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Overview of the proposed options
The Department of Justice and Community Safety has proposed three options for remaking the VCAT fee Regulations:
- Option 1: Retain the current fee structure and rates (approximately 6% cost recovery).
- Option 2: Introduce a new fee structure that maintains current cost recovery while enhancing access to justice for vulnerable users, including concession card holders and small businesses with low turnover.
- Option 3: Adopt the Option 2 structure with increased fee rates to achieve approximately 11% cost recovery.
Our position
We support Option 3, the government’s preferred option, subject to the incorporation of additional safeguards to ensure that vulnerable older Victorians are not deterred or excluded from accessing VCAT in practice.
We acknowledge that Option 3 contains genuine and significant improvements for older Victorians, including the expansion of concession fee eligibility to pensioner concession card holders and Veterans’ Affairs Gold Card holders, and the reduction of the concession fee payer’s share of tribunal costs from 35% to 11%. These are meaningful steps forward that we welcome.
However, we consider that without further refinement, the proposed Regulations may remain insufficient to address the risks outlined below for older people experiencing vulnerability and cumulative disadvantage. Our recommendations are directed at strengthening Option 3, not at replacing it.