STATE Parliament has been told it is unacceptable that young Mildura mums would need to travel hundreds of kilometres to attend one of seven new parenting centres in Victoria.
Member for Northern Victoria Wendy Lovell said the support provided by the centres would assist Mildura’s high rate of pregnant teenagers, but instead the nearest new parenting centre would be based in Bendigo.
Ms Lovell said both Mildura and Shepparton — with similar teenage birth rates — missed out on funding for the establishment of a new parenting centre in the cities.
The Victorian Government said new centres would be situated in Bendigo, Geelong, Ballarat, Whittlesea, Wyndham, Casey and Frankston.
Ms Lovell said said there was a real need for support for young mums in both Mildura and Shepparton that the early parenting centres provided.
“The people who use these parenting centres are young people, they are disadvantaged people,” Ms Lovell said.
“People from Mildura would have to travel to Bendigo or people from Shepparton might, if they did not go to Bendigo, have to go to Whittlesea.
“They do not necessarily have the resources to get themselves to Bendigo or Whittlesea from Shepparton or to Bendigo from Mildura.
“It is just not acceptable.”
Ms Lovell said Mildura and Shepparton had some of the highest rates of teenage pregnancy and people among the most disadvantaged in the state.
“Just to give members an idea of the need for these centres in Shepparton and Mildura, historically it has been the case that the rate of teenage births in regional Victoria has been significantly higher than in metropolitan Melbourne, and this trend has continued over the past few years,” she said.
“But the teenage birth rate in Mildura in 2015 was 21.1 per 1000 women; in Shepparton, it was 18.3 per 1000 women; in Melbourne, it was only 5.9.
“In the areas where they have funded these centres, in Ballarat, Bendigo and Geelong, the birth rate was lower than it was in Shepparton and Mildura — 14.3 births per 1000 women in Ballarat, 13 births per 1000 in Bendigo and 9.8 births per 1000 in Geelong.
“It just shows that this government is not about investing in services where they are needed most — they are about investing in services where it benefits the Labor Party.”
Ms Lovell called on the government to fund not only parenting centres in both Mildura and Shepparton, but also mother and baby units at hospitals “so that we do have the right support not only for young women who have babies but also for all women who are having babies who are struggling at that point in time”.
