Andrews government pledges more support for new families ahead of upcoming election

The sitting Victorian Government has pledged further support for new families ahead of the upcoming State election, to be held on 26 November, promising to invest $69 million to help parents when their babies are born – including more access to free Maternal and Child Health (MCH) services, new Early Parenting Centres, and additional support for multicultural and Indigenous communities.

Parents will be supported by MCH nurses with the “what’s next?” after birth, based on feedback from new parents about their experiences. 

Free consultations will be increased to eight hours worth of appointments to allow parents more time to ask questions and get advice. 

If re-elected, the Government will also spend $4 million to fund free appointments with midwives and nurses who are trained to provide lactation consultations, to help women through the challenges of latching and establishing milk supply. 

Ten early parenting centres will be built or upgraded, supported by a $148 million investment to help families with issues such as sleep and settling, child behaviour, and health and wellbeing for children and parents.

An Early Parenting Centre to support Aboriginal families and their children will be built in Frankston, and multicultural story times will be delivered across Victoria to boost children’s connection to their heritage and culture, enabling councils and community groups to set up reading sessions at up to 60 locations in places like libraries and community centres, in addition to language schools for kids in up to five in languages like Hindi, Punjabi, Bengali, Arabic, Vietnamese, Mandarin, Italian and Greek.

$2 million was pledged to create more fathers groups across the state, to provide more opportunities for dads to feel supported and connected in a peer-to-peer setting, to be distributed by local councils via a grants process with a focus on creating new after-hours dads groups and to support existing dads groups.

“Every family is different, but what is universal is how a new baby will completely change your life. We’ll help parents feel supported and connected in those early weeks and months,” Premier Andrews said.