Reimagining What’s Possible

On Monday 6 October, more than 350 community and social service leaders from across Victoria came together at Melbourne Town Hall for the first major gathering of its kind since COVID.

It was a chance to talk, listen and plan, to strategise about the big issues facing our sector and the communities we serve.

We’re incredibly grateful for the insights and perspectives provided by an amazing lineup of speakers and facilitators. Emceed by Wren Rapture, this included Treasurer Jaclyn Symes, Opposition Leader Brad Battin, Uncle Perry Wandin, Kos Samaras,Tony Barry, Prof. Jo Barraket AM, Dr Jill Gallagher AO, Sarah Davies AM, Ahmed HassanOAM, Margherita Coppolino, Dr Alison Roberts, Stefan Gruenert and Chris Christoforou.

And as Matthew Schulz said in a wrap-up of the day for the Institute of Community Directors Australia, the formal panels provided a springboard for what was in many ways the main event: “a chance for community leaders to converge to consider the sector’s challenges and create momentum for coordinated action.”

In four afternoon workshops, provocateurs Bill Mithen, Noel Lim, Erin Turner and Ilo Diaz inspired big thinking and bold discussion in themed sessions designed to encourage cross-sector collaboration..

The expertise and insights contributed to this event will be used to shape our shared advocacy and priorities for 2026 and beyond. If you would like to learn more, we’ve created this post-event summary that highlights what we heard across the sessions.

Thank you to everyone who made the VCOSS Community Sector Summit so special.

Financial counsellors are a fundamental safeguard to stop people slipping into crisis, and to support and advocate on behalf of those who are experiencing financial crises. 

However, financial counselling services are currently in high and increasing demand, placing severe pressure on the sector. This means that wait times are lengthening and often crisis support is the best that can be offered to clients. The opportunity for best-practice early intervention is constrained by the resources available to funded services. 

Demand is being driven by what is popularly termed a “cost-of-living crisis,” but is in fact worsening long-running structural inequalities in our economy. The impacts of high housing costs, expensive utilities, and inflation in the costs of everyday essentials have been exacerbated by opportunistic market actors who engage in risky lending and price gouging.  

The result is that not only are low-income households presenting for help to financial counselling services, but so too are middle income and dual-income households. Servicing these client cohorts is a distinct change for funded services. The other significant change is that clients are also presenting with more complex financial stresses.

Cumulatively, these pressures place increased demand on the whole community sector, not just financial counsellors, and constrain the whole sector’s capacity to collaborate – impacting even the ability to make a referral to another service.  

The Consumer Affairs Victoria’s Financial Counselling Services Review Discussion Paper (the Discussion Paper) lays out these challenges facing the sector well. The Discussion Paper also comprehensively explains the shortcomings of current funding models for the sector, and the risks these factors collectively pose for worker wellbeing and workforce sustainability.  

As the peak body for the Victorian social and community sector, the Victorian Council of Social Service (VCOSS) consulted with our members to provide feedback on the Discussion Paper to Consumer Affairs Victoria (CAV). 

VCOSS member organisation Financial Counselling Victoria (FCVic) is the peak body and professional association for Victoria’s financial counsellors. FCVic has also made a submission to this review, based on extensive consultation with their members. Their consultation has helped inform VCOSS’ submission, and VCOSS endorses the recommendations made in FCVic’s submission to Consumer Affairs Victoria. 

VCOSS staff have taken part in the Midsumma Pride March for the first time, hitting the streets of St Kilda with tens of thousands of others.

This annual event is a celebration of queer culture, diversity and experience, and an act of representation and allyship.

Below is a collection of photos from the day, including VCOSS staff, members and others.

Can you spot yourself?

• In 2025, we’ll be inviting workers from across Victoria’s social and community sector to march with VCOSS on the day. Let us know if you’d like to come along.

Click to enlarge images.

And thanks to our photographers for the day.

Joint submission to the Victorian Default Offer Review 2024-2025

Victoria’s Default Offer for electricity, or ‘VDO’, has provided an important safeguard for consumers that are unable or unwilling to engage with the electricity retail market, a key benchmark price for market offers and, since September 2020, a crucial maximum price for embedded network customers.

The VDO has also been successful in eliminating excessively priced standing offers from the market.

As a reference price, the VDO has made it easier for consumers to compare alternative market offers and deterred misleading discounting practices.

However, some changes are required to ensure the method used to calculate the VDO remains fair and fit-for-purpose.

It is unfair for customers on the VDO to have the costs passed on to them of acquisition channels (such as third-party comparison websites or telemarketing), retention teams, and marketing costs targeted at driving customer acquisition or retention.

ANALYSIS

The Victorian Government has unveiled a broad suite of reforms designed to fix the state’s housing crisis.

The long-anticipated Housing Statement includes changes to planning laws, more social housing, a new short-stay levy, rent regulation and more.

This page provides a snapshot summary and analysis of these reforms.

It will be progressively updated as new information become available.

Do you have questions?

VCOSS is collecting sector questions about these reforms. We will seek clarity from the Victorian Government and arrange a member-only briefing to communicate this additional information.

Please make sure you have subscribed to receive VCOSS emails.

Submission to the Banning Telemarketing Under the Victorian Energy Upgrades Program consultation

VCOSS supports the proposed ban on telemarketing under the Victorian Energy Upgrades (VEU) program.

Such a ban would represent a strong consumer protection against misconduct by marketing agencies employed by accredited VEU providers, a problem that is increasing in frequency. This would also bring regulation of VEU-related marketing into line with regulation of the energy retail market.

As stated in the consultation paper by the Department of Energy, Environment and Climate (DEECA), reported instances of misconduct such as persistent unwanted calls, abuse and pressure tactics, and misleading and deceptive conduct have been increasing over the 2020-2023 period. There were 1,645 complaints in 2022 alone, and likely many more that went unreported. 

To make matters worse, the Essential Services Commission and Australian Communications and Media Authority have reported that in these cases there are very few avenues for consumers to make a complaint and limited ability for regulators to enforce the VEU Code of Conduct or Australian Consumer Law. Consumers are not getting the proper protections that they are entitled to under the law. 

Markets like that created by the VEU program can be complex for many consumers to navigate. These challenges are heightened for some groups including older Victorians, those from newly arrived communities and those from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds, putting them at significant risk of predatory behaviour. 

As the VEU program has been created by the Victorian Government and forms an important pillar of the state’s efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, the government must ensure that consumers are able to participate fairly and safely in the program. We welcome and acknowledge the Victorian Government initiating this consultation as a key step in strengthening consumer protections. 

VCOSS supports a ban on all telemarketing to customers of the VEU program.

We would also urge that the ban include doorknocking. We also call for the ban to include contacting previous customers of the VEU program by telemarketing and doorknocking.

Digital marketing (texts, emails, social media, websites) and direct marketing (stalls, leaflets, brochures, mailers) should be sufficient for accredited providers of the VEU program to advertise their products, as long as these forms of marketing follow the VEU Code of Conduct and conform to Australian Consumer Law.

VCOSS would prefer that this ban be put in place sooner rather than later, to ensure that customers are given greater protection from misconduct as soon as possible.

As noted in the DEECA consultation paper, previous bans of this kind have been put in place with a brief period of notice for providers, a three-month period for the Solar Homes program, and a six-month period for traditional energy retailers. We see no reason that a ban on telemarketing and doorknocking in the VEU program should be preceded by a notice period that exceeds three to six months, and our preference is three months. 

VCOSS supports the suggestion in the consultation paper that the Victorian Government continue or expand its existing marketing of the VEU program, to ensure continued uptake of energy efficient appliances by Victorian consumers.

ANALYSIS

As we hurtle towards election day the “cost of living” is a key battleground.    

Increases in what we pay for energy, food, fuel and housing are hitting people hard.  Organisations delivering emergency support to those in financial strife are busier than ever, including helping people who have never needed it before. About 11% of Victorians live in persistent poverty, with many more on the brink.    

But while prices may rise uniformly, the impact of these rises is felt very differently.  

Everybody claims to be feeling the financial pinch, but we need to acknolwedge the uncomfortable truth that some Victorians are feeling it more acutely than others.    

Take the example of two families.   

One family can’t afford tonight’s dinner or medicine for the kids. The parents work hard, but don’t earn a huge amount. It’s not clear how next week’s rent will be paid. Every day, this family is forced to “choose” between essentials like using the heater or buying fresh food. They are experiencing genuine and severe cost of living distress.    

Across town, a different family is also watching prices rise.  Petrol and groceries are more expensive, and their housing costs are growing. But at the end of the day this family benefits from secure and well-paying employment. They can access money if they need to. They might need to cut back on a holidays or nights out, but they’re fundamentally okay.   

Both families are feeling the strain, but it’s not the same.

One is poverty, the other is inconvenience.   

Inconvenience requires empathy, but poverty demands government action.   

We have seen some strong, well-designed policies to make life better for those most in need this election. The most recent was Labor’s pledge for government-owned and operated low-fee childcare in disadvantaged neighbourhoods that are currently childcare “deserts”.   

But too many election pledges haven’t made the distinction between helping those in acute need and helping those who are stressed and inconvenienced. They have been short-term in nature and poorly targeted, if targeted at all.   

People on higher incomes might want a few dollars off their power bill, but it won’t make a material difference to their lives. 

The electoral allure of broad cost of living pledges is obvious. No voter feels they’re missing out. Everyone is happy to save a few bucks.   

But addressing the cost of living is about more than giving money or free things to the Victorian community at large. This easy, short-term approach won’t deliver the structural reforms required to address underlying drivers of our current crisis.  

A sensible first step is really targeting help to those who need it the most.  Better targeting help would allow the parties to be more generous or rollout more assistance programs.   

Sometimes the best responses are right in front of us.   

Roughly 14% of Victorians who are eligible for a power bill concession—that’s as many as 130,000 people—don’t currently receive it.   

These people are predominately low-income earners. They either don’t know the concession exists or that they’re eligible, or are unsure how to apply. Or they need a little help because they don’t speak English or don’t have the devices, data plans or digital skills required to apply online.  

We should be proactively helping these people get the deal they’re entitled to.

Further, more than 16,500 households are currently receiving help from their energy provider but still can’t afford to pay their next bill.  These households owe an average of $2056. That’s not much for a power company or the Victorian Government, but a fortune to somebody on a low income. Non-payment risks disconnection from an essential service.  

The next state government should provide a one-off ‘Utility Debt Demolition’ payment of up to $2000 to help these households clear their lingering energy debts.  

Other solutions are not as obvious.

That’s why VCOSS is calling for the establishment of an independent Cost of Living Commissioner to lead collaborative reform work addressing challenges that sit across multiple areas of government. These would include concessions, food security, telecommunications affordability and accessibility, and housing.   

The Commissioner would have a mandate to look across state services and private markets, and consider national factors.  They would be a problem solver, tasked with helping departments break free from bureaucratic silos.  

The party that wins on Saturday will be governing a state where rent stress is high, more than 100,000 people are waiting for social housing, one in six children live in poverty and roughly 180,000 people struggle for food.  

Lasting solutions won’t be found in universal cash-splashes, short-term payment freezes or cute gimmicks.  

Serious reforms are needed to curb rents, boost social housing beyond the Big Housing Build, address food security and ensure no Victorian is left behind as we transitions to cheaper renewable energy generation.    

This is the real frontline in the cost of living. ∎

(This article first appeared in The Age.)

COVID ISSUES ALERT

New COVID sub-variants are buffeting Australia, and the Victorian Government is now urging people and workplaces to take extra measures to protect themselves.

It’s even launching a public campaign called ‘Stay Well in Winter’, to encourage mask wearing, booster shots and physical distancing.

This is all part of a broader trend to prioritise personal responsibility and voluntary measures over government-imposed rules and mandates.  

If this shift is to occur successfully, the Victorian Government must take extra care to ensure nobody is left unprotected.

So here are six things for policymakers to consider:

With strong strategies in place to address these concerns, all Victorians will be able to take sensible steps to keep safe and enjoy an active winter with their friends, families,  workplaces and communities.

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This piece was originally published as ‘A six step guide to protecting everybody from COVID this winter’. It included a point arguing for the reinstatement of casual worker pandemic leave. We amended the article and headline after National Cabinet made this change.