Transport Act 1983

The Transport Act 1983 (the Act) was the main statute establishing government transport organisations and regulating land transport activities in the State of Victoria, Australia for 27 years from mid-1983 to mid-2010. The Act was used as the vehicle for changes to transport organisational arrangements and transport regulation activities pursued by Victorian governments over that period.

The Transport Act received the royal assent on 23 June 1983 and commenced on 1 July of that year. The Act remained as Victoria's principal transport statute until mid-2010 when that position was taken by a new statute, the Transport Integration Act 2010. It was renamed as the Transport (Compliance and Miscellaneous) Act 1983, a title which it retains to this day.

The Transport Act was initially passed by the Victorian Parliament as a major reform measure particularly in relation to institutional arrangements in the transport portfolio. The Act abolished a range of long established transport agencies including the Victorian Railways, the Melbourne and Metropolitan Tramways Board and the Country Roads Board. In their place a range of new organisations including the State Transport Authority, the Metropolitan Transit Authority, the Road Construction Authority and the Road Traffic Authority were established. The Transport Act also established the Ministry of Transport as the prime coordinating agency for transport in Victoria.

The Transport Act also consolidated much of the suite of Victorian land transport statutes containing regulatory controls. The Act initially contained a suite of provisions affecting trains and trams, buses, taxis and hire cars and tow trucks. Few of these provisions remain today in the Transport (Compliance and Miscellaneous) Act. The main schemes which remain relate to taxi and hire car regulation, the only substantial area of Victorian transport regulation not to be contained in a discrete statute, and provisions relating to compliance and enforcement in safety areas and affecting public transport ticketing and conduct.

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