Election Priorities

Continue $72 million in lapsing funding for ACCOs beyond June 2027.

​

ACCOs play a vital role in supporting Aboriginal children, young people and families across Victoria from early intervention right through to care services. 

​

However, ACCOs are facing a devastating funding cliff next year when $72 million in lapsing Victorian Government funding for ACCO child and family services is due to expire on 30 June 2027. This funding supports critical Aboriginal-led programs and services, including family services, family preservation and Aboriginal Children in Aboriginal Care (ACAC). These services support families when they need an extra helping hand, and keep kids safe when times are tough at home.   

​

If allowed to lapse, this funding cliff would force ACCOs to turn away hundreds of families, leaving many Aboriginal children and families without access to culturally safe support when they need it most.

​

  Funding certainty is essential to maintain these services and the progress they have helped deliver. Without it, ACCOs will lose skilled staff to more secure work and can’t plan for the future or maintain the trusted relationships that effective service delivery relies on. For children and families already accessing these services, this can mean disruption to the consistent support and relationships they rely on. This is why we’re asking all parties to commit now to continuing this funding. Long-term funding certainty makes sure families can get the support they need and allows ACCOs to focus on what matters most: delivering better outcomes for Aboriginal children, young people and families. 

​

We are calling on all political parties to commit to making this $72 million in lapsing funding for ACCO-led child and family services ongoing beyond 30 June 2027. 

Put self-determination into practice.

​

Aboriginal communities are best placed to design and deliver to the needs of Aboriginal children, young people and families. 

​

Strengthening Aboriginal community control means ensuring ACCOs have the authority, resources and opportunities to lead the design and delivery of services for their communities. Continuing this transition is critical to building a child and family services system that is culturally strong, responsive and grounded in the needs of Aboriginal families. 

​

For too long, funding for Aboriginal-led solutions and services has not kept pace with the need for culturally safe and tailored responses in Aboriginal communities. Strong commitment and investment is needed to expand Aboriginal-led approaches across the system and support the transfer of services and resources to Aboriginal community control. 

​

We are calling on all political parties to commit to: 

• supporting the transfer of resources from mainstream community services organisations to ACCOs, to ensure Aboriginal families can access Aboriginal services. 

• piloting Aboriginal-led models of Residential, Foster and Kinship care 

Strengthen early intervention and prevention

​

Aboriginal children and families should be able to access culturally safe support early, before challenges escalate and statutory intervention is required. ACCOs provide a safe, community-centred space for this support, strengthening identity and culture while connecting families to help and services.  

​

Aboriginal-led family preservation, early intervention and family services help keep families together, strengthen parenting skills, support healing and address challenges before they escalate. They can reduce the need for child protection intervention while helping children remain safely connected to family, culture and community.  

​

 Investing in early intervention helps keep families together and reduces the need for more intensive and expensive interventions later – it costs $346 per night to support a child in care in Victoria, money that could be saved if families are supported early to stay together and provide a safe home for their children.  

​

In Victoria, the rate of Aboriginal children in out of home care continues to rise, blowing out the cost of care services while successive governments neglect the need to invest in the early supports that would change the tide. A stronger focus on prevention and early intervention is critical to turning this around and creating lasting change for Aboriginal children and families. 

​

We are calling on all political parties to commit to prioritising and investing in early intervention and prevention. 

​

Build a strong and sustainable ACCO sector

​

A strong Aboriginal community-controlled sector is essential to delivering better outcomes for Aboriginal children, young people and families. 

​

ACCOs need sustainable funding that reflects the true cost of delivering services, recognises their cultural responsibilities and provides the certainty needed to plan, retain a skilled workforce and build long-term organisational capability. 

​

ACCOs work hard every day to ensure that they are delivering quality services and meeting their communities’ needs. But piecemeal program funding often fails to cover the core costs of delivering services, leaving ACCOs to scramble and scrimp to support their staff and the families they work with.  

​

Governments rely on committed and generous carers to keep children safe but fail to cover the costs of caring, let alone recognise the love and care foster and kinship carers put into their roles. Victoria has the lowest minimum weekly foster care allowance rate in the country at just $231, despite the cost of caring for a child being estimated at $850 a week to meet basic needs. 

​

A system as critical as this should not rely on the goodwill of ACCOs and carers to ensure children are safe and have their basic needs met.  

​

Aboriginal young people leaving care face a service cliff when significant support is cut off at 18, leaving them at significant risk of homelessness. A system designed to keep young people safe can leave them with nothing when they exit care, because services aren’t resourced to continue to support young people to independence.  

​

A sustainable sector must be built on a stable foundation – five-year funding agreements are essential to ensure ACCOs can plan for the future and focus on achieving outcomes rather than annual funding cycles.  

​

We are calling on the next Victorian Government to act in its first year to: 

• address the true cost of service delivery 

• Recognise and invest in the cultural work undertaken by ACCOs 

• transition ACCOs to long-term funding stability through five-year funding agreements. 

• address shortfalls in support for carers 

• implement the recommendations of the care leavers system review 

Support a strong, independent voice for Aboriginal children and young people 

​

The systems that affect Aboriginal children and young people need strong, culturally informed and independent oversight. 

​

Enshrining the Commissioner for Aboriginal Children and Young People in legislation would provide an independent voice focused on their rights, interests and needs. It would strengthen accountability across government and help drive systemic change by providing oversight and shining a light on systemic outcomes across the children and families and youth justice systems. 

​

Aboriginal children and young people have been failed by successive governments. Aboriginal children and young people continue to be overrepresented in out of home care and youth justice, despite years of dedicated focus under Closing the Gap. An independent Aboriginal Commissioner with legislated powers to initiate inquiries would be able to examine the systems and services set up to protect them and make sure they are doing so.   

​

We are calling on all political parties to commit to legislating the Commissioner for Aboriginal Children and Young People.

​

Stay the course set by Aboriginal communities

​

Victoria has already laid important foundations for reform. 

​

Significant commitments have already been made to advance Aboriginal self-determination and improve outcomes for Aboriginal children, young people and families. Programs such as Aboriginal Children in Aboriginal Care (ACAC) are actively shifting decision-making for Aboriginal children to their communities, improving outcomes over time as the program grows in scale.  

​

These reforms have come about through significant community and government investment into identifying what works and scaling it.  

​

The next Victorian Government has a responsibility to build on this work and ensure existing commitments and effort are translated into meaningful sustained action. 

​

Reform requires more than commitments on paper. It requires sustained action, accountability, partnership and investment.  

​

We are calling on all political parties to commit to honouring and implementing existing commitments to Aboriginal communities, including: 

• Treaty 

• the recommendations of the Yoorrook Justice Commission 

• Wungurilwil Gapgapduir: Aboriginal Children and Families Agreement