Thursday, 30 July 2026

 Lizzie BLANDTHORN (Western Metropolitan – Minister for Children, Minister for Disability) (14:22): I rise to update the house about our maternal and child health services in Victoria. Maternal and child health has been a joint commitment between local and state government for over 100 years, but regrettably certain regional councils are walking away from this commitment. It is a serious matter which they will need to justify to their communities. However, nothing they have said to date has been particularly convincing. Indeed today we saw the City of Greater Bendigo council implying that its decision to abandon mums and babies is not about funding. Perhaps this is about council’s priorities – $9 million for an art gallery, less than $1 million for maternal child health services. To correct the record, in 2025–26 we provided the City of Greater Bendigo more than $2 million for maternal child health, and since 2014 we have increased funding for maternal child health services from $62.3 million in 2014 to $213.6 million in the 2025–26 financial year. This represents more than a 200 per cent increase over our time in government. It is particularly disappointing as I recently met with the Municipal Association of Victoria and discussed opportunities for MCH reform. I know the member for Bendigo East has been working closely with council about this issue since February, and the Department of Health has been working closely with regional and metropolitan local governments, the Municipal Association of Victoria, the Australian Nursing and Midwifery Federation and the Murdoch Children’s Research Institute to examine the best approach to the delivery of this vital service to local families, again recognising that this needs to be a partnership approach.

I know that there are further enhancements we need to make to our maternal and child health system, and our government is delivering them. As I have recently announced, Thriving Kids will bring together Victoria’s maternal child health system with our early childhood education system for children from birth to eight. This is because we know that families do not work in silos and neither should government. This work is progressing swiftly, and we will continue to work closely with our local government partners and stakeholders to ensure that consistent delivery of these critical services for families continues. The Victorian maternal and child health system is the envy of the nation, and despite councils like Bendigo – (Time expired)