made a submission to the panel, which is empowered to consider the “likely impact of the target on the health and wellbeing of Victorians”.

But getting a clear sense of the health and wellbeing implications of an emissions target – the number at which it’s set and, just as importantly, the plan for how to reach it – requires seeing the figures and percentages for what they really mean.

For the most vulnerable Victorians, in the starkest terms, these numbers can translate into death sentences.

For instance, we know that heatwaves will increase as temperatures warm.

In the pre-industrial era there used to be severe heatwaves in Australia – the kind that killed 167 Victorians in 2014 – every 50 years or so.

An emissions target that corresponds to a temperature increase of 2 degrees will mean we can expect such a deadly heatwave every 3.6 years.

Bushfires, storms, droughts and floods also become more widespread and more severe with every fraction of a degree of warming.

And these impacts hit vulnerable people the hardest: people forced by economic necessity to live in urban heat islands and bushfire risk zones, in areas prone to devastating floods, in baking homes without air conditioning or without the money to run it.

When the expert panel considers the health and wellbeing impacts of emissions targets, the headline fact in their sights should be that the Victorian Government’s current target for 2030 – 45–50 per cent – puts us on a path towards 2 degrees of warming, and all the devastating impacts this will mean.

To limit warming to 1.5 degrees – and correspondingly limit human suffering – we need a target of 75 per cent emissions reduction for 2030, not 45–50 per cent.

And we need to hit net zero emissions by 2035, not 2050.

Of course, the outcomes predicted in these trajectories are predicated on levels of global warming, to which Victorian emissions are just one small contributor.

This shouldn’t be an argument against taking action: only setting and achieving responsible targets in all jurisdictions will ward off the worst impacts of climate change and protect vulnerable people everywhere.

But if we need an entirely local argument for setting ambitious emissions reduction targets in Victoria, we can find one in the health, economic and general wellbeing benefits that can flow from an equitable transition to a net zero carbon economy.

That’s because the same people most at risk from the impacts of climate change are the ones who stand to benefit most from better, cleaner, more sustainable technologies.

Improved thermal comfort from upgrading the energy efficiency of Victorian homes can save low-income Victorians money, suffering and even their lives: research has shown that if all Victorian homes had an energy efficiency rating of 5.4 NatHERS Stars, rather than the current average of 1.8, the vast majority of people who died in the 2009 heatwave could have survived.

Electrifying households and giving them access to new emissions-reducing technologies will ease cost-of-living pressures that are currently hitting low-income households hard. For instance, households that take up the Solar Homes rebate to instal solar panels save over $1,000 on average each year on energy bills.

And Victorians experiencing compounded disadvantages have the most to gain – such as low-income Victorians with disabilities and chronic health conditions, who are more susceptible to the health impacts of extreme heat and cold.

Cutting back on air pollution by transitioning to clean renewable energy would also offer most benefit to vulnerable Victorians, including those in the air pollution ‘hot spots’ of the Latrobe Valley in Gippsland and Yarraville and Brooklyn in western Melbourne.

Transitioning to a net zero carbon economy is not an easy prospect. But Climateworks’ Decarbonisation Futures report shows that keeping to 1.5 degrees of warming is feasible in Australia if governments immediately deploy demonstrated zero-emissions technologies and rapidly develop emerging innovations.

And the IPCC has shown that the economic benefits of limiting warming outweigh the costs, while taking early action is cheaper in the long run.

To limit warming to 1.5 degrees – and correspondingly limit human suffering – we need a target of 75 per cent emissions reduction for 2030, not 45–50 per cent.

Doing it fairly – so that the health and wellbeing benefits are felt across the board and particularly by people who need them most – is also challenging.

Overcoming inequity in the transition has so far proved elusive. For instance, financially comfortable households are currently more than twice as likely to have rooftop solar panels as those under financial pressure, and homeowners are five times more likely than renters.

But this can change.

Cutting emissions with an equity lens is possible, through programs that are:

• targeted at households who would benefit the most;
• fully subsidised or combined with no-interest loans for households who can’t afford upfront costs;
• designed to benefit all types of households including renters and those in public and community housing; and
• measured and monitored to ensure uptake isn’t skewed towards affluent households and homeowners.

The initiatives that can be of most equitable benefit for a low-carbon Victoria are:

• Upgrading residential energy efficiency, by funding a state-wide trajectory to a rating equivalent to  6 NatHERS Stars for all homes.
• Equitably electrifying homes, with low-income households and private and social renters prioritised.
• Ensuring all households can access solar energy, via a combination of solar panels and batteries. This can include programs such as community energy hubs for apartment buildings, and rooftop solar panels on all public housing.
• Supporting the community sector to decarbonise.
• Expanding public and active transport options.

There also needs to be a focus on a just transition in areas dependent on fossil fuel industries, like the Latrobe Valley.

Long-term investment in these communities can cushion the economic impacts of the transition and give communities hope for a thriving future. Programs should be co-designed with the communities they affect, and should include a focus on employment opportunities in the healthcare and social services sector, which is the Latrobe Valley’s biggest and fastest-growing employer.

Creating a liveable Victoria now and for future generations relies very much on the policy decisions of the next 10–15 years.

It’s a moment of unprecedented challenge and also unprecedented opportunity.

The Victorian Government can rise to the challenge by setting bold emissions reduction targets.

And through equitable strategies to reach those targets we can grasp the opportunity for a fair society: one where everyone has a shot at good health and wellbeing, and no one is handed a death sentence by numbers.

Read VCOSS’s submission on Victoria’s emissions reduction target for 2035 here.

BUDGET ANALYSIS

This is a long-form analysis of the Victorian Government’s investments in climate change and climate equity. For a quick summary of specific Budget program expenditure in this space click here.

The COVID-19 pandemic, the 2019-20 bushfires and severe storms have sorely tested Victoria, and building resilience to future stressors including climate change must be an ongoing priority.

Community organisations are key to building resilience and to supporting people and communities during a crisis. They have knowledge and skills that are vital during disasters, crucial in their aftermath, and essential to building community resilience. However, the full value of this sector is not being realised.

Prior to the pandemic, community organisations were struggling to reconcile increasing costs with inadequate funding and revenue. This has been exacerbated during COVID-19. Consequently, many community sector organisations are constrained in their capacity to undertake comprehensive emergency planning. Furthermore, as a consequence of short-term contracts, there is a lack of institutionalised knowledge and skills for emergency planning and preparedness.

Another challenge is that community sector organisations are typically overlooked in emergency planning, despite their strong connection with clients and local communities and their ability to provide critical information and services before, during and after extreme events.

While some funding toward emergency resilience has been provided in the Budget, it doesn’t go far enough in the current environment. VCOSS welcomes funding for the Food Relief Taskforce and pop-up food relief markets across metropolitan Melbourne and operational funding for six regional food hubs (Albury-Wodonga, Bendigo, Geelong, Mildura, Shepparton and Warrnambool). VCOSS also notes funding for volunteers in the SES and Surf Life Saving Victoria.

However, VCOSS had hoped to see additional investments, such as renewed funding for the eight Regional Ethnic Communities Councils to prioritise issues, coordinate resources and lead COVID recovery initiatives, and participate in regional incident teams for other emergencies. We note the Budget does include continuing COVID-19 support and recovery for Victorian communities and will be keen to see if this provides an opportunity to help sustain the regional councils.

VCOSS notes that the total spend on climate change next financial year is just $27.6 million, down from the $46.0 million spent in 2021-22. That is a 40 per cent decrease at a time when Victoria is feeling the impacts of climate change each year, and there is still a chance of reducing emissions quickly enough to limit global warming to 1.5^oC.

While some funding toward emergency resilience has been provided in the Budget, it doesn’t go far enough in the current environment.

The Budget could have provided funding to implement the seven Adaptation Action Plans, including the Health and Human Services plan, which sets out actions to help the community sector adapt to climate change. And Victorians experiencing disadvantage need more support to improve the energy efficiency of their homes, which reduces emissions but also helps people keep cool in summer and warm in winter without exorbitant energy bills.

The Budget also could have committed long-term funding to the Latrobe Valley Authority, which is helping the local economy transition from coal-fired power generation to new industries. While $7.5 million is welcome for 2022-23, we note that the transition could take decades and the community sector is concerned about residents’ social wellbeing.

On the plus side, the Budget does include a $26.3 million boost to the Solar Homes program so more households can receive subsidies for solar panels and batteries. The no-interest loan scheme is particularly useful for low-income homeowners, though work will be needed to boost uptake by landlords for their renters.

It is also promising that $7.7 million is being spent on creating two air quality precincts and reducing local air pollution. Victoria is home to three of Australia’s 12 air pollution hot spots so it is hoped that the precincts are established in the Latrobe Valley and western Melbourne where residents are most affected by dirty air.