Carers Victoria welcomes the Allan Government’s recent release of the Victorian Carers Strategy 2025-2035 and the opportunities this presents to drive life-changing improvements for Victoria’s carers. For too long, carers have been overlooked and that needs to change.
Our pre-election policy platform outlines policy, program and funding priorities to deliver on the vision set out in the refreshed strategy.
Carers Victoria is committed to continuing to advance understanding of Victoria’s unpaid carers and improving their access to assistance across the state – regardless of who they are, where they live, or who they care for.
We look forward to working with carers, government, sector partners, employers, schools and the entire Victorian community to achieve a different and better future for Victorian carers where they feel recognised, included and supported.
In the lead up to the 2026 State Election, Carers Victoria is calling for action that recognises that Carers Count.
The Carers Victoria platform sets out five point plan to address key pressure points experienced by carers:
More than 750,000 Victorians are unpaid carers, and that number is growing rapidly.
Every year, carers collectively provide over 500 million hours of care with an economic replacement value over $18 billion each year – about the same as what the state spends on health care.
Just imagine for a moment where we would be without all that care. Our already stretched GPs and hospital emergency departments would be critically impacted. Our paramedics and nurses, who are already in short supply, would be at higher risk of burnout.
And our regional areas would feel these impacts even more.
Many carers in Victoria pay a big cost for caring, and recent data tells us loud and clear that they are struggling.
Struggling to make ends meet financially, particularly when their care role means they can’t sustain paid employment.
Struggling with the health and psychological impacts of their caring role, with rates of reported poor mental health almost 4 times those of the general population.
Struggling to find the information and help they and the people in their care relationships need in systems that ar constantly changing and increasingly pushing more of the care back onto them.
And struggling to be included and recognised.
Carers in growth corridors and rural Victoria are a particular focus of our asks, as are multicultural and First Nations carers.
Our platform is a combination of funding, policy and program asks that will deliver practical benefits for Victoria’s carers. It recognises that carers count, as a mission critical part of our
community.
We are not asking parliamentarians to do this alone – our platform sets out initiatives that will leverage and engage a wide range of partners alongside Carers Victoria’s resources, so that together, we can recognise, include and support carers – wherever they live, whoever they are, and whoever they care for.
