The VCOSS position on climate change is simple: Act now. Act fairly.

Climate change is hurting disadvantaged Victorians.

Whether they’re a low-income household who can’t afford to insure their home against bushfire, or a renter who doesn’t have an air-conditioner to stay cool during a heatwave.

And although we’re transitioning to lower emissions and cleaner technologies, the benefits aren’t being shared equally.

Solar panels, electric cars and energy efficient homes are expensive and out-of-reach for far too many.

VCOSS believes that a truly equitable response to climate change flips the script.

It means addressing existing disadvantage and improving people’s lives.

It means helping the people most at-risk keep save from the impacts of climate change, while targeting new innovations at the households who’d benefit most.

Climate equity research:

About the Climate Network for Community Organisations

VCOSS now convenes a Climate Network for Community Organisations. The purpose of the network is for community organisations to connect and to share knowledge on climate change and climate projects. The network provides an opportunity for community organisations to learn from external experts on topics within climate mitigation adaptation, and climate justice.

Through participation in the Network, Victorian community service organisations should gain an understanding of how their organisation can prepare themselves, their clients and their communities for climate change.

The Climate Network focuses on the day-to-day impacts of climate change rather than disaster preparation and recovery. However, disasters will be discussed from time to time.

The Climate Network is convened by VCOSS’ Climate Change Policy Advisor. For more information and to join, contact Julianne Tice at julianne.tice@vcoss.org.au.

More climate research

Victoria’s rental rules have changed.

The changes included:

• minimum standards for rental properties
• changes to how repairs and modifications are managed
• a ban on rental bidding
• improvements to eviction protocols

VCOSS is playing a support and coordination role, making sure community support workers understand the changes, and have all the information they need to support renters to exercise their new rights.

Key resources  

Information on Victoria’s renting laws  

• New Laws Passed To Make Renting Fairer In Victoria Victorian Government
• Social Housing Regulation Review 2024 Independent Panel of the Social and Affordable Housing Regulation
• Victorian Government response to the Social Housing Regulation Review Victorian Government
• Energy efficiency for rental properties in Victoria Energy Victoria
• Victoria’s Housing Statement 2023 Victorian Government
• Analysis of the 2023 Housing Statement VCOSS
• 2021 Victorian rental laws changes Consumer Affairs Victoria  
• New renting laws guide Tenants Victoria  
• What do the new rental laws mean for Victorian renters? Justice Connect  
• Guides and videos for renters in community languages Tenants Victoria  

Support for renters  

• Renters guide Rental providers and agents must give renters this guide on or before the day they move in
• Rooming house residents guide Rooming house operators must give residents this guide on or before the day they move in
• Caravan park guide Caravan park operators must give residents this guide on or before the day they move in. 
• Home of your own Justice Connect’s free self-help tool for renters in Victoria facing family violence
• Family Violence Protection Tenancy Kit Tenants Victoria
• ‘Going to VCAT’ (Video) Tenants Victoria
• Dear landlord – a free self-help resource for renters in Victoria Justice Connect  
• Workers Advice Line tenancy law advice or support to community sector workers assisting Victorian renters – Tenants Victoria  
• Tenancy Assistance and Advocacy Program Providers  support for renters experiencing financial disadvantage or family violence  
• Financial help for private renters including concessions, hardship support, loans, financial advice and counselling – DFFH  

• $250 power saving bonus – one off payment to Victorian households who looks for a better energy deal on the Victorian energy compare website. Click here for information on how to apply through a community sector organisation.  

• Energy assistance program – Free tailored energy affordability support for households at risk of financial hardship. 

Poverty hurts people and communities.

It undermines people’s mental and physical health, creates considerable stress for families and can hinder children’s emotional, physical and mental wellbeing and development.

Tragically, poverty is all too common in Victoria.

This analysis explores the extent and characteristics of poverty in Victoria.

In total, more than 800,000 Victorians live in significant economic disadvantage, including 216,000 children.

That’s 13.3% of all Victorians.

However, as our analysis reveals, not everyone is impacted evenly.

There are some groups of people and parts of Victoria where disadvantage is deep and worsening.

How to explore the data

There are three ways to explore the data and learn about poverty in Victoria.

You can

• Use the interactive maps below
• Read our detailed analysis (including comparisons to 2016 poverty data)
• Explore the interactive data dashboard (with poverty data by council area)
• Take a guided tour of the data prepared by our project partners at NATSEM.

Key findings

As detailed and explained in our detailed analysis:

• 800,000 people in Victoria are living in poverty.
• Pandemic supports reveal poverty is a policy choice.
• Child poverty remains significant and widespread.
• Poverty across Melbourne has increased since 2016.
• Poverty remains stubbornly high across regional and rural Victoria.
• Victoria has deep pockets of severe place-based disadvantage.
• More people over 65 are living in poverty – and it’s getting worse.
• Housing costs are hurting both renters and mortgage holders.
• Having a job makes you less likely to live in poverty but doesn’t protect you fully.

VCOSS CEO Emma King on ABC Radio

Top councils – by total number of people living in poverty 

Top ten councils — by poverty rate

Delivering genuine wellbeing for every person and community in Victoria is central to the work of VCOSS.

The building blocks of wellbeing are simple and universal. Things like access to safe and affordable housing, healthcare, education, a clean environment and social connection.

These are things that everybody needs and wants.

One key step towards achieving this vision is to begin defining and measuring wellbeing, and then embedding it in how our state operates.

This is why VCOSS is advocating for Victora to become a wellbeing economy.

What is a wellbeing economy?

A wellbeing economy looks beyond conventional economic metrics like GDP, to “measure what matters” to people.

It ensures the allocation of our limited resources improves everyone’s prosperity.

Wellbeing approaches also help to break down government silos by forcing government departments to stop asking ask “Does this problem fit into our remit?” and start asking “How can we help solve this problem?”

READ: Victoria must make wellbeing its driving force (The Mandarin)

Is this being done elsewhere?

You bet! New Zealand, Iceland, Scotland and Wales have all embraced a wellbeing approach.

Closer to home, the ACT has embedded a Wellbeing Framework into government decision-making and Tasmania is also getting the process started. 

More widely, the World Health Organisation is increasingly focused on wellbeing economic philosophies, with an understanding of the social determinants of health underlying the sustainable development goals.   

Every jurisdiction is different, and the exact structure of each system must be desigend with local conditions and needs in mind.

How would it work? 

Victoria’s wellbeing approach must be centered on Victorians’ values, to ensure it’s meeting the community’s goals. 

But before we can embed what matters, we need to find out what matters.

Frameworks and indicators must be informed by meaningful community consultation.

VCOSS’s Voices of Victoria Listening Tour provides a model for the kind of qualitative research that can capture this community sentiment.

Victorians’ priorities can then be reflected in a Wellbeing Framework that sets out the state’s main objectives across economic, social, physical and environmental domains. 

To progress the wellbeing priorities, every government department would be tasked with contributing to every priority, embedding wellbeing indicators into policy analysis and decision-making.

VCOSS believes this process should driven by a Commissioner or even a Minister for Wellbeing to ensure a whole-of-government response, and formalised in legislation to cement the wellbeing agenda for future generations. 

READ: Listening to what matters. (VCOSS research)

READ: Voices Of Victoria (VCOSS project)

It’s well established that living in conditions that are too hot or too cold can significantly affect our health and wellbeing.

Despite this, there is a siloed approach to energy policy, with energy hardship typically framed in straightforward economic terms rather than as a public health challenge. 

Community-based healthcare and frontline workers are a trusted profession and offer huge potential to:

• Identify community members experiencing energy hardship, and
• Connect them to energy assistance schemes.

About the project

VCOSS has received funding from Energy Consumers Australia to run a two-year project with a goal to create systematic change to tackle energy hardship from a new perspective.

We will create new pathways between the health and energy systems, helping identifying vulnerable community members at an earlier stage and ultimately put an end to the damaging health energy nexus.

Project objectives  

The two-year project will build on VCOSS’ research about why Victorians are missing out on energy concessions – The Missing 14% – and take the next steps towards better health/energy outcomes for Victorians.  

Focusing on awareness, advocacy and policy integration, the project will:  

• Promote clear recognition of the nexus between energy hardship and health across the energy, health and housing sectors, including in their policies and programs.   
• Establish new connections between energy market and health system actors, to better identify and support people experiencing the energy-and-health hardship.  
• Develop capability and education approaches to leverage health system relationships, reach and impact.   

Critical Friends Reference Group 

This project is supported by a dedicated group of health and energy system experts. The ‘critical friends’ group will provide advice around project activity, foster cross-sectoral collaboration and facilitate advocacy. Members include:

• Anne-Maree Kaser Alliance of Rural and Regional Community Health
• Damien Sullivan Brotherhood of St Laurence
• Steven Jiang cohealth
• Karl Barratt and Zoe Pilven Department of Energy, Environment and Climate Action
• Caroline Valente Energy Consumers Australia
• Nathan Zhivov Essential Services Commission
• Nicholas Hunter and Virginia Lewis La Trobe University
• Carolyn Neilson Loddon Prevention & Population Health Bendigo Health
• Harry Patsamanis Lung Foundation Australia
• Tricia Quibell Northern District Community Health Primary Care Connect
• Nicola Willand RMIT University
• Toby Cumming Sustainability Victoria
• Toli Papadopoulos Victorian Healthcare Association

Outputs 

The project’s overarching goal is to establish new connections between energy market and health system actors, to better identify and support people experiencing the energy-and-health hardship.

This will be achieved through a series of planned project activities as outlined below.  

Project activity:  

• A literature review on the hardship nexus (La Trobe University) to synthesise existing research   
• Development of a provocation paper to spark thought and debate with key market actors  
• Health and energy systems mapping to identify intersectionality and gaps between the sectors   
• A stakeholder forum to formally launch the provocation paper to key health and energy market actors   
• Qualitative research with community health services and energy market actors   
• Development of capability-building resources   
• Public advocacy, sector engagement and insight dissemination   
• Cross-sector coalition-building   

The recommendations and outcomes stemming from this project will be presented to the Victorian Health and Human Services Partnership Implementation Committee and the Victorian Department of Energy and Environment and Climate Action Consumer Insights Forum.