Page 440 - Week 02 - Wednesday, 20 February 2019
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This is what the Canberra Liberals are calling on the government to do today, Madam Speaker. We are calling on the government to implement a fair and equitable compensation scheme or buyback scheme so that these taxi plate owners who have had their retirement incomes obliterated by this government are able to get out of the market. We are also calling on the government to implement common-sense reforms which would truly level the playing field in the on-demand transport sector. These reforms would allow taxis to remain profitable and would deliver far better on-demand transport options for Canberrans.
We are calling on the government to, firstly, implement reforms to insurance premiums so that insurance premiums align more closely with those of the Queanbeyan taxi industry and rideshare services. At the moment, taxis in the ACT are paying more than $20,000 a year in insurance premiums, while those in Queanbeyan are paying less than $8,000 a year and ACT rideshare drivers are paying as little as $1,800 a year. How is this fair?
We are also calling on the government to reform the working with vulnerable persons process to prevent bottlenecks in approvals for licences. At the moment, potential drivers are waiting up to nine weeks for these working with vulnerable persons cards, despite already having the required criminal history checks which draw on the exact same database. If you need work and you are looking to become a taxi driver, you generally need work now. For many Canberra families, nine weeks is easily the difference between being able to put food on the table and pay their electricity bills. Nine weeks means that many potential drivers are walking away from the industry. This means that taxi plate owners are unable to find drivers, that their taxi plates are becoming less profitable, and, most importantly for consumers, that we have fewer taxis on our roads.
Finally, we are calling on the government to streamline the age limit for vehicles across the industry. At the moment, taxi vehicles can only be in service for eight years, while rideshare vehicles can be in service for up to 10 years. How is this fair? It seems that we have one rule for one group of people and another for others.
That brings me back to the issue of compensation. Let me go to pokie machines. The pokie machine industry is another industry heavily regulated by government. As we know, this government recently embarked on a scheme to buy back pokie licences from our community clubs. And guess what? They are paying compensation, compensation for investments made for which the government has now changed the goalposts.
These two situations are not particularly different. The minister claims that they are different because community clubs are not for profit. Given that some of our taxi plate owners have seen their income fall by over 75 per cent in the last 12 months alone, it may not be long before our taxi industry is also not for profit. Again, we have one rule for some and another for others. Dare I say that if the Labor Club or the Tradies had made the decision to invest in taxi plates we would not be having this debate today.
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