The push by two Victorian ministers from the Legalise Cannabis party to update Melbourne’s bus network by offering free rides has been rejected in Parliament, with the ministers vowing to continue their push.
The motion was tabled in Parliament this week calling on the Victorian government to fix the state’s “inefficient and convoluted bus network”, asking for the government to trial making buses free for all Victorians.
The motion, ran by Western Metro MP David Ettershank and South Eastern MP Rachel Payne, was run on the belief that “accessible and affordable public transport for all is an equity issue”.
- Subscribe to our free weekly newsletter to receive the latest news and classifieds from Australasia’s bus and coach industry
- Don’t miss a second and subscribe to our monthly ABC magazine
The motion brought debate in Parliament, with a range of MPs agreeing that the city’s bus network needs updating to provide more reach to people in outer suburbs, but the majority disagreeing on the move to make buses free in Melbourne.
MP for Western Victoria Bev McArthur was one minister who didn’t agree with the idea.
“I cannot agree with it because there is no such thing as ‘free’ buses – somebody pays – the taxpayers,” McArthur says.
“If he (Ettershank) had said ‘investigate the feasibility of heavily taxpayer-subsidised buses’, it might have been closer to the mark.
“There is nothing wrong with the concept of cheaper buses, but we should be dealing with the reasons that running buses – or any Victorian business, in fact – is expensive and unviable in this state rather than chucking public money at a problem that the government itself is making worse.”
The end motion only saw six ministers agree to the call, with 30 rejecting it.
“We know that better buses would provide a cost-effective solution to the dire public transport situation,” Ettershank says.
“Despite Victorian members of Parliament having free public transport for life, disappointingly, the major parties voted against our motion, seemingly because they didn’t even want to investigate the idea that buses should be more accessible and affordable for all Victorians. It’s hypocrisy.”
Despite the motion being rejected, Ettershank and Payne aren’t giving up, continuing to fight for an improvement to Melbourne’s public transport network.
ABC spoke to well-known transport expert and Professor of Public Transport at Monash University Graham Currie about the proposal, with Currie agreeing that free buses won’t help fix glaring issues in the city’s bus network.
“I want to focus on the biggest problem, which is the lack of services and the gaps in the network – free fares don’t address that,” Currie told ABC.
“The single largest problem with buses aren’t addressed by a free fare initiative, in fact, you could argue that free fares could harm future plans to have more frequent buses that fill gaps and offer improved services.
“One thing we need now is money – free fares could lose hundreds of millions of dollars of revenue currently.
“Instead of paying millions to make fares free, I’d rather that money goes into updating the bus network to ensure more people are reached by bus services each day.”
Read more:
- Kelsian Group CEO and managing director to step down
- GoZero Group appoints CEO of manufacturing
- Should there be free buses in Melbourne?
- Kinetic shuts down Sydney commercial charter operations
- Brisbane Metro begins service