The Victorian Greens have called reports Labor has heavily cut support allowances for foster carers \u2018deeply concerning\u2019, and a clear indication the government has its priorities wrong.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Overnight, The Age<\/u><\/em><\/a> reported some carers had had their allowances cut by as much as three-quarters without explanation, despite living with children at the highest need level.<\/p>\n\n\n\n With Victoria already having the lowest base rate of home care allowances in the country, the Greens say the cuts will place immense strain on an already under-resourced sector.<\/p>\n\n\n\n And they add that vulnerable children will bear the brunt of it, with the decision disproportionately impacting children with disabilities and First Nations children.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Victorian Greens early childhood spokesperson, Anasina Gray-Barberio MLC:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cOur foster carers are unsung heroes. They volunteer to support and look after vulnerable kids who, for a range of reasons, aren\u2019t safe at home. <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cYet they\u2019re stretched thin \u2013 they\u2019re chronically under-resourced, and often have to dig into their own pockets to make sure the kids they\u2019re caring for have the best chance at a good life.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cAny move to further reduce support allowances for carers is a bad one, and shows how backwards Labor\u2019s priorities are. <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cCuts to health, cuts to education, and now cuts to foster care \u2013 that\u2019s not what looking after our kids looks like.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cLabor needs to properly fund foster carers so that they can continue to support the thousands of Victorian kids in need of out-of-home care.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The Victorian Greens have called reports Labor has heavily cut support allowances for foster carers \u2018deeply concerning\u2019, and a clear indication the government has its priorities wrong. Overnight, The Age reported some carers had had their allowances cut by as much as three-quarters without explanation, despite living with children at the highest need level. With Victoria already … Continue reading “Cuts to foster care support ‘deeply concerning’, Greens say Labor must get its priorities straight”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-35534","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-aussie"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35534","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=35534"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35534\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":35535,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35534\/revisions\/35535"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=35534"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=35534"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=35534"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}