This month has included some tremendous highs for financial counselling, which I’d like to reflect on and celebrate. Along with many other Victorians, I attended the fantastic Financial Counselling Australia (FCA) conference in Perth. Over 800 people came from all over Australia to share and learn together, with some terrific insights along the spectrum of financial counsellors’ careers. We learned about communication, opportunities (and pitfalls) in new technologies and AI, the inspirational strength of clients experiencing hardship, and the poverty premium. All these and more provided the context for reconnecting with colleagues and talking about where to next for the sector. There was so much more in the program and in conversation than I can write about here, but the FCA conference in Perth was a great experience and we are reflecting on its successes as we continue organising our own October conference. Congratulations and thank you to FCA for a great event.

The very big news for our sector was the 7 May Victorian budget, which offered a mixed bag for the profession. It was great to see the financial counselling program funding continue, as well as family violence, gambling harm, and rural financial counselling. This shows a recognition of the importance of these programs in responding to the cost-of-living crisis holistically. While we were initially optimistic about other specialist programs, we have also heard some disappointing news directly from agencies which we are following up with departments and ministerial advisors. We continue to emphasise the urgent need for specialist financial counselling services and to clarify future funding opportunities for vital programs.

The great news in May was that the financial counselling program is receiving an additional $15m over 3 years to boost frontline financial counsellors, with EOIs opening in July and funding to apply from November. This is a major boost to sector capacity that we estimate could fund about 15% more FTE positions across the state. This boost is consistent with our cost-of-living campaign requests and shows that the government has recognised the urgent need to support financial counsellors to respond to hardship at this time. I want to thank every financial counsellor who has contributed to raising the profile of cost-of-living pressures and communicating the pressures on financial counsellors to respond. We thank the government for recognising the value of financial counselling through this substantial investment into its future.

Finally, we are ever so close to being able to open registrations for our October conference, which is themed “Fearless and Forthright”. We received an exceptional number of applications and suggestions to our call for abstracts and have been working to include member contributions to our program. Thank you so much to everyone who made a submission and offered a suggestion. We are also working to incorporate some of the key reflections from our March Summit, our Advocacy Priorities document, the FCA conference, and the opportunities available to the sector because of the core funding boost to the profession in Victoria. Although we have had mixed news this month, the good news shows a strong future for financial counselling in Victoria and prompts a whole different focus for the coming years. This points towards opportunities to continue to develop the workforce and professional needs of the sector, and to promote the great work that financial counsellors do.