Dan, Albo address Victorian Labor Conference

Daniel Andrews has rallied for support from Labor members on the Voice, the housing crisis and women’s health reforms at a packed Victorian Labor Conference in Melbourne’s inner west.

Addressing the crowd at Moonee Valley Racecourse on Saturday morning, the Premier was joined by Prime Minister Albanese on stage, who, in his own address, labelled the Victorian Liberal Party a “doomsday cult”.

Following his speech Mr Albanese announced the Federal Government’s $2b Social Housing Accelerator, promising to deliver “more than thousands” of new social housing dwellings across the nation.

The Premier called for widespread endorsement of the Voice, accusing the Liberal Party of weaponising the Referendum by portraying it as “an act of division”.

Mr Andrews also slammed Victorian Liberals for opposing the expansion of free sanitary products, such as pads and tampons, being made available at up to 700 public sites across the state.

“A lot is said about our opponents having a … problem with women,” he said.

“Women, it seems, have a problem with them.”

Women’s Health

Better health outcomes for women was flagged as an area in which Labor “needed to do more and needed to do better”, with the government promising investment in targeted research and healthcare.

Mr Andrews called out the treatment of women’s health as a “niche” issue and said more needed to be done to examine issues in the public health system.

“Pain is something women are often expected to put up with and shut up about, but why?” he said.

“Why should any of this be accepted as just what it means to be a woman?”

Referring to conditions such as endometriosis, the Premier said should the illness affect more than 10 per cent of the male population, as it does for women, then researchers would be working “around the clock” to find a cure.

This year’s state budget allocated $268m for women’s health, some of which will provide for 20 comprehensive women’s health clinics as well as an Aboriginal-led clinic and a mobile women’s health clinic to tend to remote regions.

Mr Andrews said there would soon be “twice as many” endometriosis and associated condition surgeries, delivering 11,000 extra laparoscopy surgeries over four years.

Addressing the gender gap in medical research and researching a cure for endometriosis were also flagged in his address, as well as the provision of free pads and tampons across 700 public places in Victoria.

The Premier said the Opposition “derided and criticised” the move, which he believes will help normalise menstruation as well as ensuring “no one gets caught out without the products they need”.

Mr Andrews said he had spoken with endometriosis sufferers who had endured long health journeys rife with misdiagnoses and invalidating experiences, and that the policies were written “by women for women”.

“It’s bad enough to be sick and in pain, but to try and get help to take all the right steps only to be misdiagnosed or not diagnosed, not listened to and sometimes not even believed, that experience can be harder to deal with than the condition itself,” he said.

Housing

The Federal Government’s $2b Social Housing Accelerator will add to Victoria’s $5b Big Housing Build which has promised to deliver 12,000 new dwellings across the state.

“A quarter of those (12,000 homes) will be in regional Victoria,” Mr Andrews said.

Speaking to the media after his address on Saturday, Mr Albanese confirmed that under the Accelerator payment each state and territory would be awarded $50m as a baseline.

“And then on top of that it will be allocated on a per capita basis,” he said.

“This will be 100 per cent public housing.”

The Prime Minister said the policy would help “turn around” the 0.5 per cent decline in the proportion of public housing across the country.

“We want to add to public housing stock,” he said.

“We think that is policy and good economic policy.”

Mr Albanese said the funds allocated to each state could be used to build either entirely new homes or could be used to renovate previously uninhabitable structures.

The Prime Minister was unable to provide a figure on how many houses might be built under the scheme but promised it would be “many of thousands”.

Joined by Dan Andrews, the Victorian Premier said the final amount of money allocated to each state and territory would be “clear soon”.

“We don’t want more than we’re entitled to,” he said.

“We just want our fair share.”

Mr Andrews said the Prime Minister would make an announcement on the “exact carve out” of the $2b in funding over the coming days.

The Voice

Daniel Andrews has warned of the shared “cost of failure” should the Voice Referendum falter, addressing the packed Victorian Labor Conference on Saturday.

Joined by Anthony Albanese, the Premier urged Victorians to invest in hope over hate, instead of “marinating in the confected outrage of imported culture wars”.

“Far too often we’ve had a history of not listening — that needs to change, and it needs to change this year.”

The Premier went on to say previous and current programs were “not working”, and that better outcomes would be achieved through Indigenous-led organisations.

“Huge sums of money are spent on programs that aren’t about listening to First Nations communities,” he said.

“First Nations Australians already know what’s best for their families, for their communities, for their culture.

“They just need governments to hear them, not to tell them how it’s going to be.”

Mr Andrews also took a swipe at the Liberal Party for portraying the Referendum as an “act of division”.

“Unity comes not from ignoring difference, but from embracing it,” he said.

“Strength lies in not being afraid to face uncomfortable truths.

“It’s only by accepting our nation in all its flaws that we can have any hope of bettering it.”

The Premier said the relationship between Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal Victorians needed to be rebuilt, applying the same foundational principle of “listening” to health, education, justice, employment and housing.

“(Our history) has been in many ways, a history of injustice, of dispossession and removal of children,” he said.

“Change won’t happen if we wait for some other time because the Voice isn’t just about Aboriginal people.”

The Premier said the referendum possessed the power to “heal our country” and called on Labor members to throw their weight behind the Voice campaign.