VCOSS 2026 Election Platform

Every Victorian should have the essentials for a life lived with dignity, hope and opportunity.

Victorians broadly agree on the basics we all require for a dignified life – housing, healthcare, food, education, decent work, and belonging. For too many people, these foundations are out of reach.

In Victoria, more than 800,000 people were living in poverty at the time of the last census – and conditions have worsened since.

On any given night, more than 30,000 Victorians have no safe place to sleep, including many older Victorians, LGBTIQA+ people, family violence victim survivors, and children. Loneliness and social isolation are quietly compounding Victorians’ material problems, especially for older people, those with disability, people from multicultural communities, and carers.

And one in three Victorian households experience food insecurity. For families with kids, this undermines healthy childhood development and impacts the educational outcomes of young Victorians. Combined with other risk factors, it presents an alarming outlook for the future of our children: for the first time in history, projections suggest that the current generation of children will not live longer than the one before.

What connects these disparate challenges is a system that has not kept pace with need – and a community sector holding much of it together, often without the resources to do so sustainably.

VCOSS’ 2026 Election Platform presents a set of concrete, coherent policy recommendations for how all Victorian political parties can confront and answer these challenges.

For the first time in history, projections suggest that the current generation of children will not live longer than the one before.

It does this through six priority areas that encapsulate basic conditions which should be attainable for everyone in our communities and must be targeted to those most in need.

We ask that all political parties commit to a Victoria where:

• Every Victorian is supported through a strong community sector
• Every Victorian has a home and can afford the cost of living
• Every Victorian child has a bright future
• Every Victorian community is ready for, and protected from, climate impacts
• Every Victorian gets the care they need, before (and after) crisis hits
• Every Victorian belongs

In the face of chaos and negativity on a global scale, Victorians are seeking something different in their home state. People in our communities are calling for a bold, forward-looking vision, championing the kind of society that will benefit all Victorians.

Everyone should have access to the essentials of a life lived well. This vision is both good policy and good politics.

We look forward to working with our elected leaders in the next parliamentary term to realise it.

Juanita Pope
CEO, VCOSS