Wednesday, 18 February 2026

 John LISTER (Werribee) (18:01): Returning to this bill, we have just had some really good reflections on the power of education. Earlier in my contribution I spoke about my own experience of dealing with children who were either in out-of-home care or involved in child protection. I spoke about how they never leave you, the names and faces of those kids that you worked with, knowing full well that when the bell went at 3:05 they were not entirely sure of what their situation would look like as they left the school gates – some of the most certainty that they had for the day was at school. I commend my colleagues for their contribution so far on this bill, but I would just like to give a shout-out particularly to those school staff who work in wellbeing that see this every day. I think the model that we are seeking to implement with this legislation says that they are not alone with this – it is not just those child protection workers, those teachers and those youth workers at amazing places like Uniting or through a youth resource centre – the member for Tarneit outlined the great work that they do. I have been along to many of their programs as well and seen the work that they do in engaging young people. It is not just for those groups to look after and look out for the interests of those young people; it is for everyone.

A bureaucracy is a very tricky thing; it can sometimes feel quite impersonal. But as someone who has worked with and in the bureaucracy, I know full well that it is filled with people who want to do the best for our state and want to do the best for our country. We want to make sure that that feeling of wanting to do the best is at the heart of this legislation, and that is something that this legislation outlines. We are taking inspiration from the experience in Scotland. Again, I have done a fair bit of reading into how their model has rolled out, and I have found that having that coordinated support between and across different departments, all the way from their local authorities – it is a little bit strange how they organise themselves – which are also responsible for housing and things like that, up to the police service and other government departments, a lot of what is being done is being led by young people themselves. They talk about these groups of champions that they have got that come together and discuss what they want to see being done for them in that local area through those different agencies. Having that voice is so important for young people. It helps train them. It helps make them realise that we are here to develop them as human beings.

As I said at the start, that promise that Scotland makes to its children I think is something that we will reflect not only through the legislation but also through the application of this as we roll it out. That promise that Scotland makes, that they will make sure that children grow up loved, safe and respected so they can realise their full potential, is something that everybody can get around. We know this model works. From reading the review of corporate parenting, a 14-year-old from Scotland commented:

We have relationships with the staff that support us. It feels like being part of a family.

I think that is particularly important when we think of some of those different departments and agencies that will be a part of this corporate parenting model.

Those opposite are supporting this in this house, which I actually respect, although it is another one of those cases where they support it here but they are going to meddle around with it elsewhere, in the upper house. I feel like they just need to be clear with the Victorian public about how they are going to change this, just like they need to be clear about what sorts of services are at risk if they get in due to their ideological bent around cutting services. It is in their DNA, but we do not do that. We support our services. We make sure that we have got these child protection workers, and we also make sure that all those different services that will be part of the corporate parenting model are funded and resourced.

Building a system which engages with communities and brings stakeholders all together is what helps ensure that when we support and care for children outside of the home they are given the best. Supporting communities through changes like this helps ensure that the future we are building for our most vulnerable children is not just one of protection, which is obviously the most important thing, but also one of opportunity and making sure that they have something to come. It is a move that I commend Scotland and this government for taking, because I think it is important that as we move to a more modern bureaucracy, one that comes out of the stuffiness of Collins Street and spaces that look a lot like this and into the real world, we realise that it is not just about the paperwork and the documents and all those kinds of procedures. It is about the people we are working with, and when I say ‘working with’, it is about listening to them and using it as well. I commend this bill to the house.

 Kim O’KEEFFE (Shepparton) (18:07): I rise to speak on the Children, Youth and Families Amendment (Supporting Stable and Strong Families) Bill 2025. This is a bill that seeks to make a number of amendments to the Children, Youth and Families Act 2005 to create a supporting stable and strong families (SSSF) scheme to provide for collective responsibility and a whole-of-government approach to supporting child wellbeing and safety. I am sure that everyone in this place shares a fundamental goal that stable families and safe children have to be a priority and that we must be making the changes necessary to ensure that the most vulnerable people in our communities have the support and safeguards that they need. There are many families and children who are in need of support in our communities. It is critical that we provide the resources that ensure that the right frameworks are in place. There have been incidents of children and families who have not had the support that they need. When there is family breakdown, the impact can be devastating and in some cases even tragic. We know that there are issues within the child protection system itself today. Like others, my office has had many people contact us, and some of the incidents are alarming and distressing. We must do everything we can to ensure that children within the system get the utmost care and protections afforded to them. We cannot expect families to reunify and children to be safe and stable without the services that actually make that possible, such as accessible housing, culturally appropriate treatment programs, early intervention supports and full support for carers.

The government has framed this bill as nation leading and as a means to create a whole-of-government response to support vulnerable children and their families. I absolutely agree that child protection must be a shared responsibility. However, the concern is that these reforms do not go far enough to make the changes needed for families and for the already overburdened child protection system. Stakeholders generally supported the intent of this bill and saw it as a step in the right direction. However, many raised their concerns that plans and reports alone would not lead to real change, especially without clear accountability, stronger collaboration and proper funding, and most stakeholders raised concerns about inadequate consultation. Stakeholders also warned that trying to cover too many groups may reduce the focus on those with the highest needs.

Despite its broad goals, the bill mainly sets up a system for planning and reporting. It does not require departments to take action, create legal rights or step in when outcomes are not improving. The scheme lacks enforceability obligations. Its practical impact will depend heavily on the quality of the SSSF plans, the willingness of portfolios to collaborate and future resourcing decisions. Collaboration is encouraged but not required, and coordination is mostly left to high-level guidance in planned preparation from the Children’s Services Coordination Board.

It is often the unsung heroes in our communities who are doing incredible work in this space. Just today I had Melanie from the Shepparton community house here on the steps of Parliament advocating for continued funding. What I did not know about Melanie until we chatted over lunch is that she cares for a young Indigenous teenage boy along with her own seven children. She said the plan was that he only stayed for about a month, and a year and a half later he is still there. He has stability and a family who care for him. Another very special woman in my community – her name is Wendy Dow – has been a foster carer with Berry Street for more than 35 years, opening up her home and heart to more than 300 children during that time. She is a remarkable woman, caring for children in their time of need on top of her own four children and three permanent care children. In a recent article published by the Shepparton News Wendy said:

Being a foster carer doesn’t come without its challenges – children missing their families, struggling with dysregulated behaviour and not knowing how to cope with their own emotions.

Also in the article Wendy shared a story of a little girl she looked after for 3½ years who went home to her family after lots of hard work from the child’s biological mother. Wendy mentions her ongoing support to that child and the mother to this day. She is such an incredible, caring and giving woman, and how fortunate are we to have someone like Wendy as a foster carer. It is foster carers like Wendy and her family that provide stability, a safe space and time for children and for their families to get the assistance that they need. We know that the need is growing for foster carers, and as a government we need to provide the support and assistance needed.

I would also like to acknowledge the team at Shepparton Berry Street, who do such great work, offering a range of services and support, including family violence support, trauma services, out-of-home care, and parenting and family services, and of course there are many others. I have also mentioned my friend Aunty Faye Lynam in this place before, a remarkable Indigenous woman who during her life fostered many children, and not just Indigenous children. She advocated for respect and dignity in child protection and the youth justice system. Sadly, she passed away two years ago, but I remember her stories of the children she fostered and her genuine love and care and hope for their future and the future of their families.

It is really sad when families are separated and pulled apart – the impact of my own experience of family breakdown as a child – and there is that sadness when your siblings leave the home and that separation and confusion. I did not see one of my older sisters for four years when she left at the age of 14 and went to live with a family in Melbourne. I was 10 years old, and she was my big sister who looked after me, and I do always remember that night when she was picked up. I left the family home as a teenager, leaving behind my younger siblings and moving in with friends and family initially, then in and out of a range of accommodation. I look back and think how extraordinary it was that that was just allowed to happen. There were seven of us, and most of us left the family home as young teenagers. My parents needed help. My dad had mental health issues, and both parents had alcohol addiction. Back then we did not get the family assistance we needed, and my parents did not look for it. I look back on those times and how hard it was for all of my siblings.

We need accessible family support services and early intervention. If we can have the support mechanisms in place that help families through the challenges that they are facing, having those systems in place will lead to the prevention of family breakdown and positive outcomes. Also, the safety of the child must be the highest priority. Every child deserves a safe and stable home and a family that can care for them, not to be lost in a system that leaves them and their families behind. We also need to ensure children get counselling and mental health support, as it can have a lifelong impact and ongoing trauma and be a traumatic time in their life, not only during that time but in the future.

Foster carers and anyone who takes on the care of a child take on an enormous responsibility. We must support them in every way possible. They are the safety net that catches many children. I will also note the response from the Foster Care Association of Victoria to this bill. The FCAV welcome the introduction of this bill, but they are concerned that the objectives of the bill cannot be meaningfully realised unless there is substantial investment from the government to ensure that timely access to critical support services is available to families. The FCAV also in their response went on to say:

Without dedicated new funding to expand service capacity, reduce waiting times, and ensure equitable access across the state, the reforms proposed in this Bill risk becoming symbolic rather than transformative.

A well-resourced system that supports families, carers and practitioners should also be front of mind when it comes to decision-making. They also raised concerns that:

The SSSF Bill does not mandate consultation with foster carers during the development of departmental plans and leaves open the possibility that critical aspects of child protection service delivery may be overlooked or inconsistently addressed.

They also said:

Children in care do not experience services in silos, and so neither do carers. Education, health, mental health, disability, justice, and child protection often intersect in the everyday experiences of children and their carers. When coordination and resources are deficient, carers absorb the impact, and the children experience further disruption. Coordination is central to this Bill, yet carers are not named as SSSF partners, calling into question how success will be tested in reality at the placement level. If the SSSF plans do not translate into meaningful, timely and coordinated action, carers bear the burden, supporting children through delays and unclear escalation pathways and potentially resulting in crisis-driven responses. Consultation with carers can ground outcome measures in lived reality, identify where accountability becomes diffuse, and test whether coordination is operational rather than aspirational. Without this lens, progress may be reported on paper, while instability persists in homes, until carers can no longer buffer the system’s gaps for the children in their care.

They also raised concerns regarding carer recruitment and retention:

Carer recruitment and retention, for example, is critical to system capacity and placement stability. Without direct consultation with carers on factors influencing recruitment and retention, plans may fail to include meaningful objectives or outcome measures to address these systemic challenges.

It is critical that we do work through this bill, that we do aim for better outcomes, that we do make sure that the actions are accountable and that we see the impacts on children’s lives is a positive outcome. We must make sure that we keep forcing and really trying hard to support the carers, the children and everyone that is impacted. I will finish my contribution there, but there is still so much more that needs to be done.

 Sarah CONNOLLY (Laverton) (18:17): I too rise to speak on the Children, Youth and Families Amendment (Supporting Stable and Strong Families) Bill 2025. This is a really important bill. We talk about some really important topics here in this place. This bill is about improving outcomes for young Victorians, especially children at risk and their families, so this could not be a more important topic for us to speak about this afternoon. But it is no surprise to me that those opposite – and it is lovely to follow the member for Shepparton – have pretty much run out of speakers, and they ran out of speakers some time ago. Despite coming to this place and putting on a big show and dance about how they really care about child protection and how they have a lot to say about it, the room is empty on the other side of this chamber, and I do wonder if they will have any other speakers this afternoon to stand to speak on this really important bill.

The main goal of this bill is to introduce a new whole-of-government approach to supporting child wellbeing and safety through the establishment of the supporting stable and strong families scheme. We know that our child protection workers do an incredible job. It is an incredibly difficult job, but they do the job of supporting young people who end up in this system, and they do it for a number of different reasons. These are truly incredible people, and it is so important this evening to give a big shout-out and a big thankyou to those child protection workers for everything that they do. Working with vulnerable kids day in, day out is an incredibly difficult task, which is why this side of the house and our government have consistently backed these workers.

Since 2014 we have invested in more than 1180 new child protection practitioner roles, which means there are more case-carrying workers than ever before. In the past six state budgets we have invested more than $4.4 billion into child protection and family services, with $14 million in last year’s budget to continue programs to support this workforce. As we know, it is an incredible job, and incredible people make up our child protection workers, but they cannot and should not be expected to do it alone. The challenges facing vulnerable young people are not just for child protection to deal with. It is on all of us across government to consider their needs in different portfolios, because they all play a role: education, health, housing, community safety. This cannot just be the responsibility of the Minister for Children.

We know that this approach already works, and I am going to give you an example. The Victorian housing register recognises parents who are pursuing family reunification as a priority cohort on the waitlist, because we know that having a secure roof over your head helps make for a stable family. We have also got the education supports for children in care program, which provides one-on-one tutoring for kids or young people in the care system who are not engaging with or are at risk of falling out of school, because education for these kids is just as important, if not more important, than other children’s.

I have a bit of a smile talking about this, because when I was first elected in 2018 Westjustice and the minister – I think the minister at the time was the member for Niddrie – got together and had a bit of a pilot for children at risk. They had a special card where they did not have to pay for public transport. They had free public transport, which has evolved this year into us announcing and rolling out free public transport for kids under the age of 18. It was such a great pilot – and thanks to and a big shout-out to Westjustice, who do tremendous work in the western suburbs. Thanks to them advocating for these kids at risk of dropping out of school, of getting fines that they did not intend to get in the first place and ending up before the justice system, we have been able to roll out free public transport for kids under the age of 18, at a saving for parents of almost 800 bucks a year per child. I mean, how incredible. What a great story that is, from this small pilot that took place, I think, in Wyndham. It came through a particular school, and I think it was The Grange –

John Lister interjected.

Sarah CONNOLLY: Wyndham Central. I was going to say The Grange P–12, but I cannot have favourites, member for Werribee. But that is just how remarkable it is.

Back to the couple of things that I have just mentioned: they align with the goals of the child protection system. They are not just funded or they do not just run directly through child protection services. It cannot be done alone; we need a bit more. We know it because we have also seen it in the action through Scotland’s corporate parenting approach, which we have been talking a lot about over the past couple of months. That scheme ensures that it is the legal duty of public bodies to uphold, safeguard and promote the rights and wellbeing of children and young people who are or have been in the care system.

We are going to be doing that, but we are going to go one step further and create a framework that is actually going to hold government to account for this task, which I think is a really important thing. That is what this bill is all about. The bill is able to do this through the establishment of the supporting stable and strong families scheme. It is going to bring all ministers, department heads and the Chief Commissioner of Victoria Police together as partners, importantly, under the one scheme. All of these positions will have the capacity to create real, positive change for those vulnerable kids, throughout the entire state government spectrum. This list is not exhaustive, but the bill will allow for other positions and office-holders to be prescribed in the future.

How does this scheme work in practice? The bill is going to require that every two years each and every single minister must table a supporting strong and stable families plan for their portfolio. These plans will have to include a clear vision and objectives, along with concrete actions to meet the demand of vulnerable children, with resource allocations and timelines to do so. At the end of each cycle ministers will go ahead and table a progress report; it will detail outcomes and it will detail actions achieved through this plan. This is going to ensure, importantly for these kids, transparency and accountability for each portfolio in this respect. These outcomes will be tracked across key areas like health, education, justice, housing and employment. And because we know that this is an area of policy and that child protection is a system that disproportionately affects Aboriginal Victorians, there is also going to be an outcome for Aboriginal self-determination, which is really important in this case.

The Minister for Children, Minister Blandthorn in the other place, will still be responsible for overseeing and monitoring the performance of the system and coordinating the scheme with other government departments. To support the minister the Children’s Services Coordination Board will advise the minister on cross-government policies, track system performance and include the voices of children, and really importantly, also include the voices of their carers. This board is the most appropriate mechanism, I think, for oversight, as it is already comprised of the secretaries of the main government departments with existing responsibilities for services delivered to children and families. That is a lot of people involved in this scheme, and with the involvement of those there is transparency and accountability.

I think at the end of the day it is really important to report on those things that I have just mentioned, because the outcomes for these really vulnerable children really are driven and determined by not only what we do in here but what is happening on the ground with people within the scheme. It is so incredibly important. What I am hoping is that we will see a reduction of at-risk children. We have a lot of kids in the western suburbs that struggle with engagement or are disengaging with school. We have a lot of services in operation that are there to support and keep those children at school, including the school principals, who, in the last couple of seconds that I have got left in making a contribution on this bill, I will give a big shout-out to. Some of the prins I have met over the past eight years that I have been in this place are absolutely amazing, and they transform children who are totally at risk and so vulnerable because of the circumstances that they are born into, through no fault of their own. These principals take these kids and they lift them up and they transform their lives, giving them an education, which gives them the opportunity to succeed in life. I wholeheartedly commend this bill to the house.

 Lauren KATHAGE (Yan Yean) (18:27): I too rise in support of the Children, Youth and Families Amendment (Supporting Stable and Strong Families) Bill 2025. From the outset can I say that I want to dedicate some of this time to saying how important foster carers are in our community and what an incredibly important role they play in caring for some of Victoria’s most vulnerable children. They give so much because they care about children and ensuring that children have the best possible outcome that they can. I had the privilege of meeting a lot of foster carers when I provided respite care for their charges, and the people that I met were busy, salt of the earth, absolutely child-focused people that would give you the shirt off their back. So I really want to thank every single foster carer in Victoria for their dedication to Victorian children.

We know that parents want to be with their children, and sometimes the difficulties faced by a parent get in the way of that. I think about my time and I think about a particular woman who we supported at the women’s homelessness service that I worked at, and in her room each night in bed as she lay her head on her pillow her pillowslip had printed on it photos of her children that she was separated from and that she was finding it difficult to get back to due to her lack of housing. So it is obviously very pleasing as a part of this government to note that priority housing for families seeking reunification is something that this government cares about.

When I think about what life is like for families who might be at risk of being engaged with child protection, I think of Julie Hagan, a fantastic social worker that I used to work with who worked on early intervention with families while the children were still at home. She was amazing. She was absolutely amazing, Julie. But what was really interesting about what I saw in her role was how much of it was acting as a go-between on behalf of families, going between departments, going between agencies and being that connector. So I am really pleased to speak to this bill, which basically seeks to replicate that fantastic social worker Julie Hagan insofar as it is about making government people centred and wrapping departments and services around people, rather than having silos that are focused on their own individual objectives only.

It strikes me that this is not the first time that this government has undertaken such changes to the system. This is a government that disrupts the system and that will always change the system if it is for the benefit of Victorians. We have seen that with this government’s work with the Orange Door, where people needing help are clustered around by the different services that can offer support for all their different needs. We see that with the mental health hubs, which have that same people-centred approach, and we see it with the Navigator program. Those are some really good examples of how the government is wrapping around people at their time of need and providing the least friction, the fewest barriers, to getting the help and support and services that they need, and I am really proud to be part of a government that does that. You just have to think about the Premier creating the children’s portfolio when she became Premier and bringing things together for the benefit of children – wrapping around children. I am proud to have human-focused and people-centred leadership in our government.

Some of the talk earlier today from those opposite was around a fear of a lack of accountability in regard to the legislation and a concern that the legislation was not focused on what they saw as the most pressing needs. Let us be really clear that this government has brought waves of reform to child protection. I believe the minister has had nine separate pieces before this house, which have ranged from the detail to the macro. What this bill is about is changing the structure and the system so that children do not as easily fall through the gaps or need intensive residential support. It does not mean we are not also doing that work. Along with providing record funding, record staffing and innovative new ways of supporting children and families, we are also changing the system through this bill, and that is the focus of this bill. It is not a case of either-or, it is a case of both, always, every day for every child, and that is what this government is about.

Those opposite also raised concerns around accountability and fears that there would be a lack of accountability set in stone through this legislation. It concerns me that they do not recognise their role in the accountability structure in Victoria. We have plans and reports through this legislation to be tabled in Parliament. We are all members of Parliament, and it is our job to scrutinise, to raise questions and, if need be, to raise hell. That is our job. If they do not feel that they have the ability or the skill to carefully analyse reports or recognise how different things might impact their electorates or their portfolios, well, the shame is on them. They have a role, and we are all accountable. This government has demonstrated how seriously it takes that accountability by taking so much action in the space of child protection. We even see it at PAEC, the Public Accounts and Estimates Committee, such an important aspect of accountability of the government. When it came time to discuss child protection in the most recent outcomes hearings, which are around the indicators and outcomes that departments are seeking to achieve, which is what those opposite said they want to have oversight of, it would have been better if those opposite, their members of PAEC, were there for those hearings. I regret that they were unable to attend, and hopefully they will attend future child protection sessions of PAEC.

I said earlier that as well as this structural reform, which creates a connectedness between governments, we have also supported the child protection system more broadly. Backing in our child protection workers, 1180 new child protection practitioner roles have been funded by this government over the last 10 years, or since 2014, and we have invested more than $4.4 billion in the child protection and family services portfolio over the past six state budgets. Numbers can seem meaningless, I agree, but what each of those dollars represents is an investment. It is an investment in a child, an investment in a carer and an investment in the workers who keep families together and keep children safe when they cannot be together. Looking at the broad reforms that this government has brought before this house, continual improvements and the minister’s drive to see all children reaching their best possible outcome, I am absolutely proud to stand here for this bill, and I will be equally proud of the next bill and the next one, because I know we have only just gotten going.

 Kat THEOPHANOUS (Northcote) (18:37): I am also really proud to be standing up in support of this bill which recognises a pretty simple truth – that is, that when a child is at risk responsibility does not neatly fit into one department or one portfolio. Decisions made in housing, health, education, justice and transport shape the lives of vulnerable children every day, and when those systems are not aligned, families feel the gaps and children pay the price. This bill looks to close those gaps by making supporting vulnerable children and families a shared responsibility across the Victorian government.

Families who come into contact with child protection are not short on scrutiny. What they are often short on is time and coordinated support. Parents on reunification orders can be expected to have secure, stable housing, address health needs, engage with services and support a child’s schooling, all while navigating systems that may not be speaking to one another. Young people leaving care are asked to build independence while juggling insecure housing, casual work and inconsistent access to help. Non-government organisations, carers and people with lived experience have been really clear about what they need and what their challenges are. The problem rarely sits with a single service; it sits in the spaces between them – a stalled handover, a missed connection, weeks lost while families retell their stories and wait for the next step.

This bill establishes the supporting stable and strong families model, which gives shared responsibility across the Victorian government to improve outcomes for vulnerable children, young people, care leavers up to the age of 25 and families engaged in family preservation or reunification. As others have noted already in this debate, it draws on the successful corporate parenting model used in Scotland but adapts it to a Victorian context and strengthens it. Under our model, every minister, every department secretary and the Chief Commissioner of Victoria Police are jointly responsible for improving outcomes for at-risk children, young people and families. That is a deliberate and important choice. It recognises that decisions made in education, health, housing, justice and transport all shape the lives of vulnerable children, whether or not those portfolios traditionally sit with child protection. Every minister will be required to set out what their portfolio will do through a supporting stable and strong families plan tabled in Parliament every two years. Those commitments will be public and capable of being tested. Ministers will be required to report back to Parliament on what has been delivered, with progress measured across health, education, housing, justice, employment and Aboriginal self-determination. The strength of this framework is its focus on that delivery. This model is centred on children and families engaged with or at risk of entering child protection and family services. The initial focus is on children subject to family reunification and preservation orders, children in care and young people who have recently left care, but over time that focus can broaden to strengthen prevention and early intervention, helping to keep families together.

Consultation has been a really important part of the reform, including the voices of carers and of people with lived experience, and that work will continue through implementation. Kinship, foster and permanent carers will help guide what works on the ground, and I thank, as others have, those people who do this vital work in what can be very confronting and challenging circumstances. These are people who open their homes and their hearts to children in their time of need. That is a deeply special thing to do, and we need to recognise that contribution.

I also want to acknowledge and thank the Victorian Aboriginal Child and Community Agency, VACCA, who are based out of Preston, in the inner north – a proud Aboriginal community controlled organisation with really deep ties locally. I thank CEO Muriel Bamblett for her leadership and advocacy in this space on behalf of her community. VACCA’s voice has consistently reinforced what Aboriginal families have long known: when services are culturally safe, timely and properly coordinated and fundamentally based on keeping children connected with kin and culture, we see better outcomes.

These reforms build on Labor’s really strong legacy of supporting children, and one of the things that I am most proud of as a member of our Labor government is our focus on getting that best start in life for kids and giving kids opportunities. Over the past six budgets this government has invested more than $4.4 billion in child protection and family services. Since 2014 more than 1180 additional child protection practitioner roles have been funded, meaning there are more case-carrying practitioners than ever before. In the most recent budget alone $14 million was invested to continue programs that support the frontline workforce, including kinship engagement coordinators, Aboriginal cultural support and awareness advisers and specialist litigation support.

For children in residential care our Labor government has delivered the largest single investment in care services in a decade, with $548 million to improve outcomes and ensure that from July this year every residential care home in Victoria is funded to deliver a therapeutic model of care. That means trauma-informed support, specialist expertise and care that responds to behaviour with understanding rather than punishment.

Whole-of-government action is already removing barriers for families. Parents pursuing reunification are now recognised as a priority cohort for public housing, because without stable housing reunification becomes very, very hard. Programs like pathway to good health ensure children entering care receive coordinated health assessments, and referral education support for children in care provides one-on-one tutoring for those at risk of disengaging in school. These are practical examples of what happens when governments rally around families in the moments that matter most.

That same focus runs through our key Labor reforms to ease pressure on families and strengthen the foundations that children rely on. Free public transport removes a simple but very real barrier, helping young people get to where they need to go, whether that is training, school, appointments or community. Free kinder takes the pressure off household budgets but also gives children those crucial early years of learning that are fundamental to their development, and it helps parents stay connected to services and their communities. School breakfast clubs mean children do not start their days on an empty stomach. Locally in the Northcote electorate we are building an early parenting centre – another key feature and Labor reform to help parents in those early years. We have opened an urgent care clinic in Northcote too, giving direct access to our healthcare system. We also recently opened a mental health and wellbeing hub in Northcote – another critical feature of a system that supports people when they are in need. Together, these and many other everyday supports reinforce routines and stability and give children the chance for that best start.

Importantly, this bill also responds directly to the findings of the Yoorrook Justice Commission. Yoorrook was clear that one of the greatest barriers to better outcomes for Aboriginal children and families is the failure of government systems to act together, early and with accountability. It emphasised the need for shared responsibility across government, stronger early intervention, culturally safe practice and transparent monitoring of outcomes. The bill does not do everything in that space, but it does respond to the core principles that Yoorrook identified. By embedding shared responsibility across government and requiring public plans and progress reports, we are placing outcomes for Aboriginal children and families squarely within the accountability of every single minister. This bill advances the systemic change that Yoorrook sought and that Victoria urgently needs. It stands alongside other landmark reforms already delivered, including legislation placing Aboriginal self-determination at the centre of decision-making and the largest single investment ever made in Aboriginal-led child and family services. The over-representation of Aboriginal children in care continues to be unacceptable to me and my community, and it is driven by system failure. That responsibility for change must be collective, and this bill goes some way towards addressing that collective responsibility.

In Northcote we see why these reforms matter. I hear from young people leaving care who are trying to stay connected to work and study while navigating insecure housing in particular. I speak with carers who want systems to work better together so children experience stability rather than constant disruption. This bill responds to those realities. For women, particularly single mothers, it means earlier and better coordinated access to housing and health support. It is a reform shaped by evidence, strengthened by lived experience and focused on the outcomes that matter. I commend it to the house.

 Bronwyn HALFPENNY (Thomastown) (18:47): I am also speaking in support of the Children, Youth and Families Amendment (Supporting Stable and Strong Families) Bill 2025. This is a bill, as has been said by others, that seeks to amend the Children, Youth and Families Act 2005 to facilitate better coordination and collaboration between and across government departments to support vulnerable children and their families. We often hear criticism of the bureaucracy, that different departments operate in silos, resulting in inefficiencies and acting as barriers to good outcomes. This has been said of the child protection system and family services more generally. This legislation seeks to change this so that the state works to support vulnerable children and families in a more holistic way. There have been numerous inquiries over the years into child protection and children and young people in out-of-home care. We all know that we have to do much better and we have to find new and better ways to support children and their families. Of course the most important thing is that in order to keep children safe, we need to keep children safely in their homes.

This legislative reform is one step on that journey. It provides a legal framework to improve collaboration and delivery of services while also building into the system stronger lines of accountability and producing the data to measure outcomes through parliamentary reporting. It is also therefore available to the public. The opposition got up here today and talked about all the problems and complained about the system and how bad the government is, but we do not really see them doing any of the hard work to come up with solutions; they have got no ideas. But today and every day the Allan Labor government is coming up with ideas to try to find answers and make things better for Victorians. The opposition claims this bill does not do anything to address the problems, but I think the opposition does not really know how government works, nor how important a bill such as this is. It builds in accountability, with ministers required to report to Parliament and develop plans. It includes measuring outcomes to clearly show what is working and what is not. It also includes establishing mechanisms to listen to and involve those with lived experience.

The main purpose of this bill is to ensure that services and supports are provided early to families and children so children can safely stay in their homes and not be removed into out-of-home care. Enabling early intervention is a point that has been raised over and over by many who know that we need to do this in order to make the outcomes for vulnerable children the best they can be. Timely intervention to support and preserve and reunify the family is critical in this process, because children want to be with their families, they should be with their families and we need to make sure that those families get the support to fulfil their obligations and responsibilities to their children.

This legislative reform is based in part on a model developed in Scotland that is deemed to have been quite successful. Whilst the Victorian legislation, the legislation we are talking about here, does not adopt all of that program, it has taken the aspects that have been shown to work and added additional safeguards and reporting channels. This legislation has been advocated for by a number of organisations that are involved in the rights and care of children, such as Anglicare and also the Centre for Excellence in Child and Family Welfare. The lived-experience voice will also be heard and has been heard within the development of this legislation through the ministerial youth advisory group. They have been consulted, and they will also be involved in the implementation of this legislation all the way through. There is a legislative aspect that also brings in the role of the Children’s Services Coordination Board, and that board will support the administration of this scheme – the holistic, all-of-government approach – and will be prescribing the outcome measures to ensure clear data and to establish if progress has been made.

This legislation and other reforms are about keeping children safely with their families. Previous opposition speakers, as I have already spoken about, have repeatedly given the most terrible accounts of what has happened to children in out-of-home care, and nobody is disputing there have been terrible experiences, but, while serious, they are not the point of this debate or this bill. This bill is about stopping and preventing children going into out-of-home care – and therefore not being in situations to have those terrible experiences – and ensuring that the families are supported and the children can stay at home, where they normally want to be, no matter the circumstances. It is the government’s responsibility to ensure that a child is safe, to support the family in order to preserve the family being together and also – in cases where there have been children removed from the home – to ensure they have a process and the necessary supports in order to bring that family back together.

There are a couple of other parts of this bill that I would just like to touch on briefly in the short time I have left. I think other speakers might be happy if I sit down a little bit early so they can also make a contribution. At new section 20Q there is a requirement for the minister to cause an independent statutory review of the supporting stable and strong families scheme to be undertaken within a five-year period. Again, we are not just sitting here saying this is the be-all and end-all. It is also building into the program and scheme a way of reviewing how the scheme is working and what is going well and what is not. That is required, under the legislation, to be undertaken within a five-year period. So there is accountability built into this scheme, with a review by an independent body to ensure that the scheme is working. We certainly want to make sure that we are improving the child protection system. There are also measures that have not been there before in terms of looking at the outcomes, looking at what is working and what is not and making sure that we are reforming this system and ensuring that it is good for families and for their children.

 Paul MERCURIO (Hastings) (18:54): I rise to speak on the Children, Youth and Families Amendment (Supporting Stable and Strong Families) Bill 2025. I want to begin with the simple principle at the heart of this reform: when a child is vulnerable, when a family is in crisis or when a young person is navigating trauma and uncertainty, the response they receive should not depend on which government department they happen to approach first. It should not depend on whether they knock on the door of housing or health or education or justice. The response should be coordinated, consistent and focused on helping early, not waiting until things deteriorate further. That is what this bill is about. It is about that response being coordinated, consistent and focused.

There have been a lot of debate and a lot of things said in the chamber, and I am lucky last. I am not sure if there is anything new I can say, but I will repeat the statement by the member for Werribee that it takes a village to raise a child. I completely agree with that. Somebody on the other side actually used the quote that everybody’s job is nobody’s job, and that is a bit of a negative view. I think that the more people that are thinking, caring and working together, the more chances we have of stopping people from slipping through the cracks and being lost. That is why I support this bill. I do note that everyone supports the bill, and the discussion is how it is going to be implemented to some extent.

But what I love about this bill is that under this change every minister, every department head and the Chief Commissioner of Victoria Police become partners in improving outcomes for at-risk children and families. To me that is ‘It takes a village to raise a child.’ I might just say it again: under this change every minister, every department head and the Chief Commissioner of Victoria Police become partners in improving outcomes for at-risk children and families. This is a meaningful shift. It recognises that the resources, powers and influence that sit across portfolios can and should be aligned in the interests of vulnerable children. It moves us away from a model where one part of government carries the burden and towards one where responsibility is shared and visible.

We have already seen the benefits of cross-government collaboration. A practical example is recognising parents who are pursuing family reunification as a priority cohort under the Victorian housing register. That might sound administrative, but it makes a real difference. Stable and appropriate housing is often the critical factor that enables parents to address protective concerns and safely resume caring responsibilities. Without a stable home, reunification is significantly more difficult. With one, families have a far stronger chance of rebuilding. There are other examples. The pathway to good health program ensures that children and young people entering or re-entering statutory care receive health screening, assessment and referral support. In education, the education supports for children in care program provides one-on-one tutoring to help young people who are disengaged or at risk of disengaging from school. Even policies such as free public transport for those under 18 can play an important role in enabling access to school, training, appointments and work. These initiatives demonstrate what is possible when portfolios work together.

I just recently had an experience with my daughter, who was trying to purchase a new phone. She is unwell, she cannot work and she went to the phone company to talk about getting a phone. They basically said, ‘You can’t get one; you don’t earn the money. We won’t give you the loan.’ It made me realise that our society tends to make poor people poorer consistently, and it is the poor people and the people that are having difficulties that we as a community should be picking up. We as a community should be supporting the people that are disenfranchised and disabled with technology and what is going on in this community.

Business interrupted under sessional orders.