Message from Rod Barton MP

VICTORIA NEWS

The taxi and hire car industry has suffered an enormous impact due to the COVID-19 crisis, seeing a 90% drop in taxi demand and close to 100% drop in hire car demand. Taxis, in particular, are an essential service that play a vitally important role in our society. For many Victorians, taxis are the only form of transport available to them, especially people in wheelchairs and people in regional and rural Victoria. The government has an obligation to support taxi services for Victorians who rely on them and to ensure they are there as the economy recovers. The government took a risk in asking me, a nongovernment member, to be part of a Commercial Passenger Vehicle (CPV) Panel with the task of advising the Minister for Transport on measures to assist the CPV industry during this time. The panel made a number of recommendations, costing $22million to the Minister for Transport which have been accepted. These targeted and effective initiatives are a good start in addressing the challenges the industry is facing. They are grouped into three clear objectives;

Transport for Vulnerable Victorians

A COVID-19 Safe Industry

Ensuring a viable CPV industry. The Minister for Transport, Ben Carroll, has asked that I continue as a member of the CPV Panel to identify further opportunities to utilise CPV’s, assist and oversee the implementation and conduct a review of the initiatives in three months.

Rod Barton MLC Leader, Transport Matters Party

This will complement the already agreed role to implement any government endorsed recommendations from the Inquiry into the Commercial Passenger Vehicle Industry Act 2017 Reform that was undertaken late last year and due for response by the end of 2020.

The recently published report on the Gig economy highlights what was already well known. Gig economy workers, which includes ride-share drivers, many whose first language may not be English, are being paid significantly below the national minimum wage, do not have safe working conditions, and receive no superannuation, no holiday pay, no sick pay, no penalty rates, no maternity leave. There are questions about who is responsible for WorkCover payments. Those in the Gig economy have gone without the protections that other working people in Victoria expect and receive. It is time to change laws to ensure Gig economy workers receive fair pay and safe working conditions. Disappointingly the recently published report on the Gig economy fails to address the impact by the Gig economy on an industry and those workers in it who have been treated so unfairly. I am referring to those in the Victorian taxi and hire car industry. turn to page 16