How are political parties responding to your interests as an older Victorian?
Council on the Ageing (COTA) Victoria and Seniors Rights Victoria is an independent, non-partisan organisation. Our aim in presenting this information is to support you to make your own assessment of proposals from each party.
This resource provides a quick guide to some of the commitments made to date by the main parties contesting the 2026 Victorian State Election that may be of interest to older Victorians – including, but not limited to, those specifically targeted to older people.
We have selected these commitments from official party platforms and authorised media announcements. You can get more information from individual party websites and check statements and costings on the Parliamentary Budget Office Election Commitment Tracker.
The list below focuses chiefly on state-wide action. If you want to know about support for local projects, watch out for statements from your local candidates or check your local council website.
Remember too that election commitments focus mainly on new initiatives rather continuation of action already under way.
As announcements are still occurring, we will update this resource before the opening of early voting on 18 November; election commitments are as of the date of this post (found at top). If you are aware of commitments we have not captured, but think we should, please email our Policy & Advocacy team.
Topics
- Health and community care
- Cost of living and energy
- Safety and crime prevention
- Housing and community amenity
- Transport
Health and community care
|
Australian Labor Party |
Liberal-National Coalition |
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Open 10 free public dental clinics and invest $12.9m to expand the public dental workforce across Victoria. Continue to implement plan to open 12 new hospitals, upgrade 40 more, and train and recruit over 40,000 nurses, midwives, doctors, and hospital staff to the public health system. Invest $53.6m more to give better support to regional patients travelling long distances to access treatment through the Victorian Patient Transport Assistance Scheme.Retain Victoria’s state-funded residential aged care network with 5,500 public beds across 153 services. |
Upgrade or build regional hospitals in Albury, West Gippsland, Goulburn Valley, Wonthaggi, Rosebud, Hamilton, and Mildura, and invest $40m in a new Rural Health Workforce Incentive Scheme. Undertake a reset of the state’s mental health reforms including a $132m Mental Health Early Access Plan and $50m Mental Health Workforce Fund. Partner with private hospitals to deliver 25,000 more elective surgeries for public patients each year at a cost of $1.27b over four years. Open up to 10 new or expanded Patient Transit Lounges to get patients out of emergency departments faster and ease ambulance ramping. |
|
Australian Greens |
One Nation |
| Create a public dental system for all Victorians investing $3b across prevention, workforce, and public clinic infrastructure. Increase spending on community health services to 3% of the overall health budget. Retain the Victorian Health Promotion Foundation (VicHealth) and invest 5% of health budget on prevention and health promotion. |
Add transitional, rehabilitation and respite capacity to free up acute beds, end chronic ambulance ramping, and reduce unnecessary hospital stays. Expand same-day surgery, hospital-in-the-home and seven-day discharge services so more Victorians get treated and go home sooner. Guarantee minimum regional services, including 24/7 emergency, maternity and surgical capacity and apply a strict Local Access Test before a specialty can be removed, downgraded, or relocated. |
Cost of living and energy
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Australian Labor Party |
Liberal-National Coalition |
|
Expand the Bring Your Bills Day initiative across the state, providing practical support to address unpaid household bills. Cut land tax by reversing the 2023 changes to land tax, restoring the threshold to a site value of $300,000 to benefit over 250,000 households. |
Reverse ban on replacing gas appliances and connections in new housing estates. Retract fines given to farmers for blocking renewable energy contractors from accessing their land. Keep Victoria’s council rate cap, scrap the emergency services tax, and return the threshold for land tax back to $300,000 (implemented over five years). |
|
Australian Greens |
One Nation |
|
Bring down power bills by establishing a public energy retailer, big build of public renewables, and $3,000 Greens Power Voucher for renters and homeowners to spend on energy upgrades. Spend $300m to build 10 government-owned supermarkets across Victoria offering essential groceries at 30% discount. Collaborate with other state governments to make seniors’ concessions consistent Australia-wide. Improve availability and affordability of insurance for senior Australians, including insurance for volunteers and travel insurance. |
Reverse the ban on gas connections in new homes and ensure that the price consumers pay is not higher than the export gas price. Abolish stamp duty on home, contents, and car insurance. Ban industrial solar, wind, battery storage, and transmission projects on land that is in a domestic water catchment supply area, irrigated, flood or bushfire prone. |
Safety and crime prevention
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Australian Labor Party |
Liberal-National Coalition |
|
Recruit an additional 1,500 police officers, together with 200 further police reservists and 150 new Protective Services Officers to patrol areas like shopping centres. Establish a $10m Local Community Safety Infrastructure Fund and a new program to intervene early to prevent violence in 17 communities most affected by youth crime. Protect victim-survivors of abuse by making it unlawful to discriminate against a person because they have experienced family violence. |
No change to age of criminal responsibility and expand adult sentencing for broader range of serious youth crime. Recruit 3,000 additional police officers and reopen more than 40 police stations. Recruit 200 more Protective Services Officers and deploy PSOs to major hospitals, high risk shopping centres and train stations. Introduce Right to Ask, Right to Know laws creating a mechanism people to find out if their partner has a known history of domestic abuse. |
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Australian Greens |
One Nation |
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Invest $1 billion in community safety with a new Office of Community Safety and Crime Prevention bringing funding for prevention and crisis outreach under one roof. Invest in helping older people to plan ahead, through enduring guardians and financial managers, advanced care directives, binding funeral, and burial instructions. Decriminalise personal use of small quantities of drugs and create a legalized regulated cannabis industry. |
Reduce administrative burdens on police, rebuild civilian support staffing, and free more police to patrol the streets. Apply mandatory minimum sentences for violent offences against police and emergency workers. Introduce a ninety-day clock for the justice system to deal with serious violent charges, and more openly publish sentencing decisions and judges’ remarks. |
Housing and community amenity
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Australian Labor Party |
Liberal-National Coalition |
|
Invest a further $860 million over five years in the Social Housing Growth Fund, intended to support more than 7,000 additional social homes over the following decade. Continue concentrating additional housing development near train and tram corridors, employment, and services. New $24.8m plan to strengthen response to rough sleeping including expanded tenancy supports to those at risk of homelessness. Implement Sustainable Data Centre Action Plan to strengthen requirements for all new data centres and capture more value for local communities. |
Scrap high-rise activity centres while expanding the Capital City Zone into targeted areas of the inner city to support housing growth. Support improved design standards that provide certainty for developers while ensuring outcomes are not incongruent with neighbourhood character. Review high rise public housing tower redevelopment and conduct an audit of vacant social housing properties. Fast track delivery of new regional housing developments in partnership with regional councils. Deliver a new Victorian Homelessness Strategy. |
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Australian Greens |
One Nation |
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Cap rent increases in line with wage growth and abolish lease break fees and establish an independent rental industry regulator. Stop demolition of 44 public housing towers, build 88,000 more public homes and expand existing public housing development with initial $4b investment. Fund a new scheme for minor home renovations, including communication technologies, to enable older people to remain in their own homes. Moratorium on all new AI data centres. |
Review every government fee, tax, and charge that adds to the cost of a new home and cut those that no longer justify themselves. Release under-used government land for housing and provide incentives to community sector and private organisations to deliver more low-cost housing. Free up granny flats and the rental of spare rooms so more of the existing housing stock is available. End land tax increases on rental and small property owners. |
Transport
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Australian Labor Party |
Liberal-National Coalition |
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Introduce a $30 a week cap on road tolls. Two-year cap on weekly public transport fares with half price $15 cap for concession holders (including seniors and carers) and retention of free weekend travel for seniors. Proceed with the Suburban Rail Loop at reduced scope, saving $2b, and progress the Airport Rail route, including the Sunshine Superhub and four new stations. |
Introduce a $50 per week toll cap for road users. Return 25 3-car V/Line trains from city to regional Victoria and 25 new hybrid electric trains for Melton and Wyndham Vale lines. Pause and review the Suburban Rail Loop project. |
|
Australian Greens |
One Nation |
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More accessible tram stops through an initial $225m investment. Cheaper electric cars and bikes, more bike lanes and better coordinated bike and scooter hire. Make public transport free for all, for good. |
Discontinue the Suburban Rail Loop project. |
Photo at top by Edmond Dantès.