Health, Education & Safety
Health, education and safety are the services our community relies on every day. In each, I’m focused on the systems behind the problems, not just their symptoms. Where the federal and Victorian governments share responsibility, that means getting them working together.
This is where I stand and what I’ll push for:
Health
Ending the cost-shift
The upgrade we were promised
Our health system suffers from the split in responsibilities between the federal and Victorian governments. The federal government is responsible for GPs, aged care and the NDIS, while Victoria runs our public hospitals and community and mental health services.
When federal government support falls short, it becomes harder to see a GP, especially one that bulk bills, which means more people turning up to emergency departments.
The same thing happens with “stranded patients”. These are patients who no longer need hospital care but can’t get the aged care or NDIS supports they need to leave hospital safely. Because of shortages in federal supports, Victoria ends up providing more expensive supports to these patients.
In both cases, the cost shifts onto Victoria and resources are diverted away from patients who require hospital care.
Our community was promised a redeveloped Maroondah Hospital in 2018. It’s time we got on with delivering it.
My priorities are:
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Working with other states to recover the cost of stranded patients from the federal government.
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Advocating for a full commitment to the redevelopment of Maroondah Hospital.
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Piloting urgent care clinics inside the emergency department at Maroondah Hospital.
Education
A good education for every child
Funding according to need
Our national funding model is needs-based and calculated per student. Under the schooling resource standard, each student receives an average amount towards the cost of their education, with extra financial support based on need.
This was recommended by the Gonski review in 2011, but Victorian public schools aren’t projected to reach full funding until 2034. By then, two generations of students will have finished school. This funding also doesn’t cover major capital works, so it won’t go towards the building and facility upgrades our public schools need.
The funding model seeks to address educational disadvantage by providing additional funding for students with greater needs. However, there’s no guarantee the extra funding reaches the students who need it most. Under the Better and Fairer Schools Agreement, Victoria is expected to allocate increased federal funding to schools with the highest needs.
Australia has one of the most segregated schooling systems in the OECD. Nationally, 80 per cent of the most disadvantaged students, 78 per cent of students living with a funded disability and 85 per cent of Indigenous students are educated in state schools. Our public schools are doing the heavy lifting, but the funding doesn’t always flow to where the need is.
My priorities are:
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Accelerated delivery of 100 per cent of the schooling resource standard for Victorian public schools.
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An equity target for Victorian schools, to close the gap between advantaged and disadvantaged students.
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A review of funding to all Victorian schools, so it flows on the basis of enrolments and need.
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Prioritising upgrades for high-needs schools, and a strategy for ongoing investment that keeps pace with need.
Community Safety
Everyone safe, everywhere
Preventing crime before it starts
When it comes to crime, we seem to be talking past one another. Some people are concerned by the level of crime, while others point to data demonstrating crime is low and falling.
What the conversation on crime is lacking is what we as a community actually want – everyone to be safe whether they are out in the community or in their own homes. Focusing on this will lead to a conversation on how we get to where we want to go.
Crime is complex, with many contributing factors, and I’m concerned by how siloed the conversation is – if you can explain your crime policy in a three- to five-word slogan, you’re doing more harm than good.
People who are locked up are likely to reoffend, and often more seriously, so focusing too heavily on the criminal justice system actually makes our communities less safe over time. It’s always cheaper and more effective to prevent something than to respond once it’s happened, which is why my focus is on early intervention.
If our aspiration as a community is to be safer, both now and into the future, our focus must be on addressing the contributing factors to crime.
My priorities are:
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Supporting proposals to increase policing numbers.
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Keeping the Victorian Violence Reduction Unit running and exploring opportunities to expand early intervention.
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Introducing minimum justice standards in youth detention, as recommended by the Senate Inquiry into Australia’s Youth Justice and Incarceration System.
Men's violence & women's safety
A problem men can help solve
Acting on what we already know
Violence in our community is overwhelmingly committed by men. About 85 per cent of homicide offenders in Australia are men, and in Victoria more than four in five family violence offenders recorded by police are men.
Family violence is a major part of the problem. Victoria Police recorded more than 102,000 family violence incidents in the year to June 2026, and while that’s down slightly on the year before, it’s still about one incident every five minutes. In the year to March 2025, three in four of the people affected were women and girls, and children were present at about one in three incidents. One in four Australian women has experienced violence from a current or former partner since the age of 15. Alcohol is involved in up to 47 per cent of police-reported family violence incidents across Australia. It’s no excuse for violence, but it is a major risk factor.
But violence against women isn’t confined to the home. One in five women has experienced sexual violence since the age of 15. Reports of sexual violence to police reached their highest level in 33 years in 2024, and almost six in ten recorded sexual assaults were committed by someone other than a partner or family member.
That makes violence a men’s problem, and one men can help solve. We don’t need another inquiry, because we already have the reports. The National Commissioner’s September report says investment isn’t yet delivering the change needed, and calls for earlier intervention. What’s missing is action.
Alcohol is a major risk factor in family violence, and home delivery makes it easy to get. Victoria already bans deliveries after 11pm and to people who are intoxicated, but a 2026 Monash University and Turning Point survey found four in 10 of the Victorians surveyed had received a delivery while intoxicated. South Australia has just legislated a 10am to 10pm delivery window and a two-hour pause between order and delivery.
My priorities are:
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Targeting new investment at early intervention, including programs that engage boys and men before violence starts.
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Strengthening alcohol home delivery rules, by enforcing and testing the current ones and looking at South Australia’s delivery window and two-hour pause.
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Acting on the National Commissioner’s recommendations and those of earlier inquiries, and publishing progress against them.
If you or someone you know is experiencing family violence, call 1800RESPECT on 1800 737 732, or Triple Zero (000) in an emergency. If you’re concerned about your own behaviour, the Men’s Referral Service is 1300 766 491.
Sources:
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Sources: Australian Institute of Criminology, Homicide in Australia 2024–25; ABS, Recorded Crime – Offenders 2024–25;
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ABS, Personal Safety, Australia 2021–22;
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Crime Statistics Agency Victoria;
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Domestic, Family and Sexual Violence Commission, Yearly Report to Parliament 2026;
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FARE and La Trobe University, Alcohol’s harm to others in Australia (2025);
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Monash University and Turning Point (2026).