Staff at Monash University furious over carpark price hike
Monash University staff are furious that the cost to park a 15-minute walk away from campus has risen by 46 per cent in three years. Now staff are demanding to know what their extra money is going towards.
Tertiary
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Staff at a Melbourne university are ‘seeing red’ as internal fights have raged over rocketing rises to carparking.
One Monash University staffer, furious about a 16 per cent rise to parking in a year, asked “are we buying tickets to a Beyonce concert or just trying to get to work?”
The issue has blown up a staff chat forum — the Herald Sun has obtaining hundreds of comments as the cheapest parking option boomed to $533 this year for the Clayton and Caulfield campuses.
One staff member attached an image of Split Enz’s ‘I See Red’ album cover, while a cross-armed Sunrise cash cow was also pictured.
Tom Cruise’s “Show me the money!” from Jerry Maguire also got a run.
It comes as the costs for staff have risen by 46 per cent in three years — or $168 — for the cheapest permit, about 15 minutes walk from the entrance.
A permit closer to the entrance of the Clayton campus also rose 14 per cent in a year, to $988.
“Now you can pay more to not finding a parking place. YAY!” a worker wrote to the chat room.
“Wonderful! If that happens I’ll just have to say at home.”
Another asked, “do you not want staff to go to work?”
A staff member told the Herald Sun that livid workers demanded to know what their extra money was buying.
“That’s what the problem is, they say the university subsidises the carparking,” the staffer said.
“But it’s a lot of money.”
Questions were also raised over why part-time workers were forced to pay for full time parking permits, with the response being that staff may turn up to work on more days than they were rostered.
A Monash spokeswoman said the university “does not make a profit on parking” and the increases “bring prices more in line with the significant and increasing cost to operate and maintain our carparks.”
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“This includes maintenance and staffing for traffic management.”
While staff parking costs boomed, student parking rose just 1.7 per cent.
The university had pointed staff to the cost of parking at Melbourne University — $2850 for the year — but it didn’t go down well, with workers highlighting the CBD campus was better serviced by public transport.
Deakin staff parking last year was $484 for the cheapest annual permit at its Burwood campus, while La Trobe staff pay a minimum $409.83 at its Melbourne campus this year.