The Victorian Liberal Party have announced that they intend to scrap the Commercial Passenger Trip Levy which was introduced in 2018 to compensate taxi and hire car licence owners after deregulating the industry.
Rod Barton MP is calling on Matthew Guy to reverse this decision and commit all revenue raised from the levy collection in the next term to be paid to taxi and hire car licence holders.
There is precedence to these proposed fair and just transition payments. Barton believes Mr Guy should look and reflect on the actions of Premier Dominic Perrottet in NSW, who has introduced a second transition payment package for licence holders. This package is almost double the Victorian package.
The $1.05 levy on all commercial passenger vehicle trips has a very limited impact on people's lives yet will go a long way to supporting licence holders who still suffer legacy debts today.
The goal of the levy is yet to be achieved. Currently, the levy has not paid off the first instalment of transition payments, which can be partly attributed to limited services during COVID-19.
Barton calls on both the Coalition and the Labor Party to commit to using the levy collection to provide fair and just transition payments to ex-licence holders.
Sadly, the government and opposition still have no plan to support taxi and hire car families. Barton has a plan and intends to execute it in the next parliament.
Quotes attributable to Member for Eastern Metropolitan and the Leader of the Transport Matters Party Rod Barton MP:
"The Liberals have shown no support to taxi and hire car operators these past 4 years. This decision to remove the levy has made clear they are walking away from licence holders"
"Without the levy, there is no hope of a future transition payment. We must repair the past if we are going to build a sustainable pathway forward for the industry."
