 What exactly does TAC do or what what are we? We're a government-owned organization And our responsibility, I guess it's two key responsibilities one is is a major road safety Function which you will all say our ads and our preventative functions that we try and Achieve from a road safety point of view the other thing that we do is is manage And this is probably the the biggest part of what we do is manage claims to people who are injured in motor vehicle accidents and that In many cases that's a lifelong entitlement those clients will have it's managed under the Transport Accident Act so it's legislated and As I said the idea is to try and make sure that we have a compensation scheme that that is available for these people that are injured For as long as they need the care and the treatment that they may need as a result of their injuries The way the TAC model works So you're all familiar with the fact that you get slugged a little bit extra when you pay your registration every year so a big component of that year TAC charge and That goes towards some I guess funding the TAC scheme So TAC use some of that money to to fund road safety initiatives such as our ads and our Promotions that we do with school-age children in terms of driving and the learner programs that we have Reminder that Of that money we use is funded towards trauma services and for health care and disability support for people on an ongoing basis Just to give you an idea of the sorts of numbers that we get we get a bit over 19,000 claims per year And we have about 43,000 active claims at any one time We have a lot of clients that come on and off those benefits, but we do have some clients particularly severe brain injury and spinal injured clients who stay in our books pretty well For good they need treatment and care for the rest of their life This just gives you a bit of a breakdown from a Injury perspective in terms of the sorts of injuries that we see so over 50% of the injuries are soft tissue musculoskeletal injuries And then we have orthopedics Fewer what we call other severe injuries, so they might be internal severe internal injuries and then the Small proportion of fatal accidents thankfully although all too too many and we have about six percent of catastrophic injuries So they're there those head injuries and spinal and amputee injuries that I was talking about a little earlier In terms of the money that we spend Last financial year we spent over nine hundred and thirty million In total payments to clients and that's so that's a real mixture. You know nearly a hundred million in lifetime care payments We spent a bit over 90 million on loss of earnings payments as income benefits. I'm talking a little bit about that a bit later and Over 200 million on hospital and paramedical and ambulance payments We also spend quite a lot of money every year on what are called common law payments I'm some payments to clients for pain and suffering and damages payments, which I'll I'll talk a little bit about as well Just a little bit more information from a road safety point of view That graph just gives you a bit of a snapshot of the demographics of the constant That's just the first two months of this year, but it's pretty typical of the types of Demographics that we see so I'll talk a little bit more about older drivers today Pretty much that we have a predominantly young male driver Demographic which I'm sure isn't a surprise to anyone and we do a lot of work in that area, but you'll see We've got a breakdown in terms of whether people are cyclists or drivers or motorcyclists and a bit of a split there from a rural and urban perspective Which is pretty typical of what we see So we have this big bunch that are 18 to say 39 year olds Males, it's about 70% of the claims that we manage In terms of older road users now no Fitness to drive is is not just older users the older road users certainly lots of young people that have disabilities It is a concern for as well, but So we're all aware a lot of our older road users fall into that bracket. So just some stats in terms of older older users on the road So some information there in terms of the road toll so about 15% of the road toll is people above the age of 70 There's some information there in terms of the acute hospitalized claims and just a little bit of information in terms of older road users and I Guess the types of accidents they may be involved in and one of particular interests I think is Older road drivers in from a fatality point of view to tend to be more mid-block accidents rather than intersection accidents What that means when you drill down into that a little bit more is a lot of them almost 50% of them happen out on On rural roads or on highways 100k plus fatigue's a major issue So that that's certainly some of the areas that we try and focus on in the Road safety point of view General demographics in our society shows that that's not gonna that that older road use Not a problem, but those issues that are faced aren't going to go away At the moment Victoria is a sustained low fertility rate increasing life expectancy our Percentage of older of the older population is just going to continue So it's about 6.5 percent of the population of Victoria at the moment It's expected. It'll be over 7% in another five years and that graph. I'm not sure How well you can see that but basically what that says is by the year 2056 it's going to be almost for 14% of our Population will be over over the age of 75. So How correct that will be into the future some of us might be around to find out but That's what the I guess that's what the population demographics bureau statistics people tell us at the moment Trisha's already covered off responsibility of Vic Road, so I won't go any further there I know Morrison and Trisha have already spoken a bit about obligations here But of course there's no statutory obligation for medical practitioners or health practitioners to Report medical conditions in Victoria South Australia and Northern Territory have that we don't there is an option to report Obviously raises all sorts of conflict issues from a confidentiality and privacy point of view for practitioners There's also public safety considerations that need to be considered But I'm not telling anyone here anything that they don't know already From a driver's point of view they have a duty to report and that's already been covered off There's legislation there that talks about that And as Trisha mentioned, there's a failure to report for the driver can have consequences from a property insurance perspective I can potentially lead to criminal charges Jeanine might talk a bit more about that such as couple will driving But what about if there is an accident and TAC benefits is that affected if they have Known that they are medically unfit to drive and have continued to do so Well the answer is yes and no Mostly no TAC is a there's two sides of the TAC scheme There's what we call no fault benefits, which includes medical and rehab expenses income support impairment benefits and Then there's a common law aspect which is general damages and pecuniary loss I'll talk a little bit more about all those The difference there is the no fault aspect it doesn't matter whether you cause the accident whether it's a single vehicle accident You're entitled to your medical and rehab expenses under the no fault side of the scheme So even if you were a driver in that situation, you still have TAC cover for all those benefits You would be considered to be a negligent driver if you did that and you wouldn't have any access to common law The way common law works is you effectively need to have someone else to sue TAC then indemnifies that person, which is usually another driver. It's a little bit complicated, but I'll try and simplify it This graph I won't start for too long But this just gives you a bit of an idea in terms of the no fault benefits at TAC can pay and how long they're Payable for so there's some limitations around the income benefits that we can pay It's usually only up to three years unless someone is seriously injured and in that case they can They can get it to a retirement age and There's all sorts of tests around What that serious injury is it's an impairment rating test But other benefits such as medical surfaces and hospital surfaces Basically if a person needs it then and it's and the benefits are related to their accident And they're entitled to it for the remainder of their life Some of our clients certainly will will need that So just a little bit more information on what no fault benefits are so there's a whole range of them It's a very generous scheme So you'll see from right through from ambulance to hospital to medical services We've done paramedical home and vehicle modifications for clients that need it Disability services such as a tender care and accommodation support for clients who usually have severe brain injury and can't return to their previous lifestyle Income replacement I spoke about there are some restrictions around income replacement if you were Let's say an unlicensed driver or or a drunk driver Then then there's some limitations on that. You probably won't get it. You will get your medical services and dependency and family cancelling payments they're there for fatal accidents, so for Any people that die if they have financial dependence Such as a wife or children then there's some financial payments that are made to them We cover funeral benefits and we'll also pay a family counselling to to the families as well to a certain to a certain dollar amount I Thought I'd just put a little bit of information in terms of what we can fund from a driving program point of view for We have many clients who would obviously driving at the time they have the accident and and are keen to return to that and for some reason or other they that may take them along with and then Then some others so we do have driving programs where we can fund a lot of under the no fault benefits We can fund a lot of different programs from specialist driving instruction Obviously OT services to do initial assessments and then so also to help plan what a return to drive return to driving program May look like our driving lessons. We will we will fund For people that need those lessons to get back if they had a license beforehand We won't fund driving lessons for someone that didn't have a license beforehand unless they need more than about 20 Which is what we think it is is what? Someone on a learner program would need anyway and then some more information there I won't go through all with that Trish has covered a lot of that off in terms of what we would consider is needed in terms of medical clearance before we would look at funding those return to driving programs and Then just a little a few extra things there in terms of what else we might be able to fund So I've mentioned OT services We can fund psychology service the clients who some of our clients are a fearful of returning to driving Particularly if they've had a very traumatic accident So we can fund some psychology services around that and we'll see if we'll find some vehicle modifications for those kinds of physical injuries And need their vehicles modified to build help them return to driving then there's a list of things there We're things that we won't pay for in relation to driving programs All of that information. We have a very detailed policy which is on our website very very quickly water impairment benefits So you may have noticed on one of the slides earlier. There was an impairment benefit that's included under no fault Entitlement so the client can get so it's a it's a lump sum payment that is made to clients depending on the level of Injury that they sustain again. There's a very complex way of evaluating that But a client can receive up to three hundred thousand dollars as a lump sum payment as a no fault benefit We don't see very many people that a hundred percent compared but you may see Typical example might be a ventilated quadriplegic would fall into that sort of category. So there's not many that that are at that level, thankfully Now common law so the other side of the scheme, this is where they there you don't you can't access common law unless you have someone to sue basically so if you're a negligent driver and cause the accident then you will receive all those no fault benefits that I've just spoken about But you have no access at all common law If you're a passenger in a car, you're a pedestrian You're a driver of another vehicle that didn't cause the accident then you can also access common law benefits and basically what TAC will indemnify the negligent party, which is you the other driver. So we're kind of involved on both sides of the claim and From a common law point of view, there's there's a bit of legislation around You need to be at a certain level of the injury needs to be a certain level of Seriousness before it was called a gateway before you can actually get into common law benefits That's designed to protect the scheme really to to prevent a lot of very small What we would consider frivolous claims getting into this Category and really being administrative burden on the TAC the old motor accident board back in the 80s Experienced that problem and pretty well went bust on the back of it So there's some legislation that helps to protect the scheme from that point of view But they're the other sorts of injuries that you would The legislation considers to be serious Permanent serious disfigurement would be pretty well serious scarring really falls into that category Lots of a fetus gets in straight away the other two areas serious long-term Impairment of a body function or severe long-term mental impairment. There's lots of litigation that goes around What whether people achieve those categories or not many people get straight through and there's not a There's not any dispute about that, but You know the cases there is And just to give you a bit of an idea in terms of what is available from a Common-law perspective the statutory maximum for common law is a bit over a million dollars And that would be made up of someone that would be someone that would achieve that sort of figure would be Someone that is very young maybe in their early 20s. They're not going to return to work for the rest of their life So they're looking at probably about 40 years of pecuniary loss plus there's a Amount that's calculated based on general damages pain and suffering Those sorts of things depending on the level of their injury So just in summary to see It's it's very socially inclusive legislation and what I mean by that is the no-fault side of the scheme doesn't look at fault. So even if you're a Even if you're convicted of culpable driving and you this is an extreme case, but you Cause an accident. You're drunk. You're a drunk driver. You You kill someone else in the accident even if you do jail time You won't get services while you're in jail But when you come out you're still entitled to those benefits the no-fault benefits clearly you wouldn't get into common law and But I guess coming back to the return the fitness to drive I guess that that's where the the The common law side of the claim will come into play and certainly if someone is driving And they shouldn't be or they don't have medical clearance to do so then it very very clearly will affect that side of any claim that they would have with TAC and Then just a couple of a couple of points plugging our road safety message So that's about it for me Thank you