DRIVE NOW March/April 2022

Industry battles continue - and so does Rod!
According to Hansard, I alone
delivered 106 speeches during
this parliamentary term which
mentioned the word taxi and
raised issues concerning the
industry.
By comparison, there was a total
of seven mentions from all other
political parties combined for the
same period, mostly in response
to motions and speeches I
presented. There is a lot of
smoke and mirrors in parliament
but the proof lies clearly in the
actions taken.
I am the Lone
Ranger. There is no
other member of
parliament actively
fighting for this
cause, and I do
this without any
meaningful support
from any other party.
Despite my best efforts,
many important battles
remain ongoing. For example,
addressing the inadequacy
of compensation for the
compulsory acquisition of
perpetual taxi and hire car
licences due to the 2017 reforms
remains a complicated and
sensitive matter that is yet to
conclude.
During the height of the
pandemic, the government had
little band width for anything
other than the unfolding and
continuous crisis that COVID-19
created.
Although disappointing,
COVID-19 has understandably
delayed a resolution addressing
our concerns. However, now
that the urgency surrounding the
pandemic has eased, we seek
your patience in these matters
as we re-commence discussions
and push for an outcome in the
coming months. This will finalise
the government’s response to
the parliamentary inquiry into
the 2017 industry reforms, which
included a recommendation to
review the transitional funding
package for perpetual taxi and
hire car licence owners.
While our most important and
difficult battle has proceeded
slowly in the background, we
have had many wins along the
way which would not have been
possible without the continued
support of our members and the
invaluable work of my team. See
next page for details.
14 March/April 2022