Transport Accident Commission

The TAC is well known to Victorians, and its high profile illustrates the success of the TAC strategy over recent years. Being Minister with responsibility for the TAC has given Tim the opportunity to be a part of the broader government effort to reduce the incidence and impact of the road toll on the Victorian community.

The TAC has a dual role in this equation. Firstly, to promote road safety awareness in the community, and, secondly, to provide compensation and support to members of the community injured as a result of motor vehicle accidents.

Some people may be surprised to learn that the TAC is the administrator of a significant compensation system that provides crucial support to many Victorians and their families. ? The TAC delivers over $800 million in benefits to over 40,000 clients and their families each year. ? It also contributes significantly to the construction of safer roads, investing over $100 million in road safety improvements last year.

The TAC is most famous for its outstanding advertising campaigns, for which it has received significant international recognition and rewards. Many people would agree that these campaigns are at times highly emotive, often confronting, and sometimes difficult to watch. However, most also agree that the road toll has such a catastrophic and far-reaching impact on the community that such an approach is necessary.

We know that while these advertising campaigns play an integral part in getting the road safety message across to the Victorian public, we cannot pretend that they provide the whole solution to this problem.? The TAC therefore works hard to find targeted and innovative ways to provide this public education. For example, the TAC has established a program that has so far provided road safety project grants of up to $20,000 for 83 separate projects designed by not-for-profit groups to address local road safety issues.

A Car Crash Reality Check display was installed at Federation Square so that people could see, live and up close, the actual physical impact of crashes on vehicles. In a creative first, the TAC also sponsored the highly successful Sudden Impact television series that provided a documentary-style insight in to the impact of road trauma on real victims.

The road safety activities of the TAC have been pivotal to Victoria achieving the lowest road toll on record in 2009. As we know, even one fatality is one too many, and so our commitment to tackle the road toll remains unwavering and unrelenting.

Major Achievements

With our road safety partners, the TAC and the Government have delivered outstanding results for the Victorian community, including:

• Recording the lowest road toll in Victoria since records commenced;
• Delivering over $800 million in support services and benefits to more than 40,000 people, and over $100 million in road safety improvements in the most recent financial period;
• Supporting the internationally-recognised Victorian Neurotrauma Initiative, a $63 million health fund designed to support research in to traumatic brain and spinal cord injury; and,
• Supporting the launch of the dynamic Institute for Safety Compensation and Recovery Research, designed to support research in to how insurance schemes should be designed and managed to provide optimal results for the community.