Herald Sun exposing<\/a> that less than 2 per cent of motorists seeking compensation for damage caused by potholes are receiving payouts.<\/p>\nDocuments obtained under Freedom of Information show drivers are facing virtually impossible odds when seeking repair work payouts for damages caused by the state\u2019s broken road network, with 98 per cent of people turned away.<\/p>\n
A total of 1786 of the 1809 compensation claims were rejected by the Department of Transport in the past two financial years, with the state\u2019s roads authority covering repair costs for just 23 drivers.<\/p>\n
Asked if the compensation threshold would be lifted, Mr Hamer would not commit to any changes before the review was finished.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat is exactly why I have asked the department to look into the compensation scheme and look into the legislation to see if any of it needs to be changed,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
But Mr Hamer conceded the state of Victoria\u2019s roads were unacceptable. <\/p>\n
\u201cWe need to improve the state of our roads \u2026 I drive on the roads a lot, and I always have a lookout for the conditions of our roads,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n
\u201cThat is why my firm focus and my priority in the first week that I\u2019ve been the minister is to make sure that every dollar of our $1.04bn in the road maintenance program for 26-27 is spent appropriately.<\/p>\n
\u201cAs the Premier did say, I am a civil engineer, and I\u2019ve worked in the sector and industry for a long time.\u201d<\/p>\n
Tom Humphries \u2014 the Stonnington councillor who was the first to get his hands on the secret government data before releasing it to the Herald Sun \u2014 called the review \u201ca drop in the ocean\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cMotorists don\u2019t want a better claims form. They want a road that doesn\u2019t destroy their cars in the first place,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cNot one dollar of new money was announced today \u2014 the roads are exactly as broken tonight as they were this morning.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cReviewing the scheme without funding the repairs just means Victorians will be knocked back more politely.\u201d<\/p>\n
Mr Humphries called on Mr Hamer to publish the terms of the proposed review, including who it would be conducted by and which dates it would include.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf it reports after the November election, Victorians will draw their own conclusions,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ll judge this on one test \u2014 our roads finally being flat again. Everything else is words.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Victorian government has ordered a review into the state\u2019s pothole compensation scheme after the Herald Sun revealed…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":70157,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[94983,94960,43104,94981,94976,94978,72078,94972,94964,36942,40993,94969,38151,48272,52548,94954,22,21,94959,94957,36917,38767,10948,14595,37643,171,53923,77068,22612,94980,51720,6050,94965,94953,18324,50401,94984,94948,94977,37789,94961,94946,94985,94982,42930,94944,7350,94979,18325,38168,94967,94958,11285,94949,94951,94973,94966,94971,41022,94955,39084,42282,51225,64488,5606,59454,44604,71934,40850,61157,94963,3336,94974,94945,80067,94952,42949,38409,94956,94975,37964,94947,73768,46716,72470,94950,59620,37242,31666,94962,51701,1217,68,45275,94968,94970,22441,44794],"class_list":["post-70156","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-australia","tag-s-broken-road-network","tag-s-pothole-compensation-scheme","tag-s-roads","tag-s-roads-authority","tag-94976","tag-26-27","tag-72078","tag-a-better-claims-form","tag-a-civil-engineer","tag-a-drop","tag-a-long-time","tag-a-lookout","tag-a-lot","tag-a-review","tag-a-road","tag-any-changes","tag-au","tag-austrlia","tag-away-a-total","tag-carroll-government-orders-review","tag-cent","tag-claims","tag-compensation","tag-damage","tag-damages","tag-drivers","tag-every-dollar","tag-everything-else","tag-freedom","tag-herald-sun-expose","tag-his-hands","tag-information","tag-just-23-drivers-asked","tag-less-than-2","tag-motorists","tag-mr-hamer","tag-mr-humphries","tag-my-firm-focus","tag-my-priority","tag-new-money","tag-new-roads-minister-paul-hamer","tag-not-one-dollar","tag-one-test","tag-our-1-04bn","tag-our-roads","tag-payouts-documents","tag-people","tag-pothole-compensation-scheme","tag-potholes","tag-purpose","tag-repair-costs","tag-repair-work-payouts","tag-review","tag-secret-documents","tag-the-1809-compensation-claims","tag-the-carroll-labor-government","tag-the-compensation-scheme","tag-the-compensation-threshold","tag-the-conditions","tag-the-current-conditions","tag-the-department","tag-the-first","tag-the-first-place","tag-the-first-week","tag-the-herald-sun","tag-the-legislation","tag-the-minister","tag-the-new-carroll-government","tag-the-november-election","tag-the-ocean","tag-the-past-two-financial-years","tag-the-premier","tag-the-proposed-review","tag-the-repairs","tag-the-review","tag-the-road-maintenance-program","tag-the-roads","tag-the-scheme","tag-the-secret-government-data","tag-the-sector-and-industry","tag-the-state","tag-the-stonnington-councillor","tag-the-terms","tag-the-victorian-government","tag-their-cars","tag-their-own-conclusions","tag-this-legislation","tag-this-morning","tag-today","tag-tom-humphries","tag-tonight","tag-transport","tag-victoria","tag-victorians","tag-virtually-all-claims","tag-virtually-impossible-odds","tag-wednesday","tag-words"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/70156","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=70156"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/70156\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/70157"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=70156"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=70156"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=70156"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}