2026 Victorian State Election Platform

About Disabled People’s Organisations Victoria

Disabled People’s Organisations Victoria (DPOV) is an open collective of disability led organisations and groups. We champion disability rights, disability leadership and self-determination for people with disability.

Disabled People’s Organisations (DPOs) are organisations made up of, led by and governed by people with disability. Consistent with the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD), we speak for ourselves: nothing about us, without us.

With the Victorian state election on 28 November 2026, DPOV calls on all candidates and parties to commit to the asks in this platform. These asks have been developed by disability led organisations, drawing directly on the lived experience and expertise of people with disability across Victoria.

This election comes at a critical moment. The Commonwealth has legislated changes that will move many people with disability off the NDIS and onto state systems and foundational supports that do not yet exist. The Disability Royal Commission’s recommendations remain substantially unimplemented in Victoria, and people with disability continue to experience violence, exclusion and the denial of basic rights in systems the state controls. The next Victorian Government will decide whether people with disability are heard and supported, or spoken about and left behind.

DPOV calls on the next Victorian Government to make the following commitments.

Ask 1: NDIS and Foundational Supports

On 19 August 2026, the Commonwealth Parliament passed the National Disability Insurance Scheme Amendment (Securing the NDIS for Future Generations) Bill 2026, despite more than 4,500 submissions and six days of public hearings in which people with disability, Disabled People’s Organisations, advocacy groups, human rights experts, lawyers and health professionals overwhelmingly opposed the Bill. The Australian Greens and Senator David Pocock tabled dissenting reports recommending the Bill not proceed. The Act received Royal Assent on 20 August 2026, with the first changes commencing from 27 August 2026 and changes to access arrangements to follow from 2028.

The Commonwealth’s own modelling indicates that around 240,000 existing participants will leave the NDIS by 2031, with a further 110,000 people diverted from entering, to slow Scheme spending growth by $37.8 billion. Those Victorians are being asked to rely on foundational supports that do not yet exist. State and territory disability ministers told the Senate inquiry they were not yet in a position to deliver them. Victoria has signed a bilateral agreement worth $2.4 billion but has published no detail of what it will fund, or when. Whoever forms government after 28 November will carry the responsibility and the consequences.

WHAT WE ARE CALLING FOR

•    A sequencing guarantee: no Victorian loses NDIS supports until equivalent foundational supports are actually up and running here, and the next Victorian Government must push that line hard at the Disability Reform Ministerial Council and National Cabinet. The state must also be prepared to renegotiate funding for mainstream “universal” services, such as health and education, to reflect the additional demand and costs those services will carry as a result of cuts to the NDIS.

•    Continuity of support: a proper safety net for people who exit or cannot get into the Scheme, with named responsibilities across state systems. Cutting NDIS spending without alternatives in place is not saving money, it is shifting the cost.

•    Transparency: publish the bilateral agreement in full and in accessible formats, with a timeline and a breakdown of where the $2.4 billion is going. The most recent Victorian budget papers provided nothing on this.

•    Genuine co-design: people with disability and our representative organisations in the room for design and governance, consistent with the CRPD.

•    Foundational supports done properly: both the general tier (information, navigation, peer support, advocacy and capacity building) and targeted supports, delivered through Disabled People’s Organisations, advocacy organisations and Aboriginal Community-Controlled Organisations (ACCOs), not simply handed to the big NDIS providers; a clear interface with Victoria’s mental health reforms for people with psychosocial disability outside the Scheme; and services that pick up the gap left by the 50 per cent cuts to NDIS participants’ community and social participation budgets.

•    Thriving Kids ready on day one: workforce, regional coverage and culturally safe ACCO options in place from 1 October 2026, and no child left in a gap between leaving the NDIS and services being available.

•    Real investment in systemic and individual advocacy: multi-year core and demand funding for the Victorian Disability Advocacy Program (VDAP). Demand for both individual and systemic advocacy will spike through reassessments, access changes and appeals, yet the last budget extended demand funding for only twelve months.

•    Accountability: annual public reporting to Parliament on the rollout of Foundational Supports, spending, unmet need and outcomes, against indicators co-designed with people with disability.

WHY IT MATTERS

Implementation of the Commonwealth’s changes has begun and will roll out in stages, with most changes reaching participants as plans are reassessed and access changes commencing necklace from 2028. The Senate inquiry itself acknowledged community concern about standardised functional capacity assessments and tightened access definitions. When people lose NDIS supports without alternatives in place, the need does not disappear, it lands on Victorian health, education, housing, child protection and justice systems, and on people with disability, our families and carers. Victoria must not wait for the gaps to appear before acting.

Ask 2: Commit to genuine engagement with the disability community

Under Article 4(3) of the CRPD, governments must closely consult with and actively involve people with disability, through our representative organisations, in all decision-making that affects our lives. With the passage of the NDIS Amendment Act and the shift of responsibility to Victorian foundational supports and mainstream services, the decisions the next Victorian Government makes will reach into every part of the lives of people with disability. Getting those decisions right is only possible through structured, ongoing engagement with people with disability, led by the organisations we govern ourselves.

Disability led organisations bring lived experience, peer expertise and the trust of our communities. DPOV, as the open collective of Disabled People’s Organisations in Victoria, is ready to coordinate that engagement: convening DPOs across the state, providing a representative and accountable channel into government, and centring the voices of people with disability as reforms are designed and delivered.

WHAT WE ARE CALLING FOR

•    Endorse the Disability Standards for Engagement: adopt and implement the Standards as the framework for all government consultation, engagement and decision-making processes that affect people with disability, so that these processes are accessible, inclusive, respectful and rights based.

•    Fund DPOV as the coordinating body for Disabled People’s Organisations in Victoria: modest, recurrent funding would establish a standing, representative mechanism through which government can engage directly with disability led organisations, enabling the government to fulfil its obligations under the CRPD and its commitments under Australia’s Disability Strategy and Inclusive Victoria: the state disability plan.

•    Embed disability leadership in reform: involve disability led organisations and DPOV in the design, governance and evaluation of foundational supports and other major reforms from the outset, not after decisions have been made.

WHY IT MATTERS

The Victorian Government currently consults through the Victorian Disability Advisory Council, a hand-selected group of individuals, appointed by government and required to sign non-disclosure agreements. Victoria’s Disabled People’s Organisations are approached, if at all, as a tick-box exercise after decisions have been made and policy has been drafted. That is not engagement, and it does not meet the standard the CRPD requires. Government cannot fulfil its obligation to consult with people with disability through our representative organisations unless those organisations are resourced to participate.

Ask 3: Commit to a Disability Royal Commission implementation plan

The Royal Commission into Violence, Abuse, Neglect and Exploitation of People with Disability (Disability Royal Commission, or DRC) delivered its final report in September 2023, with 222 recommendations. Victoria’s response has been slow, partial and, in key areas, non-existent. People with disability in Victoria continue to face rights violations, exclusion and harm in areas where the DRC was clear that governments must act. The next Victorian Government must commit to meaningful, time-bound engagement with people with disability on the DRC recommendations that remain unaddressed at the state level.

WHAT WE ARE CALLING FOR

•    A formal commitment to engage with representatives of Disabled People’s Organisations Victoria (DPOV) and disability advocacy organisations within the first 100 days of government.

•    This engagement to focus specifically on DRC recommendations that the Victorian Government has so far ignored, deferred or provided only vague commitments to “consider further”.

•    The outcome of this process to be a disability led, publicly released implementation plan with clear timelines and accountability mechanisms.

PRIORITY AREAS FOR IMPLEMENTATION

The following are critical unresolved areas requiring immediate government commitment. The most urgent of these, reform of guardianship laws, phasing out congregate residential settings, and a specialist complaints and regulation body are addressed in detail in Asks 4, 5 and 6.

Restraint and Seclusion: End the use of restrictive practices against people with disability in all settings, in line with DRC recommendations.

Communication Rights: Recognise and resource the right of all people with disability to communicate in the way that works for them, with appropriate supports.

Right to Education: Implement the DRC’s recommendations on inclusive education, including addressing the disproportionate exclusion and suspension of students with disability.

Ask 4: Reform guardianship and decision-making legislation

The DRC recommended significant reform to guardianship and administration frameworks across Australia, to better reflect the principle of supported decision-making and the right of people with disability to exercise legal capacity, consistent with Article 12 of the CRPD.

WHAT WE ARE CALLING FOR

•    Victoria to commit to legislative reform of the Guardianship and Administration Act, consistent with DRC recommendations.

•    Reform to prioritise supported decision-making over substitute decision-making wherever possible.

•    Co-design of any legislative changes with people with disability and our representative organisations.

WHY IT MATTERS

In 2024, Victoria stated only that it would “consider” the DRC’s guardianship recommendations further. That is not good enough. The right to make decisions about your own life is fundamental. Victorians with disability are entitled to a government committed to their right to exercise legal capacity, with support where they choose it.

Ask 5: A roadmap to phase out congregate residential settings

The DRC recommended a 15-year roadmap to phase out congregate residential settings, institutions, group homes and supported residential services, and transition to person-centred, inclusive housing and support options. Victoria has made no meaningful commitment on this recommendation.

WHAT WE ARE CALLING FOR

•    Victoria to develop and publicly commit to a 15-year roadmap to phase out congregate disability accommodation, consistent with DRC recommendations.

•    The roadmap to be led by people with lived experience of institutions, group homes and supported residential services, our families, Disabled People’s Organisations and disability advocacy organisations.

•    Interim milestones, transparent reporting, and a moratorium on new congregate settings while the roadmap is developed.

WHY IT MATTERS

The DRC documented systemic abuse, neglect and rights violations in congregate settings. Continuing to invest in congregate living while people with disability are harmed within it is unconscionable. Victoria must show leadership and chart a clear course toward genuine community inclusion.

Ask 6: Establish a specialist disability complaints and regulation body.

 People with disability and our advocates currently face a fragmented, confusing landscape of complaints and regulatory bodies. The proposed transfer of disability-specific regulatory functions to the generic Social Services Regulator risks diluting disability expertise and weakening protections for people with disability.

WHAT WE ARE CALLING FOR

•    A commitment to establish, through a disability led process, a fit-for-purpose, specialist disability complaints and regulation body in Victoria.

•    As an interim measure, this body to merge the functions of the Disability Services Commissioner (DSC) and the Victorian Disability Workers Commission (VDWC).

•    The body to cover all state-funded, licensed and regulated disability supports, including DFFH-funded and TAC-funded services, not just NDIS-regulated providers.

•    Potential for the body to assist the NDIS Quality and Safeguards Commission in exercising its functions in Victoria, reducing gaps and duplication.

•    The body to be disability led and to have genuine regulatory independence, specialist disability expertise, and the capacity to conduct both individual complaint resolution and own-motion systemic investigations.

WHY IT MATTERS

A specialist regulator sends a clear signal that protecting the rights of people with disability is a serious, ongoing responsibility of the Victorian Government, not a function to be absorbed into a generic social services framework. Recent issues at facilities like Greenslopes Supported Residential Service have highlighted that current arrangements leave significant gaps, particularly for people in state-licensed disability accommodation outside the NDIS.

Ask 7: An accessible public transport system

 Accessible public transport is a precondition for everything else in this platform: education, employment, health care, community participation, belonging, and civic life. Yet Victoria is failing to deliver it and failing to meet its own legal obligations. Under the Disability Discrimination Act 1992 and the Disability Standards for Accessible Public Transport (the Transport Standards), all tram stops were required to be fully compliant by 31 December 2022, and all trams must be compliant by 31 December 2032. Victoria missed the 2022 deadline and, on current plans, will miss the 2032 deadline as well.

The Victorian Auditor-General’s follow-up report on the accessibility of tram services, tabled in November 2025, found that only 18 per cent of tram services in 2023–24 were fully accessible, a low-floor tram meeting a level-access stop, and that level-access stops had increased from just 27 per cent to 29 per cent over five years. Passengers with physical disability can wait up to half an hour longer for an accessible service or cannot travel at all. The department’s Transport Accessibility Strategic Framework, co-designed with people with disability, contains no funding commitments and no timeframes for achieving compliance. The Commonwealth has now reformed the Transport Standards; Victoria must fund and deliver compliance with them.

WHAT WE ARE CALLING FOR

•    A funded, time-bound compliance plan: a public, fully costed plan to bring Victoria’s trains, trams, buses and coaches into compliance with the reformed Transport Standards, with annual targets for level-access tram stops, accessible stations and stops, and accessible rolling stock, backed by dedicated budget funding.

•    Pair infrastructure with fleet: roll out level-access tram stops in coordination with the deployment of Next Generation and other low-floor trams, so that accessible trams and accessible stops actually meet. One without the other delivers nothing.

•    Whole-of-journey accessibility: accessible paths of travel to and from stops and stations; accessible customer information and communications, including real-time, Auslan and Easy Read formats; accessible ticketing; disability confident staff; and accessible alternatives during disruptions, including accessible rail replacement services.

•    Disability leadership and co-design: people with disability, through Disabled People’s Organisations, embedded in the governance, prioritisation and evaluation of transport accessibility programs.

•    Accountability: annual public reporting to Parliament on compliance with the Transport Standards across all modes, including spending, targets met and missed, and outcomes for passengers with disability.

WHY IT MATTERS

One in five Victorians has disability. Melbourne operates the largest tram network in the world, yet most of it still cannot be used independently by people with physical disability, more than two decades after the Transport Standards were made. Non-compliance is a daily injustice, and it is also a legal and financial risk to the state. An accessible transport system is not a favour to people with disability; it is a legal obligation and the foundation of a just and inclusive Victoria.