DRIVE A2B November 2017

inadequate. Just $100,000 is paid
for a first licence and $50,000
for each of the following three
licences to a total maximum
payment of $250,000. And this
despite some licence holders
paying hundreds of thousands of
dollars for each individual licence
and paying this to the State
Government.
Some families have many licences
for which they will receive nothing
at all.
Unfortunately, for these
owners, many of whom
worked hard, saved, and made
family sacrifices to build up
their position lawfully within
a government regulated
industry, they have now been
left high and dry by Daniel
Andrews’ own decisions.
Some families may have a dozen
or more licences purchased
with debt finance or as part of a
retirement income/superannuation
holding.
There is a risk that there will be a
sudden knock on from the shock
of wiping value to effectively zero
for thousands of taxi licences.
Many of those for whom these
licences were treated as collateral
will face rapid foreclosure by
banks. This process has already
begun. And don’t think there aren’t
serious consequences for some
banks either.
I am very fearful for the health
of many of those families and
individuals who face losing
everything; suicide and selfharming
are very real possibilities.
The High Court of Australia has
ruled that taxi licences are assets.
The tragedy is the Victorian
Labor’s uncaring and aloof Public
Transport Minister, Jacinta Allan,
has viciously stripped away these
assets offering only inadequate
and unfairly administered
transition assistance and no
compensation, in the process
ruining the lives of many taxi
families.
The Victorian Parliament’s
watchdog in the Scrutiny of Acts
and Regulations Committee
(SARC) has not warned like it
should have, blithely accepting
Public Transport Minister Jacinta
Allan’s patently false assertions
that taxi licences are not assets.
SARC failed to sharply invoke the
Charter of Human Rights which
at Section 20 says: “A person
must not be deprived of his or her
property other than in accordance
with the law”. Whilst this right is
weak under the Victorian Charter,
surely few Victorians would find
it acceptable that one may be
deprived of his or her property no
matter how unreasonable the law
is.
Plainly, the Andrews Labor
Government is prepared to thumb
its nose at common decency
which would see such protections
upheld. Daniel Andrews and his
government have allowed Uber to
operate illegally instead of properly
legislating, properly regulating
and properly compensating preexisting
taxi licence holders.
Victorian Labor will also introduce
a nasty new tax of one dollar per
taxi, hire car or Uber ride to be paid
The Hon David Davis MP
Shadow Minister for Public Transport
by the passengers on each and
every trip. Sadly, it is not clear this
will be used to support those who
deserve compensation.
In fact, a seriously misguided
amendment introduced by a minor
party, but fully supported by Labor
and Greens, will direct much of the
taxi tax money to funding state
bureaucracy.
The Coalition sought
unsuccessfully, by amendment, to
reverse Labor’s misdirection of its
new taxi tax.
No-one can stop the tide of history
and change. New technologies,
arrangements and apps must be
embraced, but government surely
has a responsibility to treat fairly
those who have operated lawfully
under the taxi arrangements it put
in place and sold licences from
which it profited over decades.
Small businesses, many of
them run by thrifty hardworking
migrant families,
are the victims of Labor’s
shambolic process.
DRIVE A2B magazine · November 2017
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