Surcharge on taxi and Uber trips could double to $2 under compensation proposal
The surcharge on taxi and Uber trips could double to $2 under a compensation plan to give taxi drivers back what they paid for their plates.
NSW
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Taxi drivers who bought their licences before Uber was legalised would be compensated what they paid for their plates under a proposal being pushed by Liberal MP Ray Williams.
It can be revealed that Mr Williams wants to fund the package by imposing an extra $1 charge on all taxi and ride share trips.
The “passenger service levy,” which would double to $2, could be in place until 2028.
Giving taxi licence holders “market value” for their plates could take the government’s compensation bill to more than $1 billion.
Mr Williams was one of at least 10 cross-party MPs who attended a protest outside parliament on Thursday calling on the government to pay “fair compensation” to taxi drivers.
“All I want my government to do, all I want them to do is give you bloody fair compensation for what you deserve,” he told the taxi driver rally.
The Castle Hill MP last week led a backbench revolt over a proposed compensation package which would give Sydney licence holders $100,000 per plate, and regional drivers up to $130,000.
In last week’s Coalition party room meeting, Mr Williams declared Treasury boffins who drafted the plan needed to “f*ck off”.
The package which would have upped compensation to $675 million was scuppered, with Transport Minister David Elliott told to go back to the drawing board.
Mr Williams told taxi drivers that he was “sorry” for the financial pain they had been through.
“(To) those people who have sold homes because they’ve had to, and those people that have hundreds and hundreds of thousands of dollars of debt for the price they paid for taxi plates prior to the legalisation of ride sharing, can I just say to you all I’m sorry.”
“No amount of sympathy will wind back what those people, and what you people have suffered for seven years,” he said.
“If we are looking to compensate taxi plate owners, you should receive the market value of your plate prior to the legalisation of ride sharing,” he said.
“Anything outside of that, to my mind, is unfair. Because we have already set the benchmark on behalf of compensating hire plate owners,” he said.
After ridesharing was legalised, hire car licence plate owners were compensated the market value of their plates plus inflation.
Labor’s Small Business spokesman Steve Kamper told the rally that the government had “dumped” drivers overnight by legalising Uber.
“No more of this, they have to come good,” he said.
Ahead of the rally, Premier Dominic Perrottet said that Mr Elliott was “working with colleagues” to find a compromise.
“We want to obviously provide as much support as we can, industries get disrupted from time to time and that certainly happened with the taxi industry,” he said.
“It needs to be done in the right way, and with over $500 million, (our package) is the most generous package in the nation.
“But there have been concerns raised, and the transport minister is working with colleagues in relation to that,” he said
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