Wednesday, 15 October 2025

 Anasina GRAY-BARBERIO (Northern Metropolitan) (09:57): Tomorrow, after 25 years of dedicated service to Victorian parents and carers, the state’s only confidential counselling phone line support service Parentline is shutting its doors permanently, all thanks to a decision made by this Labor government. With an annual budget of just $1.3 million, Parentline has supported up to 18,000 families a year. It has been a lifeline for so many. For a service with such a small budget, its impact across our communities has been far reaching. We have heard in this chamber from the Minister for Children that this Labor government has ‘doubled the funding to family services, increasing that funding to over $446 million’, yet it refuses to allocate less than $2 million to a service that is clearly needed by Victorian families. This is shameful at a time when evidence shows rising rates of adolescent depression and anxiety, compounded by ongoing education challenges and the lasting impacts of COVID-19. If achieving better outcomes for children in Victoria is truly a priority for this government, then it must also prioritise the parents and carers who support and care for them every day. The decision to close Parentline must be reversed, and my Victorian Greens colleague Kat Copsey and the community have a petition to reverse this ill-conceived decision.