The Premier Daniel Andrews has forgotten his own key election promise not to introduce new taxes and now wants to add this excessive $2 charge to each taxi and Uber trip.

This is double the levy imposed on trips in New South Wales, making Victoria the most expensive state to take an Uber.

The Andrews government’s ‘taxi tax’ will especially hurt pensioners and regional Victorians who have limited public transport options.

Anything that makes transport more expensive for Victorians is not a good outcome and we will need to see modelling around any proposed levy and licence buy-back schemes.

The compensation of $100,000 for an operator’s first licence is insignificant next to the half a million dollars some of them have invested in the purchase.

While Uber is well-supported in capital cities, there are different needs in regional areas that need to be considered.

We need to protect the taxi services that provide a range of important services over and above those traditionally used in Melbourne, particularly addressing disability and insurance issues in more remote areas.

It seems incredible that the Andrews government would leak cabinet details of the ride sharing legislation, but more importantly, the government has side-stepped a parliamentary inquiry in charge of looking at the barriers to entry, consumer protection, competition access to people with disabilities, as well as remuneration and workplace rights for services and licence plate holders.

Introducing a new ‘taxi tax’ without allowing the investigative impact studies through a parliamentary inquiry smacks of a chaotic government that is desperate to look like it’s doing something but hasn’t thought of the consequences. 

SIMON RAMSAY

Member for Western Victoria

THE Victorian Farmers Federation Livestock Group is determined to negotiate the best outcome for livestock producers following the state government’s decision to introduce mandatory electronic identification (eID) tags in sheep and goats born after January 1, 2017.

We will be working hard to ensure farmers and other stakeholders will not face additional cost by this decision of government to mandate electronic tags in sheep and goats.

Livestock producers need a guarantee that they won’t be disadvantaged by the cost of fitting electronic tags to their stock.

The state government has offered to invest in eIDs for the first year, but this investment by government needs to be guaranteed for the long term.

The state government’s tag tender system is a well proven method of sustaining low cost tags as is evident in the cattle industry.

Governments - state and federal - need to remember they have a community obligation to contribute to the cost of traceability when it comes to major livestock disease outbreaks that affect everyone – not just farmers. The federation still believes the most effective way of implementing electronic tags is to have a consistent approach that’s affordable to farmers and well supported by industry.

But as it stands, we are determined to negotiate the best possible outcome for livestock producers to guarantee there’s no impact on livestock operations across Victoria due to the government’s initiative.

We will make it clear to government that the cost of post farm gate eID infrastructure must not be imposed on farmers.

More information about the government’s changes to eIDs is available at www.agriculture.vic.gov.au/sheepEID

LEONARD VALLANCE

VFF Livestock President