DRIVE NOW June 2021

FROM THE
Editor
Is the maximum fare
value a fair price?
STOP
PRESS
Rod Barton MP has successfully moved amendments
that will deliver a modest fare increase of 2.5%
to Victorian taxi drivers from 1 July 2021. These
amendments had the support of the entire
Legislative Council except for 2 Liberal Democrats.
This increase is in line with the Fair Work
Commission’s 2021 annual increase. And the even
better news is that every year from now, Victorian
taxi fares will be increased by the value for minimum
wages set by the Fair Work Commission.
Fair Work Commission has announced that there is to be a 2.5% pay increase for the most underpaid
workers in Australia, which will equate to an additional 49 cents per hour. This takes the minimum wage
for Australians to $20.33 an hour, or $772.60 a week for full-time workers.
Australian’s taxi drivers’ cost of living expenses, road tolls, rents, insurance etc. increase every year.
Unlike Award wage earners they get no holiday pay, no sick pay, no superannuation and no carer’s leave.
Yet Governments all around Australia still expect these transport workers to work for half the minimum
wage and not afford them a marginal increase.
From 1 July the Victorian $1 Trip Levy will be increased to $1.05. The State Revenue Office states that since
2018 the Consumer Price Index (CPI) has increased by 5.4%, so the commercial passenger vehicle levy will
be increased by the same amount. No doubt all other Australian States which have instituted the $1 Trip
Levy will also be looking at increasing the amount they receive per fare.
In Victoria, there has not been a fare increase since 2014 and Rod Barton MP is calling on the Victorian
Government to rectify this wrong and initiate a pay rise for taxi drivers, by increasing the maximum
amount that can be charged on the meter.
The Western Australia State Government has approved a 6.5% increase to maximum metered taxi fares in
all regions across WA, effective 1 July 2021. The Government states that the approved increase reflects
changes in the cost of living in Perth and across regional WA since 2014.
Throughout the rest of Australia it has been a long time (between 4 and 7 years) since taxis have seen any
increases to rank and hail fares.
During all the ups and downs of COVID-19 the taxis were and are an essential service. Why then are they
being penalised by not granting them an increase based on CPI or Fair Work Commission increases every
year? Where is the fairness in that? How are the State Governments going to make this right?
Toni Peters
6 June 2021