The department commissioned an independent evaluation of the program in early 2025, 2 years after it began. But the department did not collect baseline data about road accidents, serious injuries and deaths linked to distracted driving or not wearing a seatbelt, or on public attitudes. 

Existing data does not reliably identify which accidents, injuries and fatalities are caused by distracted driving or not wearing a seatbelt. The department will not establish a method to get this information until at least mid-2026.

We made 5 recommendations to address our findings. The relevant agencies have accepted 4 recommendations in full and one recommendation in part.

What we examined

Our audit followed 2 lines of inquiry: 

1. Are the Department of Justice and Community Safety (the department) and Victoria Police managing the distracted driver and seatbelt detection camera program (the program) appropriately?

2. Is the department evaluating the program's contribution to road safety?

To answer these questions, we examined:

Download a PDF copy of Appendix E: Policy performance data.

Download a PDF copy of Appendix D: Agencies under the Policy.

Download a PDF copy of Appendix C: Review scope and method.

Download a PDF copy of Appendix B: Abbreviations, acronyms and glossary.

Download a PDF copy of Appendix A: Submissions and comments.

We looked at 6 agencies in detail to see how they process and pay invoices. This section contains case studies which look at the business practices that support agencies to pay their invoices on time.

Covered in this section:

We looked at 6 agencies in detail to see how they record and report their payment timeliness data. We found that agencies apply and interpret the Policy differently. This makes it difficult to compare agencies’ performance.

Covered in this section: