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Canberra Times . . Page.. 434 ..

Mr Speaker, there was quite a bit of heat in the debate at the time. There was an editorial in the Canberra Times on 4 February 1995 which really summed up a range of things that needed to be looked into. It said, in part:

Independent MLA Michael Moore has been attacked by both the Labor Party and the monopoly taxi provider in Canberra over his policy to deregulate the taxi industry.

The aim of his policy is sound; the way he proposed it should be implemented needs further thought. The ACT has 202 taxis and the price of a plate is $241,000. In total, it is $48 million “worth” of taxi plates. That “worth”, however, is not value in the sense that a tangible resource is valuable. The value of taxi plates is a purely artificial creation of Government. The Government limits the number of taxis on the road by law and therefore the value of having a part of this artificial monopoly is extremely high -

about a quarter of a million dollars -

$241,000 to be precise. This cost, of course, is passed on to the consumer in the form of higher taxi fares. True, the fares are regulated but when fares are set the cost of the plate is taken into account.

In effect, the $241,000 is a Government revenue-raising exercise and one that results in higher fares and fewer taxis on the road for the convenience of Canberrans.

The only requirement for a taxi plate should be that the car is safe and clearly marked and that the driver is suitably qualified as a driver and navigator.

Suggestions by the taxi industry that financial deregulation of the industry necessarily means lowering of safety standards is self-serving nonsense. Mr Moore did not suggest abandoning reasonable safety requirements on cars and drivers.

That said, it would be manifestly unfair to deregulate overnight. Present owners have a legitimate expectation that their artificial $241,000 worth of plate will not be discounted overnight.

The solution has to be long-term. Mr Moore proposes that the Government buy back the $48 million worth of licences. That would be far too disruptive of both the industry and the ACT Budget.

I accept that criticism as being appropriate, Mr Speaker. The editorial continued:

A better solution has been suggested by the Industry Commission and elsewhere. The Government should announce a long-term aim of financial deregulation. It should start auctioning a lot more licences.

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