November 14, 2025 | Katie Wand
The Social Services Regulation Amendment (Child Safety, Complaints and Worker Regulation) Bill 2025 has passed through the Victorian Lower House, and will be introduced to the Upper House by the end of the year. The bill will transfer functions from the Victorian Disability Worker Commission, which currently provides specialised and independent expertise on a range of issues affecting people with disability and disability workers, to the Social Services Regulator.
Community legal centres and disability advocates are deeply concerned about the impact the bill will have on the disability sector. The disability community was not consulted on this bill.
The Victorian Disability Worker Commission’s primary purpose is to protect people with disability by improving the quality and safety of disability services by setting standards, registering workers, and investigating complaints. Key functions include creating a Code of Conduct for workers and taking action against workers who pose a risk to people with disabilities.
The Victorian Disability Worker Commission has played a vital role in championing the rights of people with disabilities, ensuring that their voices are heard and that their unique needs are met with tailored solutions. The proposed closure of the Commission and takeover of functions by the Social Services Regulator will deny the disability community the expertise of the commission and access to the Commission’s complaint system that they trust.
We believe that the Social Services Regulator, while important in its own right, does not possess the same depth of specialised knowledge nor the direct connection to disability communities that the Commission has carefully built over the years. There is also concern that the Social Servies Regulator has a record of poor enforcement, low accountability, and a lower benchmark for the minimum standard of care.
Our fear is that centralising functions under the Social Services Regulator could lead to less effective service delivery, loss of disability-specific expertise, and weakened safeguards.
We’re calling on the Victorian Government to withdraw this clause of the bill until a full review of the Social Services Regulator has been completed. We also ask that the government consults and works with the disability sector and people with lived experience through their representative organisations to implement a more robust disability specific regulator with independent oversight that is able to effectively enforce standards, and ensure transparent accountability.
Louisa Gibbs, CEO at the Federation said: “The Disability Worker Commission has both the lived experience and the expertise to regulate the disability worker sector, improving safety and ensuring that high standards of care are met. Our disability community deserves to have their interests safeguarded by an organisation that truly understands and represents them, and that organisation is the Victorian Disability Working Commission.
“Shifting regulatory powers to the Social Services Regulator overlooks the unique experiences and needs of people living with disability. We urge the government to consult with disability representative organisations and community legal centres that work with people living with disability before pushing through any legislations that risks reducing the standards of care available for people with disability.”
Charlotte Jones, CEO at Mental Health Legal Centre said: “Our clients often live with complex mental health conditions alongside disability, increasing the need for strong and transparent safeguards. Diluting the independence and expertise of the Disability Worker Commission risks leaving these individuals without the strong protections they need. We urge the government to prioritise specialised regulation that understands the intersection of mental health and disability, rather than centralising oversight in a body with less accountability and less connection to lived experience.”
Julie Phillips, CEO at Disability Discrimination Legal Service said: “The royal commission said people with disabilities are being treated differently than other sectors of society, are much more susceptible to violence, abuse and neglect, and that’s why their recommendation was that we need a regulator that is specifically for people with disabilities.
“It’s been very disappointing, the misleading of parliamentarians and the public about how we have been involved when we have not.”
