2016-02-23
Ms DUNN: (Eastern Metropolitan) — My question is for the Special Minister of State. We have seen the Greens-Labor government in the ACT regulate ride-sharing services quickly and efficiently. We have also seen Western Australia, Tasmania and New South Wales move quickly towards regulation. Can the minister update the house on the progress of the taxi and hire car industry ministerial forum and the regulation of ride-sharing services in Victoria?
Answer:
Mr JENNINGS: I thank Ms Dunn. I am bitterly disappointed. She has broken my colleague’s heart. She feels neglected today, so I hope there will be some opportunity for Ms Dunn to remedy that during the course of the sitting week.
Again, I thank Ms Dunn for being one of the team that keeps reminding us of how the Greens may form parts of administrative leadership in other jurisdictions in this nation—something that they have actually tried to resist at every turn in this jurisdiction. Maybe one day they will exhibit some interest in that regard, but certainly there has not been any skerrick of it up until now. So let us just leave that issue aside.
There are a number of jurisdictions around the world, not only around Australia, that have actually tried to grapple with the appropriate regulatory environment that relates to the use of Uber services, and indeed in Victoria there is a distinction between those activities which are currently regulated under hire car provisions and those that are not—those that use an application that provides for pretty instant access, it seems, for certain customers to certain service providers. But one of the things that almost unites every jurisdiction that has tried to deal with this matter up until now has been that it is not an easy space to regulate, in terms of the confidence that the customer may have, customer safety and certainty and the reliability of that regulation, and then particularly overlaid by the cost structures of the existing taxi industry within that jurisdiction.
For instance, in Victoria we have had, up until this time, a very highly regulated taxi environment, which has also been underpinned by comparatively high licence fees and been subject to very complicated ownership and relationships between the owners of those licences and drivers—which from time to time has led to much anxiety, within both that sector and the community that uses that sector. So we have a very high-cost structure that underpins the taxi industry, and we actually have a very low-cost structure competitor, where the regulatory environment is very difficult. In certain situations—for instance, in New South Wales—this has been attempted recently. The New South Wales government has tried to embark on a scheme, and the Victorian government has been assessing whether that provides the appropriate regulatory balance between the existing taxi industry and the Uber application and network. We are not necessarily convinced that they have actually struck the right balance in relation to protecting the existing taxi industry, and that is a matter that we have taken advice on through the forum that the member has referred to.
Not only has my colleague the Minister for Public Transport received the advice from that forum but she has engaged, very thoroughly, in a departmental and a collegiate-based process within government to try to address these matters. We have met on a number of occasions to consider those recommendations that may come from the forum, and the government in the next few months will be clearly articulating a response, based upon best evidence and best practice, and perhaps remedying some of those things that other jurisdictions have not been able to do.
Ms DUNN: I thank the minister for his answer. I am wondering: can the minister elaborate on how often the taxi and hire car industry ministerial forum has met, and although he alluded to a ‘few months’, can he give more certainty as to when consumers and drivers of ride-sharing services can expect a draft proposal?
Mr JENNINGS: I think most members in the chamber were demonstrating that I was giving a very elaborate answer to the substantive question, because probably from about three-quarters of the way in they thought that I had actually acquitted my responsibility—from their body language—and they were waiting for me to conclude. Nonetheless, I have indicated to the member that the government certainly has been considering this matter very closely. In relation to the time frame that the government will respond in, I think it would be most appropriate for my colleague the Minister for Public Transport to answer rather than any other minister on her behalf.