Insurance Information

Regional Arts Victoria offers Combined Liability insurance to Individual Members. The cost is $200 in addition to the $60 annual membership fee – total $260 annually. RAV takes out a master insurance policy on behalf of all Members with a combined total liability cover of $20M.

The current Combined Liability Insurance policy wording is available here and here – please note: these are current policy wordings valid until 4pm 31 October 2023, wording for the next insurance policy period will be available in October 2023.

Regional Arts Victoria offers three insurance policies to Organisation Members:

1. Association Liability Insurance (Read the Association Liability Insurance policy wording here) This cover is included in the membership fee.
   
2. Personal Accident Insurance for Volunteer Workers (Read the Volunteer Workers Insurance policy wording here). This cover is included in the membership fee.
   
3. OPTIONAL Combined Liability Insurance RAV takes out a master policy on behalf of all Members with a combined total liability cover of $20M. (The current Combined Liability Insurance policy wording is available here and here)

Please note: These are current policy wordings valid until 4pm 31 October 2023, wording for the next insurance policy period will be available in October 2023.

The fee for optional Combined Liability Insurance, in addition to Organisation Membership, is calculated according to the Gross Annual Income of the organisation, as per the table below.

Combined Liability insurance offers protection to you, your company and employees for claims involving bodily injury and property damage resulting from your products, services or operations. Coverage extends to insure third parties i.e., members of the public, if they seek compensation for your legal liability (negligence). This is sometimes called ‘public liability cover’. This policy excludes pure financial loss.

This policy is endorsed to cover:

• Products liability
  • The Insured is indemnified by this Section in accordance with the Operative Clause for and/or arising out of accidental Injury, Damage or Advertising Liability occurring during the Period of Insurance and arising out of or in connection with any Product. ‘Product’ means any tangible property after it has left the custody or control of the Insured which has been designed, specified, formulated manufactured, constructed, installed, sold, supplied, distributed, treated, serviced, altered or repaired by or on behalf of the Insured.
• Professional liability
  • The rendering of or failure to render professional advice or service by the insured or any error or omission connected there with subject to policy conditions and exclusions
  • Liability arising out of the rendering or failure to render medical advice at the Insured’s Premises by Medical Persons employed by the Insured to provide first aid and ancillary medical services;
  • Personal Injury or Property Damage arising from the Insured performing activities as described in the Business Description of this Policy.
• Pollution Liability
  • The Insured is indemnified by this Section in accordance with the Operative Clause for and/or arising out of accidental Injury, Damage or Advertising Liability occurring during the Period of Insurance and arising out of Pollution which was the direct result of a sudden, identifiable, unintended and unexpected event occurring in its entirety at a specific time and place during the Period of Insurance subject to policy exclusions.
• Advertising Liability
  • The insured is indemnified by this section in accordance with the operative cause arising from advertising liability
  • Advertising liability means: infringement of copyright of, or passing off a title or slogan, unfair competition, piracy or idea misappropriation contrary to an implied contract; invasion of privacy; or defamation, libel, slander committed or alleged to have been committed during the period of insurance in any advertisement, publicity article, broadcast or telecast arising out of your advertising activities or any advertising activities conducted on your behalf, in the course of advertising the products, goods or services related to those products, subject to policy exclusions.

The cost of General Liability Insurance is based on the Organisation’s Gross Annual Income.
Read the General Liability policy wording here.

Association liability insurance provides protection to the organisation including directors and officers, committee members arising from any claim for any wrongful act, including, but not limited to employment practice breach, fraud and dishonesty, occupational health and safety defence costs, statutory liability (fines and penalties), for which the
insurer agrees to pay on behalf the association.

This policy is endorsed to cover:

• Professional Indemnity

Professional Indemnity insurance covers any claim or investigation attributable to any breach of professional duty, or the provision of any professional services and/or advice or the failure to provide such advice, subject to policy exclusions.

This policy insures all losses arising from any claim for any civil liability first made and notified to us during the insurance period arising from the conduct of the insured’s business (financial loss) subject to policy conditions and exclusions. The Association liability policy excludes Bodily injury/property damage and products liability.

Read the Association Liability Policy wording here.

Personal Accident Insurance for Volunteer Workers protects volunteers and members from expenses incurred due to injury sustained while engaged in official unpaid voluntary activities. The following cover is offered.

Insured Persons aged up to 65 (Events 1-19) $200,000
Insured Persons aged under 18 (Event 1 Death) $20,000
Insured Persons aged 66-75 (Events 1-19) $100,000
Insured Persons aged 76-80 (Events 1-19) $10,000
Insured Persons aged 81-90 (Events 1-19) $10,000
$2,000,000 Aggregate

Read the Volunteer Workers Policy information here.

Gross Annual Income is the total annual income from all sources before tax. This includes all income sources, for example:

• Grants received this year
• Sales
• Donations
• The income of groups you plan to auspice
• Dividends
• Major events (for biennial events, calculate an average over two years)

The stated Gross annual Income should be evidenced by financial statements. Organisation Members are able to update the income annually via the renewal process.

The figure you provide is only your creative practice income, and not any other employment or income you have. You are able to provide an estimate if the exact figure is not known. E.g. If you receive income from selling your artwork and you are a salaried schoolteacher part-time, you do not include your salary income in this figure.

Yes, funding from grants is included in the Gross Annual Income. If the organisation receives a grant one year but not the next, they may update the Gross Annual Income via the online renewal form each year, and the fee for optional General Liability Insurance will be adjusted accordingly.

If your Organisation is new, you can put $0 on the RAV Membership application form. If you are applying for insurance, please provide an estimate on the GSA Insurance application form, you could base this off of any budgets you have made to project your income.

Each organisation’s needs are varied, however, some venues/premises/councils require certain types and levels of insurance for organisations using their premises. Your volunteers may also need to be covered for any activities they perform throughout the year, regardless of whether it is on the day of an event. We advise that applicants who are uncertain of their insurance needs speak to our insurance broker and clarify their insurance requirements with any external parties.

Yes. We access heavily discounted insurance on an annual basis. The premium charged for the Insurance scheme is a minimum deposit premium and is the same cost for one day or up to 12 months. The insurer will only accept a 12-month policy, and this will cover you for all business activities listed under the Insurance Policies above.

Your association members and volunteers may need to be covered throughout the whole year if they are helping with any aspect of preparation – not just for the event day.

There are specific instances where your members would be covered by the General Liability insurance policy:

• Individual members of Organisation Members
• Instances where our Organisation Member is auspicing a group
• Instances where our Organisation Member is directly overseeing the activities of a group
• Instances where your members are performing activities as volunteers e.g., at your events.

The activities of groups that are members of yours would otherwise not be covered by the insurance.

• If the event is being produced on behalf of the organisation and the Event Manager is a Member of the organisation, the Event Manager will be covered under the Organisation’s liability policy.
• If an unrelated individual is involved in the production of an Arts Event for a Regional Arts Victoria Organisation Member, and is engaged as a contractor they would be required to arrange their own insurance.
• Insurance is also available to Individual Regional Arts Victoria Members for the approved business activities, including presenting of small festivals and events for audiences of up to 5,000 per event.

The Combined Liability cover will insure members of the public who visit your exhibition.

However, the insurance policies do not insure artwork in a gallery. Members would need to obtain a business insurance policy to cover the physical property.

The only time damage to artwork could be insured is if a member is found to be negligent and the owner of work were to hold the member legally liable.

For example:

• If you lock up a building and someone breaks in and steals an artwork, you are not legally liable.
• If you leave the building unlocked and someone breaks in, you then may be held legally liable.

For further information, please contact the insurance broker using the details provided.

If the activities conducted by the auspice (the group or person requiring support) fit within the parameters of activities covered under the policy and the income from the auspicee is included in the auspicor’s (the group providing support)
reported Gross annual Income.

The auspicee must also be a member of yours.

If a previously covered Member has not completed payment towards the current year’s premium by 15 November each year, an email will be sent notifying them that the organisation is no longer covered under Regional Arts Victoria’s Insurance Policies. We will notify members in writing should we expect that cover under this insurance will be discontinued or will not be renewed.

The decision as to whether a party is legally liable rests with the insurance company and/or the courts. You should ensure that other parties with whom you are engaged also have Public & Products Liability Insurance. You should never admit liability in any way, as it may prejudice your claim.

Regional Arts Victoria acts as a group purchasing body, buying a master general liability insurance policy on behalf of all Members, through our broker, GSA. Members then apply and contribute to this policy for a set cost. The policy runs for one year from 31 October annually, regardless of the application date.

As Regional Arts Victoria does not hold an Australian Financial Services License, you should consider obtaining your own financial product advice from a person and/or organisation qualified to give such advice under an Australian Financial Services License.

As a purchasing body, Regional Arts Victoria has engaged GSA (AFS License Number 238477) to arrange policies for our members. You may, at any time, contact GSA directly to confirm that our affiliate insurance is in place and remains current. Contact details are provided at the top of this page.

Regional Arts Victoria does not receive any form of remuneration (including commission) or other benefits that are reasonably attributable to the purchasing activity from the insurer, a broker or any other person for coverage of this policy.

Our insurance is the most affordable and comprehensive arts insurance available in Victoria.

We ask members to renew in August-September each year to negotiate a master insurance policy for all members in October. This is how we keep costs low, and why we can only provide a yearly insurance option.

Both Association Liability Insurance and Personal Accident Insurance for Volunteer Workers are included in the Organisation Membership fee at a fixed price.

No, we are not able to offer variations or additions to the insurance offerings. However, you can contact our broker to provide quotes for additional policies.