The Victorian government handed down its budget for 2024-25 on Tuesday, with politicians saying cost-of-living pressures for families have been prioritised.
Other big announcements include a delay to the Airport Rail link for at least four years and $8.8 billion being invested over five years into upgrading major hospitals.
It’s the first budget from Victorian premier Jacinta Allan and it looks to have stalled major projects and key government promises as it attempts to rein in the state’s spiralling debt. Allan has said the budget strikes a responsible balance without taking “the economic momentum out of the economy”.
The budget faces a $2.2 billion deficit this financial year but is projected to return to a surplus of $1.5 billion by 2025-26.
Here’s a rundown of how women in Victoria will be affected by this latest budget.
Domestic violence
In the wake of Australia’s current crisis of male violence, 28 women’s lives have been taken by violence, according to Destroy the Joint.
Victoria has been particularly devastated by the recent deaths of Samantha Murphy, Hannah McGuire and Rebecca Young around the regional town of Ballarat, where rally’s and vigils have called for immediate action.
The government has announced it will provide $21 million in initiatives to help keep women and children safe, including intervention to prevent family violence, and assistance for survivors.
There’s a commitment of $39 million over four years for the continued delivery of Respectful Relationships Education in schools as well.
Victoria’s peak body for specialist family violence services supporting victim survivors in the state, Safe + Equal has said it’s pleased the budget didn’t include cuts anticipated by the sector, with $72 million of lapsing funding uplifts continued for a further two years.
“While this extension is indeed a welcome relief, short-term, piecemeal funding does not provide the security needed for frontline family violence services, which are experiencing higher levels of demand than ever before,” Safe + Equal said, in a statement.
We remain hopeful for an enduring, comprehensive approach to addressing family violence that includes continued investment into primary prevention, enhanced focused on early intervention, permanent uplift for crisis services and long-term recovery support for adult and child victim survivors.”
Further announcement will be made from the Victorian Government off the back of recent National Cabinet discussions and meetings between the Premier and specialist service sectors.
Housing
A recent analysis found that employed women are quickly becoming the face of homelessness in Victoria, as they account for 70 per cent of employed people seeking homelessness services.
The analysis also shows women account for 58 per cent of the total number of people, employed or not, seeking assistance from homelessness services in Victoria.
To help address rental stress, the government has allocated $8 million. And on the other side of the housing equation, $700 million is going into the state’s first home-owning scheme, which is a shared equity scheme where the government helps people with housing deposits.
Education
One of the big ticket items on the budget is a $400 credit for every one of the 700,000 students attending government schools. This allocation is set to support parents struggling with cost of living, and a leading advocate for Australian families, The Parenthood, has called it “a welcome relief”.
The government will also triple the size of its Glasses for Kids program. The budget gives $6.8 million to support the program offering free eye tests and glasses for public school students.
The budget will also extend its $200 voucher program to support eligible Victorian students to play sport, with a $6m investment in the next financial year.
Running for about a year now, Victoria has a Free Kinder program that began in most state centres in 2023.
Under the scheme, the government provides 15 hours of four-year-old kinder a week, and 5-15 hours of three-year-old kinder a week. This was said to increase to 30 hours a week for four-year-old kinder from 2026, but the latest budget reveals this has now been delayed to 2032.
Victoria is also in the process of building 50 new state government-owned and operated early learning centres, but the budget also reveals the construction of some of those centres has been delayed.
Women’s health
The budget has allocated $18.3 million over two years for Women’s Health Services in Victoria.
Out of this total, $1.49 million has been given to the Multicultural Centre for Women’s Health (MCWH) to support migrant and refugee women, gender diverse and non-binary people across the state accessing in-language health education and gender equity programs.
Women and girls born overseas in a main non-English speaking country (MNESC) make up 25.8 per cent of Victoria’s female population, and MCWH is Victoria’s only migrant and refugee women’s health service.
While MCWH applauds the budget for delivering “in a tight fiscal environment”, the organisation has said additional investments are still needed.
The organisation also says it is disappointed to see the Victorian Government’s Sick Pay Guarantee program come to an end as the initiative extended sick pay entitlements to casually employed workers, many of whom are migrant and refugee women.
“While Victoria continues to lead the nation in measures for gender equality and in commitments to improving women’s health, many policies, services and investments still leave migrant and refugee women behind”, said Dr Adele Murdolo, MCWH’s CEO.