The TL;DR - going through insurance for the damage the third party caused was a mess due to cost cutting processes. My advice - find a repairer that specialises in your vehicle, and they will ensure there's no hidden damage, and to ensure that the right parts are used.

A significant whack of that 23k bill was to undo the mess done by the original "cheapest quote" received by the repair hub; apparently they found Toyota bolts being used in my Volkswagen! There was also damage that wasn't fixed initially that impacted the structural integrity of the vehicle.

After they refused to rectify the situation, several escalations within my insurer didn't get anywhere until I threatened AFCA escalation, after which I was assigned the right resources and was able to proceed with a preferred repairer who quoted around 12-13k initially but found 23k of work in all.

The original repair bill was $6k including hire car, which I think was the majority of the bill for nearly six weeks. After the initial repairs were done, the front bumper wasn't even touched and was clearly deformed. The second time I received my car, they didn't want to fix the crooked tailgate.

I had my car rear-ended and pushed into the car in front a while ago. Going through insurance was a shit show with two sub-part repairs until I threatened AFCA action for an insured event that was not my fault. It was an absolute shitshow.