Page 390 - Week 02 - Tuesday, 19 February 2019
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MR BARR: The evaluations looked at those issues and provided advice to government that government has followed.
MR WALL: Chief Minister, what do you have against hardworking families who invest their hard-earned money into providing services for local Canberrans? Will you implement a compensation scheme or a government buyback scheme as has occurred in other states and territories?
MR BARR: Nothing. And I will not be announcing government policy in question time.
Taxis—government assistance
MR WALL: My question is to the Chief Minister and Treasurer. Chief Minister, in 2015 your government introduced reforms to the taxi industry which have since resulted in the value of perpetual taxi plates falling from approximately a quarter of a million dollars, or $250,000, to currently less than $80,000. How many taxi plate owners have to lose their livelihoods before your government admits that you got the policy wrong?
MR BARR: The government’s policy intent was to ensure that, as new entrants came into the marketplace with new technologies—something that is not unique to Canberra but has in fact been occurring around the world—there would be a regulatory response by this jurisdiction. We were in fact the first in the world to regulate the arrival of rideshare services before they commenced operations. The difference here, as opposed to every other market in the world, is that we regulated in advance.
Through that process we have seen, from a consumer perspective, the number of rides taken—taxi, Uber and other services—increase, because service levels have improved as a result of competition, and prices have fallen. Consumers must come first. There is no industry without consumers and there is no world in which government will guarantee a return on investment regardless of changing economic circumstances, regardless of changing technologies and changing service delivery methods. It is very straightforward. The government cannot and will not guarantee returns on people’s investments in any industry.
MR WALL: Chief Minister, how can the government continue to defend a policy that you knew would destroy—and it has destroyed—the livelihoods of many Canberrans, all lost using ACT taxpayer dollars?
MR BARR: Because we support the interests of consumers, who were not being well served by the previous models, and because of the reality of change and innovation in service delivery. It is as straightforward as that. Uber was coming regardless. The industry had to adjust, and we sought to regulate the arrival of rideshare ahead of its commencement of operations. That is the difference between here and everywhere else. Again, no-one—no-one—is guaranteed a return on their investments by any government anywhere, and we are not going to entertain that here in the ACT.
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