Transport Legislation Review

Legislation in Victoria is enacted by the Parliament of Victoria. The Parliament is a bicameral, or two-house, legislature. It comprises the Queen of Australia, the Legislative Assembly or Lower House and the Legislative Council or Upper House. The head of the State Government is the Premier of Victoria.

The Transport Legislation Review is a policy and legislation review project conducted by the Department of Transport in the State of Victoria, Australia between 2004 and late 2010. The aim of the project was review of transport policy and laws and generation of new policy and legislation as a platform for better transport across the State.

The Review was the most extensive project of its kind in transport in Victoria[1] and touched all areas of transport including land and water based transport activities. Proposals were developed by the Review for consideration by the Victorian Government and proceeded initially as policy ideas. Proposals were progressively refined over time using modules and sub projects sometimes in response to stakeholder input. Outputs from Review often proceeded as new State regulatory schemes and laws, commonly in the form of Bills considered by the Victorian Parliament.

The new laws which arose from the Review had regulatory and de-regulatory effects in particular areas.[2] The Review was notable for pursuing principle-based initiatives,[3] introducing performance-based concepts into transport law often in the form of safety duties owed by industry participants to persons using transport services and to other industry participants[4] and suites of new administrative and court sanctions targeted at non compliance. The project also had significant impacts on organisational arrangements in Victorian transport.

The Victorian Government Ministers who oversaw the work of the project at times were Peter Batchelor, Lynne Kosky, Tim Pallas and Martin Pakula.

  1. ^ A review between 1982 and 1988 produced the following major statutes – the Transport Act 1983, the Road Safety Act 1986 and the Marine Act 1988. A major proposal for a Victorian Ports Authority Act was defeated in Parliament in 1985. The period 1995-1999 was also a major period of policy and legislative activity although not on a portfolio-wide scale. Review work and outputs in that period were mainly confined to statutes relating to reorganisation of rail services in the state and initial new safety regulation schemes in the rail and bus sectors.
  2. ^ The Accident Towing Services Act 2007 provides an example of a de-regulatory initiative. The Act repealed provisions which regulated the towing industry in the former Transport Act 1983. While some provisions were re-enacted in a modified form in the new statute, provisions regulating trade towing were not continued therefore removing economic regulation controls from that sector.
  3. ^ See, for example, the policy framework reflected in the Transport Integration Act 2010.
  4. ^ See the safety duties contained in the Rail Safety Act 2006, the Bus Safety Act 2009 and the Marine Safety Act 2010.