Wednesday, 18 February 2026

 John PESUTTO (Hawthorn) (14:46): I am pleased to rise this afternoon to speak on the Children, Youth and Families Amendment (Supporting Stable and Strong Families) Bill 2025. I join this debate acknowledging that we all want to see reforms in the child protection and family services space. When you think about the portfolio areas that state governments are primarily responsible for, noting that aged care is primarily the responsibility of the Commonwealth, although the states do play a material role in that area of policy, child protection is beyond any question the most serious area for our attention, and it is in a state of crisis.

Although we will not be opposing this bill, as our lead speaker and the member for Warrandyte described earlier today, we do have grave concerns about the absence of any evidence that the government gets the crisis that exists in Victoria. Back in 2020–21 there were about 9500 children and young people in the child protection system. As of this year, on the government’s own numbers, we are approaching 11,000 children and young people in the sector. So things are getting harder, and it may well be said that things are getting worse. What I am looking for from the government in the passage of this bill is some sense that they actually have a plan, not just a plan for a plan, which this bill is about. We do not oppose that, but what we are really looking for is what is going to drive better outcomes. That is important because, as I said, the system is in crisis.

You could look at any number of coronial inquests. The chief coroner herself has spoken about the state of crisis and the loss of lives, young and beautiful lives, that have been lost through neglect and incompetence in the system and failure to monitor and supervise children in care. As I said, we have got about 11,000 young people and children in the sector. Most of those are in kinship care – about 8500. We have got about 1700 in foster care, although that number is falling as people leave the foster care cohort. And we have got about 550 or so children and young people in residential care. The system is in crisis. As I have said, the coroner and her colleagues on the bench have spoken about this. The Commissioner for Children and Young People has repeatedly pointed out that we are seeing avoidable deaths in child protection and family services that must be addressed, and the current and former commissioners have all pointed this out. And yet this government comes to this house with this bill with no actual plan to deliver the outcomes.

Right now, if you look at the number of child protection reports, the government’s own output performance measures for child protection and family services show that this year the government expects that there will be around about 155,000 child protection reports. Compare that with what the government actually saw under its watch in 2020–21. We had about 121,000 child protection reports some five years ago, and that has blown out, on my calculations, by more than 20 per cent. We have seen a 20 per cent increase in the number of child protection reports. If that is not speaking of a crisis, then what will it take to shake this government out of its complacency and get it to come to this house with measures that will guarantee better outcomes? When you look at the number of unallocated cases in the child protection and family services sector, it only adds to the evidence that the system is in crisis. We had about 13 per cent unallocated cases some four years ago. At the moment we are approaching between 17 and 18 per cent, on my calculations, of unallocated cases. That is children and young people who are not able to access the system and who are left in the most vulnerable state we could imagine, and that is simply not good enough. Where is the government’s answer on that? Where is its prescription to deal with the crisis in unallocated cases?

When you also look at the number of people leaving the sector – the dedicated staff who give their lives to the welfare, supervision and care of children and young people – the number is horrendous. The standard rule of thumb, if you like, for attrition across the public sector is often quoted at around about 4 or 5 per cent. Generally across the public sector you can expect year to year about 4 to 5 per cent of people will leave for one reason or another. It does get a little higher in frontline services, it has to be said, but 4 to 5 per cent is standard. Do you know what the attrition rate is for child protection workers in this system? It is 21 per cent, on the most recent figures. One-fifth – 20 per cent – of the workforce is leaving year on year. So when we look at the number of child protection reports, which are approaching 160,000 this year on the government’s own output performance data, which it publishes itself, and when you look at the number of unallocated cases, the cries for help from coroners and commissioners for children and young people and then the crisis that confronts our workforce, you have to ask yourself: how can the government come to this house today and say that its plan will address this crisis? We have raised this matter in this house on many occasions, and yet we see the government failing or refusing to act on the matter.

I want to conclude my remarks on the bill by just putting this in context. According to the government’s own budget papers, it is expecting to spend around $2.2 billion in the child protection and family services portfolio this year. We have, as I said, 155,000-odd child protection cases requiring investigation this year – $2.2 billion – and this week we have been talking about the report that came out of the Queensland inquiry into CFMEU corruption. You think about the amount of money that has bled out to criminals, on the basis of that report – $15 billion – and you say, ‘What could a fraction of that money have done to address the crisis in child protection and family services?’ Imagine even one-fifth of that money which bled out to criminals being used to fund our child protection system.

When you look at the complete fiasco – I would argue malfeasance – around the Commonwealth Games cancellation, $600 million, maybe more, of money just was wasted. For the privilege of wasting all of that money we actually funded a large part of the Glasgow games. On the government’s own numbers that is a quarter of the child protection and family services budget.

When you look at waste on major projects, the billions on incompetence – I am not talking necessarily here about the CFMEU’s criminal conduct; that is a whole separate bag – but when you look at just the incompetence across the capital portfolio alone, leaving out output programs, imagine what you could do if you managed the budget better to make the lives of children and young people in Victoria a whole lot better. That is why we are so vehement in our criticisms and the scrutiny and accountability we seek to apply to the government, because these mistakes and this incompetence cost lives, whether it is the actual loss of life or the quality and standard of lives that are lived in this state. My heart goes out to the young kids who miss out in a system that is poorly run. My heart also goes out to the frontline staff, many who are trying to bear case loads that we could never fairly expect of any frontline worker. So yes, we will not oppose this bill, because it can only help, but let us not kid ourselves that the government’s plan for a plan is actually the response needed to this crisis.

 Steve McGHIE (Melton) (14:56): I rise to contribute on the Children, Youth and Families Amendment (Supporting Stable and Strong Families) Bill 2025. I will just quickly pick up on the member for Hawthorn’s last statement that this bill can only help those people and the children of Victoria that are caught up in this particular situation. I am pleased that he has acknowledged that and that the opposition are not opposing this bill.

The Allan Labor government has done a mountain of work to support Victoria’s frontline workers across a range of the most vital workforces, whether it be investments in frontline health workers or support for community and social sectors and those Victorians who work in our schools, our TAFEs and our prisons. We recognise the importance of funding these sectors and continuing to fund these areas to support worker retention, growth and improvements across the space as a whole.

Working on the front lines in any workforce can be the most challenging aspect of any one of these jobs. Back in my time as a paramedic, which is a long time ago, part of that job was often being first to a traumatic situation and having to navigate not only your own emotions but the emotions of people around you. To try and calm a scene down is quite trying on individuals and in particular individual paramedics that may not have a lot of experience in those circumstances. Frontline workers are the backbone of our community, showing up every day to keep people safe, healthy and supported often in the most challenging circumstances. We commend the efforts of our frontline workers. They work under intense pressure in unpredictable and sometimes dangerous environments while continuing to put the needs of others before their own. Whether it be in health care, emergency services, community support or public safety, frontline workers witness hardship up close, and they carry out the emotional and physical demands of that work long after they finish their day’s work and long after their shift has completed.

Child protection workers are among the most critical frontline workers we have here in Victoria, and the stresses and strains on those workers are enormous. I know the member for Hawthorn raised the issue of a 21 per cent turnover rate in that industry, and that is probably because of the pressures of that job and how demanding it is; you are always dealing with crisis situations. They step out in moments of crisis to keep children safe and support families under immense pressure, and it is vital that current and future governments recognise that urgent need to properly fund new practitioner roles and evidence-based programs.

Investing in child protection is not just about protecting vulnerable children; it strengthens families, it reduces long-term harm, it eases pressures on our health, justice and education systems and it builds safer, more resilient communities for everyone. Since 2014 we have funded 1180 new child protection practitioner roles, and as a result we have seen a dramatic increase in practitioners carrying cases. Just last year the Allan Labor government invested $14 million to continue the current programs that support these practitioners and of course to recruit more child protection practitioners. The $14 million investment also includes continued investment into the kinship carers engagement coordinators, Aboriginal cultural support and awareness advisers and the child protection litigation office.

I want to give a big shout-out to the kinship carers in my electorate. I meet with them on a regular basis, and I was fortunate enough to have $50,000 last year allocated out of the state budget to support our local kinship carers in the Melton and Bacchus Marsh areas. It has been fantastic to support them in what they do, in the support that they give to the children that they support and look after. I also want to extend my thanks to the many wonderful people that work out of Kinship Carers Victoria that assist us out in Melton in particular. Importantly, in the last six state budgets we have invested more than $4.4 billion into child protection and family services. We recognise the need to continue to do more, and there is always more to be done.

Australia and, in turn, Victoria are in a highly valuable position where we can learn and adapt from other countries to develop best practice models, particularly countries that share like-minded values and similar government models. The supporting stable and strong families bill is modelled on a model out of Scotland, and it is a highly successful corporate parenting approach. At its core this new scheme will ensure that supporting at-risk children and families is no longer the responsibility of child protection alone. Every single government portfolio will now share that responsibility, and things will not be just siloed. Whether it be in education, whether it be in health, whether it be in housing or whether it be in community safety, all will be responsible and all will be held to account. It is pleasing to see that there will be a collaboration between the different portfolios and, as I said, things not being siloed.

We are not going to adopt the Scottish approach without looking at the actual data to back up this scheme, so let us look at some of the numbers. Between 2020 and 2023 the number of children on the child protection register dropped much faster than in the five years prior to the introduction of the scheme in 2020. For every 1000 children in Scotland, 2.9 were on the register, and in 2023 that number dropped to 2.3. In Scotland the term ‘looked after’ is a legal term for the children who are in the care of their local authority, and from 2020 to 2023 the number of looked-after children dropped by an enormous figure of 15.6 per cent. This dramatic drop in the number of looked-after children is in line with the aim set out by the Scottish government, who have set out to reduce the number of children needing care, and of course that is the objective that we are seeking here. The data also tells us that these children, since leaving school, have been in a positive place, with many taking up university courses and apprenticeships, and even many young offenders who were a part of these schemes are now in secure and safer accommodation, and that is what we want to try and achieve – making sure that they are safe, that they are supported, that they go on to education, university, apprenticeships. As I said, we want to make sure that they are totally supported.

The benefit of having the supporting stable and strong families bill become law and speaks for itself – improving the lives of many children who are engaged with the child protection process, as well as providing the necessary supports for the frontline workers. Unless we provide the supports to the frontline workers, they cannot then extend the support to the children. But importantly, it is essential that this bill and the scheme receive the support of both the government and the opposition. Again, I will go back to the member for Hawthorn and other previous contributions by those opposite saying that they are not opposing this bill, which is pleasing to see.

As mentioned, one of the objectives of this bill is that it will seek to enhance early intervention and minimise the number of children and families in engagement with child protection and the duration of their involvement.

The bill is not just one that aspires to the success being had in Scotland. It will create the robust and much-needed frameworks to hold government to account, and it highlights and makes it absolutely clear that supporting vulnerable children and young people is a whole-of-government responsibility, expanding the previous responsibilities beyond just that of child protection and the Minister for Children. Again, as was said earlier, all portfolios will be involved. The accountability measures go beyond that of the scheme that operates in Scotland. We are establishing a whole-of-government coordination of the implementation of the scheme that will see ministers required to table a plan for each of their portfolios every year, so it is constantly under review and tabling the plans every two years to make sure that we are learning all the time and trying to improve this process.

Again, this is a very important bill. I want to commend the minister and her team for bringing this bill forward and the great and tireless work that they have done on this bill. It is a really important bill. We all, everyone here that has spoken on this bill, want to see our children safe and supported and we want to reduce the times in child protection. Again, I commend all the carers – the foster carers, the kinship carers – and I commend the bill.

 Chris CREWTHER (Mornington) (15:07): I rise to speak on the Children, Youth and Families Amendment (Supporting Stable and Strong Families) Bill 2025. Parliament should start with the children and young people at the centre of this system, kids who have already had far too much instability in their lives. If the state takes responsibility for a child, it is not good enough to say it is child protection’s problem. Outcomes for vulnerable children are shaped by housing, health, education, justice, disability supports, mental health services and, holding it all together, the coordination between them. That is one of the reasons I got involved in politics in the first place. Having grown up in Horsham, I strongly believe that kids should have an opportunity to aspire and to achieve in life, no matter their background and no matter their postcode, their socio-economic circumstances or the family that they are born into. We as a Parliament must be doing everything in our power to create equality of opportunity for kids right across our state and beyond.

Going into this bill, there are of course parts of this bill we welcome in principle. First, it recognises the need for shared responsibility across portfolios, not just the child protection portfolio. Second, it deliberately includes care leavers up to 25, which reflects what the sector has said for years. The transition out of care is a cliff, and if we do not support young people into stable adulthood, we entrench disadvantage. Finally, it proposes planning and reporting intended to lift transparency so Parliament and the community can see whether government is actually improving outcomes in areas like health, education, housing, justice and employment.

Sadly, though, good intentions are not a substitute for good design. The biggest problem with this bill is simple: it is heavy on process, light on accountability and riddled with escape hatches. The bill explicitly provides that Parliament does not intend to create legal rights, civil causes of action or even grounds for review of administrative acts or omissions. In other words, if the system fails a child again, this scheme does not give that child, that family or that care leaver any enforceable remedy. Worse still, the bill then goes further and builds in an override mechanism: if these new responsibilities conflict or are incompatible with other functions or priorities, the other functions prevail. The practical effect is that agencies can say ‘Yes, we support the scheme’ and then when it gets hard say ‘Sorry, not today, not in our core business, not in our budget, not with our priorities.’ That is not accountability, that is a policy press release dressed up as legislation.

Second, this leads to another major issue: bureaucracy over outcomes.

The government points to Scotland’s corporate parenting model as an inspiration. But Scotland’s model is not just plans and reports; it actually imposes duties on corporate parents, and it expressly expects public bodies to collaborate with one another when exercising those responsibilities. By contrast this Victorian bill makes joint planning optional, and coordination is largely left to guidance and goodwill. Third and finally, there seems to be a significant gap between this whole-of-government rhetoric the Allan Labor government is pushing and reality. Yes, the bill designates partners across government, and yes, it expands the advisory role of the Children’s Services Coordination Board. But the board remains advisory. It cannot compel coordination, it cannot compel implementation and it cannot force action when outcomes are going backwards.

It is telling that even stakeholders who broadly support the intent, like the Foster Care Association of Victoria and the Centre for Excellence in Child and Family Welfare, still raised concerns about whether a framework like this will translate into real, measurable change for children on the ground. That is exactly the point. The sector wants outcomes, not paperwork. We have heard this whole-of-government language before. The reason many Victorians approach another new framework with scepticism is that this Parliament has seen inquiry after inquiry, report after report, identifying the same systemic failures, yet too often the follow-through has been inadequate. The Auditor-General has warned about the fundamentals, including whether government even has the quality of information it needs to identify risk, track children’s circumstances and ensure accountability for outcomes. The Commission for Children and Young People has also made clear that children in out-of-home care are still being failed by systems that should be wrapping around them, including education, with dozens of recommendations made to government to fix what is not working.

That is not to mention, more broadly speaking, that Victorians just simply do not trust this government to protect their children. After nearly 12 years in power this Labor government under Allan, our Premier now, wants you to believe that it has turned the corner on child protection. It should start with the truth: the system has been under strain for years. The Commission for Children and Young People reports that the number of children and young people living in care rose from about 7800 in 2018 to about 8800 in 2022, a 13 per cent increase. Over the same period, foster care placements fell from about 1600 to 1450 while residential care placements rose from 461 to 503, and the outcomes are not good. Children in care have year 12 retention of around 25 per cent compared with 82 per cent for the general cohort. Workforce pressure is real: the Victorian Auditor-General found over 3100 children were waiting to be allocated a practitioner as at May 2022 and reported workforce vacancies rising to 13.9 per cent, around 305 vacant positions. Most disturbing of all, the commission has reported hundreds of sexual exploitation cases in recent years, including grooming with drugs and money.

Behind every statistic in this system is a child – a child with a name, a life and a future that can be permanently altered by government failure. In January this year a child became pregnant at just 13 years old while living in state residential care after reporting sexual assault, with her mother describing how her children stopped going to school and spiralled into substance use and disengagement while under the state’s guardianship. We now have reporting that in some residential homes staff fear being exposed to methamphetamine, with internal instructions to wear masks if young people are actively using ice nearby. Yet even after this, this Labor government puts forth a bill that tells departments to get along with each other.

Victorians deserve more than this, and it could be much better than this if this government was not wasting, say, $15 billion on CFMEU and other corruption under their watch. Instead of this money being spent on strippers and others, this money could have actually been better put towards child protection systems, supporting families, boosting child protection workers and much more.

In my final remarks on this bill, ultimately we will not oppose the bill in the Assembly, because the aim – stronger cross-government responsibility for children in and leaving care – is sound and because there is a potential upside if it is done properly.

But we will put our concerns on the record today and assess in the Council whether the government is willing to accept the changes that will make this scheme real and tangible rather than symbolic. Indeed we must (1) mandate collaboration rather than merely encouraging it; (2) tighten the escape clauses so conflict with priorities cannot become an excuse for inaction; (3) make outcome measures transparent, timely and comparable, with clear baselines, so Parliament can track whether things are improving, not just whether documents were tabled; (4) build stronger independent oversight, not just an independent review in five years, because five years is a lifetime for a child; and (5) fund implementation, not administration, because you cannot report your way to safer kids, you need workforce capability and capacity, placement stability supports, mental health services, family violence responses and housing pathways.

Finally, I want to make a broader point that the government should hear. This Parliament has seen too many framework bills that create plans, strategies and reporting architectures while frontline services remain stretched, and vulnerable children are the ones who wear the consequences. This Labor government must accept stronger accountability, require real collaboration, fund the work and prove through outcomes, not optics, that Victoria is capable of delivering stability, safety and a genuine future for children and care leavers. Children in care, as much as any child in Victoria, in Australia or anywhere around the world, deserve the best opportunities in life. They deserve the opportunity to aim towards their dreams, to aspire, to use their gifts in life and to find their purpose. We must give them the best opportunity, and I call on this government to do so.

 Michaela SETTLE (Eureka) (15:17): I rise to speak on the Children, Youth and Families Amendment (Supporting Stable and Strong Families) Bill 2025. This is an incredibly important bill because of the things that it creates and legislates, but of course, most importantly, because of who it represents and the care and respect this government shows for vulnerable children and families in difficult circumstances. We have heard a lot in the debate about different situations people have been in, and I know that in my electorate office they are really the hardest constituent calls to deal with when people are talking about children in care or protective services.

I do want to begin by really thanking the extraordinary workforce that is out there. Ballarat is blessed with some of the most wonderful child protection workers. We have of course the frontline workers at the Department of Families, Fairness and Housing, but we also have organisations like CAFS – Child and Family Services – in Ballarat. That is run by the wonderful Wendy Sturgess, and its commitment to children and families in our region is extraordinary. We also have the Orange Door in Ballarat, which work very closely with families and in particular with children. I do really want to just acknowledge all of those people and the extraordinary work they do. It is a pretty tough area to work in, and they do such an extraordinary job. I know those of us on this side respect those frontline child protection workers, and we have made sure that we have backed them all the way. Since this government was elected in 2014 there have been 1180 new child protection practitioner roles funded by the government. I think that in itself shows the absolute respect that we on this side hold for those people working in what is a very difficult field.

As I always do when I look at a bill, I think about my own electorate and the people in my electorate and how it will help the people that I am here to represent. My electorate is quite interesting in that there are very different areas within it. Part of my electorate is East Ballarat, and we have seen some pretty extraordinary historical difficulties in Ballarat that have really had a generational impact on families and children.

I was delighted just yesterday with the passing of the bill in the other place around vicarious liability, and a wonderful woman by the name of Maureen Hatcher was in to see that bill pass. Of course Maureen began the Loud Fence campaign in Ballarat, which was about tying ribbons to churches so that people that had experienced that vile crime in fact would have a voice and so be silenced no more. I bring that up because we really do have quite a bit of generational trauma in Ballarat. There were things like the institutional sexual abuse, but we were also home to quite a few orphanages, and a lot of stolen generations people were sent to those orphanages in Ballarat. A bill like this will really have an extremely positive impact on my direct community through its ability to support all of those families and children that have gone through so much.

Of course on the other side I have Bacchus Marsh, and whilst it has a very different history, it has its own pressures. It is a very rapidly growing peri-urban community outside of Melbourne. What is interesting about Bacchus Marsh – and I find this with so many of the services that are provided there – is it sits in a funny sort of position where sometimes it is considered regional and sometimes it is considered urban, and where services are provided from, be it Ballarat or Melton, varies. So a bill like this, for me, for Bacchus Marsh is incredibly important, because that sort of fragmentation of services is what we are really looking to fix with this bill through what is a very strong piece of structural reform.

The essence of this is really a whole-of-government responsibility. I have heard a lot of contributions from those on the other side that suggest that somehow or another nobody is taking responsibility under this legislation, and of course nothing could be further from the truth. That a commissioner is in place and there are responsibilities to report on plans and pathways creates a very real line of responsibility, and that is really what we are seeking to do here. When every minister, department head and chief commissioner becomes jointly responsible, it really will address that fragmentation that we too often see – silos of different departments all working with the best of intent but in a siloed way. Bringing this all together under this commissioner means that we can get much, much stronger results.

I mentioned earlier the Orange Door and the wonderful philosophy behind the Orange Doors. I remind everyone in this house that they are a wonderful creation under this government. What the Orange Doors serve to do is exactly that on ground level, if you like, so that anyone who is in need of help can walk into an Orange Door and be referred to where there is most need. Whether family violence needs to be addressed or whether their housing needs to be addressed, there is a referral pathway through the Orange Doors. Of course the line behind the Orange Doors model is that there is no wrong door, and that will be true under this legislation. When we are looking at vulnerable children and the services that we can provide for them, it will be seen as whole of government, and we will work together to bring a system together that will really have the children’s best interests at heart and have the capacity to deliver because we are all working together.

We have heard quite a bit of talk from both sides of the house today about the fact that it is modelled on Scotland’s corporate parenting approach, which has been going for quite some years and very successfully.

I am not sure I like the terminology ‘corporate parents’, but that is just because I am a mother, I think. But I do understand the idea that we all have an obligation, and of course we can all lean into the saying ‘It takes a village to raise a child’. I think this bill shows that it takes the whole of government to protect and support vulnerable children that are in our systems.

The Victorian model seeks to strengthen the Scottish model, with measurable outcome domains and parliamentary reporting. When those on the other side suggest that there will be no accountability – I think certainly the member for South-West Coast suggested there was no accountability in this bill – I would have thought that reporting to Parliament really should allay those fears, because there really is a strong requirement to come back and report to all of us in this place – each and every individual minister works towards protecting some of the most vulnerable young people in our community.

The scheme covers children under 18 that are involved in child protection, children receiving or requiring community services, care leavers under 25 and families that are subject to family preservation or reunification orders. Listing the people that this bill covers really highlights how incredibly important this bill is. We are looking at some of the most vulnerable people in our community to ensure that the entire government is looking at the ways that they can best serve. Every minister will be wondering how they can best help these people.

 David SOUTHWICK (Caulfield) (15:27): I rise to make some comments on the Children, Youth and Families Amendment (Supporting Stable and Strong Families) Bill 2025. That is a mouthful. What we have heard already from a number of speakers is that this is a whole-of-government approach to look at particularly our vulnerable children and how we can get government services right across the board to be supporting our young children to give them every opportunity possible.

I want to begin by just acknowledging the great work that the Mirabel Foundation does in my electorate in Caulfield and the long association I have had with Mirabel. I know when I was first elected as the member for Caulfield, former Premier Ted Baillieu, who at that stage was the opposition leader – ran a program where we would all bring in Christmas gifts and then go out to Mirabel and deliver the gifts. In my first year I extended that to Parliament, where we would bring the families and carers into Parliament, and during the last week in December the kids would come in here and enjoy some gifts and we would have a bit of a Christmas party for them in Parliament. We did that for a few years. Unfortunately we do not continue to do it. But in the last couple of years I have had the Berwick District Woodworkers Club. I was introduced to that by my colleague the member for Berwick, who, with Don Buchanan and Brian Crowe, who is the president, have been providing woodworking toys for the kids. We have been delivering those to Mirabel in the last couple of years.

But I think this sums it up – a story from one of the children, now a teenager, who has been supported by Mirabel:

I’m just like you. I know how you feel. It’s okay. You’re part of Mirabel.

Bella has never known her father’s name. Her mother died from a drug overdose when Bella was three. Her nan took her in. Bella and her two older brothers became Mirabel kids. Now 19 years old, Bella feels passionate about the debt for what her nan and Mirabel gave. At a recent big day out she was at Luna Park in a blue Mirabel T-shirt for the first time as a volunteer. She had made a pact with her younger self to never be too cool to honour Mirabel and what the foundation has done for her. She loved now being one of the kids able to say, ‘I’m just like you. I know how you feel, and it’s okay to be part of Mirabel.’ It goes on just to say how Mirabel changed Bella’s life, also her brother’s life and many other children’s lives as well.

The thing about Mirabel is these are volunteers that are bringing up these kids. These are grandparents that are bringing up these kids. This is an organisation that does this work on the smell of an oily rag, literally scrounging dollars to be able to do what they do, making an absolutely huge impact, and unfortunately they are not supported. They are not funded in any way they could be.

When we talk about some of the waste and mismanagement that we have seen in recent years and about the corruption allegations of $15 billion being wasted on Big Build sites, when we then look at something like Mirabel, those are literally dollars that could change kids lives – not $15 billion, but think about what even a few hundred thousand dollars will do for the likes of Bella and others that have been brought up by volunteers that literally every single day struggle to get the doors open. That is what makes me really passionate to do the work that I do here, as do many of my other colleagues, and I also acknowledge those from the other side as well.

Many of us do this job because we want to make a difference to the likes of people like Mirabel and Bella. But it is not happening, and there does need to be more done. I do respect that the government has brought a bill forward, which we are not opposing. It is a plan, looking at Scotland and other areas, to look at a whole-of-government approach. It is important. We need a plan. We also need the money. We also need the rubber to hit the road and make sure we can assist these kids. We see too many kids, particularly in residential care, that fall off the rails, that do not have the support. You have kids out of uni that are literally just babysitting these teenagers that have come from the most horrendous lives and ended up in a life of crime and ended up in a youth justice facility in a revolving door because they have not had the support right from the very beginning and they have not had the early intervention right from the very beginning.

I respect and acknowledge the fact that this bill is about trying to come up with a plan. But I think we need more than a plan; we need the strategies that actually determine this whole-of-government approach. I understand that there is not one particular government department or one minister that should be responsible across the board. But I also want to point out that sometimes when you say all are responsible then quite often nobody is responsible. We need to make sure that somebody is held accountable and responsible for these young people’s future, because that is what we are talking about: a young person’s future. You just cannot turn around and say, ‘I’m sorry, but it’s the problem of several departments and bureaucrats,’ because that does not cut it. That does not cut it when a kid ends up on the streets. In the work that I did with Ardoch youth foundation we had our first young person, Eloise, who was coming out of a Brotherhood bin to school at the age of 15, 16. She was living in a Brotherhood bin and coming to school, and school was a way of changing her life and her future. We cannot have that happen by chance. We have got to have government do work. This government has had a dozen years to that work. Again, granted, we have got a plan here, but we need more than a plan.

It just does disappoint me when we see these kinds of waste: $50 billion-plus on budget blowouts and $600 million spent on the cancellation of the Commonwealth Games. Imagine where that money would have been spent – money that we have given to Glasgow to run a Commonwealth Games because we could not run one here. Imagine taking $600 million and saying, ‘You know what, Mirabel, you can have just have a million dollars of that.’ Imagine what 600 different programs, a million dollars each, would do to change kids’ lives. Imagine for a minute what would happen.

I think sometimes the priorities we have in this place are the wrong priorities, because we forget about the kids that we should be focused on and the kids that, unfortunately, are choosing other pathways because they do not have role models, they do not have mentors, they do not have support mechanisms, they do not have early intervention programs and they do not have the choices that many of us have had. It is incumbent on us to do that work. Again I acknowledge the good intentions of people in terms of what this has done, but we must actually do stuff for many of these kids that are falling by the wayside. Youth crime is through the roof. Those numbers are through the roof. Kids should not be making these choices. Kids should have better choices and better options in their lives. We saw a story today in the paper about a young person that is looking to change their life and their choice, and that is what we need more of. But to do that we actually need the dollars that go with it – not just the policy but the dollars.

Let us look at some of the volunteer organisations, as I say, that have done some fantastic work around youth and that have got people that actually work on the ground with lived experience.

Let us talk about them, let us fund them and let us support them, because I can absolutely guarantee that if you give the people that I have met at Mirabel, with the work that they have done, as many others have done, just a small bit of money, that money will help kids tenfold. That is where government funding should be held and supported to ensure that these organisations give these young people the opportunities that they deserve so everybody can get a start in life, rather than just throwing money up against the wall. We have seen it again with the CFMEU and that horrific $15 billion – what a waste. Again, Glasgow was given money; the Commonwealth Games were cancelled. Our major projects have blown out by $50 billion. Let us get some focus on this and some sense in what we are doing, and let us ensure that our kids are supported to have the best options in life.

 Chris COUZENS (Geelong) (15:36): I am pleased to rise to contribute on the Children, Youth and Families Amendment (Supporting Stable and Strong Families) Bill 2025. As a government and as a community, we all have a responsibility to provide a safe environment for children. I think it is essential that we continue to make change, and this bill is another step towards improving our system, although I do think we still have a very long way to go. I think child protection workers, foster carers and all those involved in looking after children through the child protection system deserve our thanks and acknowledgement for the incredible work they do, and I certainly respect the work they do. It is probably one of the most challenging jobs we have in our system, so I do acknowledge them.

I talk to many child protection workers and I talk to many people who have been impacted by child protection, and I have a pretty good understanding of what goes on, particularly in the Aboriginal community. As frontline workers we rely on them to deliver in protecting children. I think it is interesting that the opposition are supporting this bill. However, what does their $11 billion black hole that they have put forward if they win government mean for child protection workers? Since 2014, 1180 new child protection practitioner roles have been funded by this government. We do not want to lose those. I think it is really important that we continue to grow our child protection system in a positive way and that we address the needs of not only those children but their families. As a result of that increase, there are more case-carrying child protection practitioners than there have ever been before. The 2025–26 Victorian budget invested $14 million to include programs that support our frontline child protection workforce. This funding continues to recruit through the international recruitment program, as well as continuing investment in kinship engagement coordinators, Aboriginal cultural support and awareness advisers and the Child Protection Litigation Office.

I do want to acknowledge the kinship carers and the challenges that they face in the incredible work that they do. I know many Aboriginal services across Victoria, and I have the great privilege of working quite closely with many of those communities and listening to the challenges that they have. I know in my electorate, the region of Geelong, we have Wathaurong, which provides an incredible service. I say that because they know how to deliver those services to protect their children. The community knows how to gather around those families without the intervention of child protection. That is something that they make very clear, that when they get together, they look after their own community, and they know how to do that. That is one of the reasons why we have treaty. This government has been determined to ensure that treaty is put in place, that there is self-determination, that Aboriginal people put on the table what is best for their community, and child protection plays a big part in that.

I know that Aboriginal communities across this state talk about the concerns that they have about the child protection system, but I think this bill is a step in the right direction in terms of looking at a holistic approach, which is predominantly what this bill is all about, and the importance of that. Generational trauma, institutions and stolen generations are all a big part of that, and in my electorate of Geelong the impact has been extraordinary, and that ties into the issues around child protection. So, as I said, I am really pleased that this is a whole-of-government response.

Just recently we were debating the Children, Youth and Families Amendment (Stability) Bill 2025, which acquits recommendation 25 of the Yoorrook for Justice report. This is a really significant report, and the fact that we have now acquitted those recommendations is really, really important to the community but also to Aboriginal communities, in terms of treaty, moving forward around self-determination and what best suits those communities. The landmark Children and Health Legislation Amendment (Statement of Recognition, Aboriginal Self-determination and Other Matters) Act 2023 came into effect on 1 July 2024. This nation-leading legislation puts the Aboriginal community and services at the front and centre of decision-making and the delivery of services that protects the best interests of Aboriginal children. We backed this legislation with the largest ever single investment to continue and expand the Aboriginal-led services system of $140 million in the 2023–24 state budget. This is really significant for the Aboriginal community.

I know that other non-Aboriginal children in out-of-home care and under the care of child protection also need to have that holistic approach of government. We know that some of this is modelled on the Scotland corporate parenting approach, which is great, but I think we also have an Aboriginal community that is very clear about what it needs, and there are similarities in that Scottish model which are really important to our community here in Victoria. I think when we look at the Scottish model and we look at how Aboriginal communities look after families and kin, we can learn a lot of lessons from them. I think we are now starting to say that that is a pretty good model and that holistic approach is the approach that we need to be working towards, as has the Aboriginal community for hundreds of years. That is how they have lived, and that has been their way of looking after each other. We can learn so much from Aboriginal communities right here in Victoria to make sure that we are making a difference and that we are making change for the better.

My view on our child protection system, which I will not go into in too much detail, is that we have got a lot of change to make and this is a great step towards that and looking at those areas that we need to have more control of in terms of housing, education, justice, health, Aboriginal self-determination and employment. And then those ministers coming to the Parliament and reporting to Parliament on those plans and how they are tracking – do we need to do more? This is something I am really interested in, making sure that we are acting on what is being presented to us. If we have failings, let us deal with them. I think it is really important that we continue that holistic approach. People losing their children because they do not have adequate housing is not a reason for child protection. People in the justice system – parents who end up in the justice system or in our prison system – need that wraparound support. Just like the Aboriginal community will tell you, that is how their community works.

So it is really important that we continue to move forward and make significant change to ensure that those children are being looked after, that their families are being looked after and that we are addressing those issues around housing, health, education, justice and all of those things that are impacting on these families. We know that the Aboriginal community are so over-represented in the child protection system, so we need to be doing whatever we can. We need to be ensuring that those reporting mechanisms are put in place and are working, and that is what this bill is about. I commend the bill to the house.

 Dylan WIGHT (Tarneit) (15:45): It does give me great pleasure to rise this afternoon to make a contribution in favour of course of the Children, Youth and Families Amendment (Supporting Stable and Strong Families) Bill 2025. The bill proposes a new model of shared responsibilities across the Victorian government to improve outcomes for at-risk children, young people and families. As many who have contributed before me have said, this is a whole-of-government approach, but I think, as the member for Geelong just eloquently put, it is really a whole-of-community approach. It is not just a whole-of-government approach, it is a whole-of-community approach. The member for Geelong used the example of our Indigenous community. It is communities and services rooted in our particular geographical areas or our particular communities that really know how to do this best, whether that be Victoria’s Indigenous community, indeed whether that be at times our multifaith or multicultural communities or whether that be those local services, some of which in my area I will go to during my contribution. Those local services, which have connections to these communities, connections to these young people and the adequate training and experience to help in these areas, are incredibly important. It is those communities that know best, not necessarily us sitting in here. So to have this whole-of-community approach – the Scottish model, as it has been referred to at times; it is very different to the program that they run in Scotland – I think is incredibly important and a fantastic step forward.

We have obviously made a significant amount of legislative change over the last 12 to 18 months in the space of youth offending in particular – as we should have, as was important to do. But what is equally important is making sure that young people in our communities, if possible, never, ever have to present to the justice system because there have been adequate pathways and adequate services provided locally so that they have not gone down that path or perhaps, if they have, upon their release into the community there is adequate support and there are the adequate wraparound services and infrastructure to make sure that our young people can live the fruitful lives that they deserve to live.

People in communities like mine, like the member for Melton’s and like the member for Werribee’s are disproportionately represented in these stats. They are unfortunately disproportionately represented within our youth justice system. So making sure that we have the whole-of-community approach that we are speaking about here this afternoon and that we have the accountability, which I will go to soon, to make sure that that whole-of-community approach is working is incredibly important. It should be incredibly important to all of us. For somebody like me and, I am sure, for somebody like the member for Werribee next to me, this is an incredibly important change which I think is incredibly positive.

There are several services in my community in Wyndham that deal with some of this work and deal with child protection – that may be foster services or youth services. There is Uniting, obviously, which operates at a relatively large scope but does a fantastic amount of work in my community in Wyndham, where it is not uncommon for young people to come from broken homes and to need that level of care as they are growing up. One of the earliest interventions that we often see is making sure that a young, at-risk person has stable housing and stays engaged in the education system; that is so incredibly important. Uniting do fantastic work there. We have the Wyndham Youth Services hub in Hoppers Crossing. It is run by the local council, but the Allan Labor government only a couple of years ago provided a significant grant to be able to refurbish that hub there, just near AquaPulse, and it looks brilliant. With the amount of services that they run out of that hub – the programs that they run – there is capacity for at-risk youth to go and to be supported through counselling services and through specialist programs. They run employment workshops. All of those sorts of early intervention programs and pieces and services that we see as incredibly important in this space they do at the Wyndham Youth Services hub there in Hoppers Crossing. All of the staff in there are absolutely amazing. It is one of my favourite places to visit anywhere in my electorate and such an incredibly important cornerstone in my community – absolutely integral.

As the member for Geelong said – I think in rebuttal to the member for Caulfield, because he could not quite help getting off track a little bit – we in government have invested significantly in this space since coming to government. The member for Geelong referenced the increase in the workforce that we have seen under the Andrews–Allan Labor government over the last 12 years, investing significantly, even in small things. I spoke about refurbishing the youth services hub there in Hoppers Crossing to make sure that there is an adequate space to be able to provide these early intervention services. This government has always invested heavily in early intervention and prevention services in the youth space, and we will continue to. This bill is part of that.

As I said earlier in the contribution, it is also incredibly important that there is accountability when it comes to this new way of dealing with children and youth and the whole-of-government, whole-of-community approach that we are taking. It is obviously evidence based, but there needs to be accountability, and we need to know if it is working. We need to be able to revisit it from time to time to make sure that this new approach is working, because it is too important for it not to work. Children and – not to be biased – young people in our outer suburbs, like I said, are disproportionately represented within the youth justice system, and in moving to this whole-of-community and whole-of-government approach it is incredibly important that we get this right. As part of the changes, ministers will table a supporting stable and strong families plan for each of their portfolios in Parliament every two years, with actions to ensure that services are better targeted to deliver their outcomes, which is a really big piece of accountability.

There is also a statutory review I think after five years of this new approach being in effect to make sure that what we are doing – the whole-of-government and whole-of-community approach – is working, because it is too important not to work.

As I said, there has been a significant amount of legislation in the youth justice space over the past 12 to 18 months, but we need to get the prevention space right as well, because the kids, particularly in our outer suburbs, deserve nothing less. I commend the bill to the house.

 John LISTER (Werribee) (15:55): Following on from my good friend the member for Tarneit in reflecting on the importance of the legislation that we have got around the corporate parenting model, I just want to reflect on that well-worn proverb that it takes a village to raise a child. I never thought I would say that it takes an entire bureaucracy to do so as well. However, the nation-leading reforms in this bill acknowledge just that: that every part of government around a child is responsible for the raising of that child. To echo the comments of the member for Tarneit, it is not only government but community as well.

Admittedly, when I first heard the term ‘corporate parenting’, my mind turned to Richie Rich and how we may be training up kids for Collins Street. But diving deep into the background of this principle from Scotland quickly shifted my thinking. Six years ago the Scottish government gave the promise that all children and young people will grow up loved, safe and respected so they can realise their full potential.

I have worked with many young people in out-of-home care or involved with child protection. It comes with the patch where I was teaching, whether that was out in the regions or in Wyndham. It was a harsh reality that for many of these kids the most stable adults in their lives were their teachers and year-level leaders. That is saying something, because sometimes we do not feel very stable when we are at school. But we were the most stable adults that they came across. Slowly and with a lot of phone calls and emails, teachers would assemble care teams of allied health professionals, youth workers and community liaisons. It was a challenge, and we usually got most kids into half-decent arrangements, but it is the ones that we could not help that still keep me and many of my colleagues awake at night. It is a lot to bear for people who are on the front line – the teachers and the child protection workers who see these kids far too often – and for too long it has fallen to the people who work closest to children to bear the brunt of this concern. Corporate parenting, or the Victorian stylisation of the supporting strong families plan, takes the brave step of sharing this concern amongst all levers of government. Children travel on transport. They rely on safe care at hospitals, use our local government services and aspire to further training and jobs building our state. There is not a lever of this state government that should not be concerned with improving the outcomes for children.

Through reading about the Scottish scheme, which has operated for over a decade, it is not just about sharing concern for the bad that could happen for children; it is about government being focused on the good. As participants in the Scottish scheme observed, it is just as much about having joy and passion for that child as if it was your own. In supporting some of the most vulnerable across our community and recognising that, when the state takes responsibility for the care of that child every government department needs to be part of the structure that supports these children.

This bill is part of the continued work that the Labor government is doing to support vulnerable young people across Victoria and ensure that we are providing the most effective and capable care. This bill brings together every portfolio, whether it is education, health, housing or community safety, so families can get the help they need when they need it. We have already been in this space, and to say that we have not been is a bit of a furphy. We have funded new child protection practitioner roles since 2014 – 1180, all of those out in the communities like the ones I represent, and the government also introduced last year –

The SPEAKER: The time has come for me to interrupt business for the matter of public importance. The member will have the call when the matter is next before the Chair.

Business interrupted under sessional orders.