Tuesday, 28 October 2025

 Nick McGOWAN (North-Eastern Metropolitan) (12:27): My question is to the Minister for Children. Minister, there are recent reports on both the ABC and in the Age in respect to the payments made to foster carers. In fact, foster carers have been blindsided by the government’s announcement in this respect – that is, that they have slashed the allowances that foster carers receive. It was up to $100 a day, and without notice or explanation that has now been decreased, in some cases down to $34 a day, to care for children who require around-the-clock therapeutic support, specialist medical appointments and trauma-informed care. How does the government explain these drastic cuts that are forcing experienced carers to potentially walk away from the system and leaving vulnerable children without stable homes?

 Lizzie BLANDTHORN (Western Metropolitan – Minister for Children, Minister for Disability) (12:28): I thank Mr McGowan for his question, and I also take this opportunity to thank our carers for the amazing work that they do – both our kinship carers and our foster carers – particularly in a system that is very heavily weighted towards kinship care. They are an important part of our system, and they are highly valued. In response to the specific allegations of those opposite and indeed those that were aired on the ABC, I can assure the house that there has been no change to the policy. There has been no cut to the allowances.

David Davis interjected.

Lizzie BLANDTHORN: There has been no change to the policy and there has been no cut to the allowances, Mr Davis. What I can tell the house is that care allowance levels vary based on the age and needs of a child. They can be reassessed as a child’s needs change, and they can be reassessed up as well as reassessed down. But there has not been any change either in the funding available for the care allowance or in the distribution policy that goes with the care allowance.

What I would say to members of this house – and we have asked the same of the ABC – is that if they have specific examples or specific concerns in relation to specific families and children, then we would appreciate seeing them and hearing them so that they can be adequately addressed and, if necessary, reassessed. But we have not changed the policy and we have not changed the funding available.

In addition to the base allowance we have subsequent allowances, and these are for new placements. The new placement allowance for level 1 allowance placements is for the first six months. That is an additional allowance. We have education assistance payments, which is a payment per year until a child is 18 to assist with meeting the educational costs of children in care. We have client expenses funding, which is also available to help cover the costs for extraordinary expenses. There are also many other ways in which we support and value our carers, be they foster carers or kinship carers. We have not –

David Davis interjected.

Lizzie BLANDTHORN: Mr Davis, I say it again: we have not cut the funding and we have not changed the policy.

Sonja Terpstra: On a point of order, President, Mr Davis was aggressively pointing, and I ask that he not aggressively point. Also, President, on the noise level coming from those opposite, I am sitting behind the minister and I cannot hear her answer. I would ask that those constant interjections be deemed unruly and that they should cease and allow the minister to continue her answer in silence.

The PRESIDENT: I uphold the point of order and call the house to order.

Lizzie BLANDTHORN: Thank you very much, President; I appreciate that. Again, for the benefit of the house and for the benefit of those who may not have been able to hear, there has been no change to the carer allowance policy. We provide allowances for children and families. I ask and I invite any member of this house to speak with me about a particular issue that they might have about a particular individual or family, and we are more than happy to follow that through for them. I am also more than happy to repeat as necessary – although the clock may not permit me – all of the additional allowances that we have on top of the base allowances. Where I was up to was that I was about to talk about the many other ways in which we support carers in our system. Indeed the 2024–25 state budget provided $38 million for improving outcomes for children and young people in home-based care, including funding for continuing the highly successful care support help desk.

 Nick McGOWAN (North-Eastern Metropolitan) (12:31): I thank the minister for her answer. Minister, it is not just the ABC and the Age who have reported this, it is also the Foster Care Association of Victoria and in particular the CEO Samantha Hauge. She said that she was concerned that ‘reduced payments risked a further decline in the number of carers able to support children with high-level needs’. Does the minister commit to ensuring that any parents who have been reduced from level 4 or 5 and put on level 1 will have that immediately reviewed with a view to restoring it to level 4 or 5, given that, as the minister rightly says, the children are assessed both on their age and their needs?

 Lizzie BLANDTHORN (Western Metropolitan – Minister for Children, Minister for Disability) (12:32): I thank Mr McGowan for his supplementary question. As in my substantive answer, I invite any member of the house and I invite anybody – including Ms Hauge from the Foster Care Association of Victoria, to whom I am absolutely indebted to for the work that she does to support foster carers, and the kinship carers association – to advocate on behalf of a family to the department and certainly to me. If there are individual cases of concern to any member in this place, then I invite them to raise them with me. But I do assure the house and I do assure the community and the relevant stakeholders that there has been no change to the policy.