Ms PATTEN (Northern Metropolitan) — My question is for the Minister for Public Transport, represented by Minister Pulford. The government’s compensation scheme for taxi licence owners as part of the broader ridesharing reforms has caused a great deal of angst and is directly linked to the $2 levy that the government proposes to introduce.
A significant part of the problem is the design of the scheme, with many taxi licence owners of the view that it does not take into account their personal circumstances. We know from freedom of information requests by Herald Sun journalists that, for example, only 9 per cent of licences were purchased for more than $400 000. Given that the government has this level of detail about licences and that what we are talking about is a relatively small number of individuals, as many have multiple licences, why is the government proposing a flat rate of compensation for licences rather than taking a more individual approach?
Ms PATTEN (Northern Metropolitan) — Thank you, Minister; I appreciate that, and I do appreciate that it is in front of us at the moment. But we have had the fairness fund going for some time, which is means tested by the government, and they are asking details about the licence-holder’s assets, liabilities and financial position. Again, I would ask the Minister for Public Transport why this individualised approach taken to the fairness fund cannot be extended to the compensation scheme.
RESPONSE:
Every jurisdiction in Australia is moving to regulate ridesharing. The Victorian Government’s financial assistance package of $494 million to assist the existing industry in the most generous in the nation.
The financial assistance package is targeted at those who need it most, the small family run businesses. The Government is providing financial assistance for the first four licences held by an entity. Ninety eight per cent of licence holders hold four licences or less.
The Government has acknowledged that this level of assistance may still leave some licence holders in financial difficulty and has implemented a $50 million Fairness Fund.
Applications opened in November 2016 and remain open until the end of April 2017. There are over 5000 licence holders and taking an individualised approach to each licence would place a significant administrative burden on all licence holders and the Government that would significantly delay payments.
The Government believes that the application based approach to responding to licence holders’ individual circumstances is the fairest and most efficient approach.
