Thursday, 20 February 2025

 Ellen SANDELL (Melbourne) (09:58): In Queensland you can get on a train, a bus or a ferry and all it costs you is 50 cents, yet here in Victoria a single trip on public transport costs more than $5, so that is more than 10 times what it costs in Queensland. If Queensland can have 50-cent public transport fares, why can’t Victoria? There is no reason we cannot have that here too. Here in Victoria a commuter pays over $2500 just to get to work on public transport every single year. If you are a family and you just want to get into the city for an event, it could cost you over $40. In a cost-of-living crisis this is unacceptable. The Labor state government could do something about this and introduce 50-cent public transport fares now. It would be a great relief to people with cost-of-living pressures. It would also reduce our emissions; transport is our fastest growing source of emissions here in Victoria.

Public transport usage has not actually rebounded since COVID here in Victoria, so we need to do something to encourage people to get back on public transport, reduce our emissions, get cars off the road and ease family budgets. In Queensland these 50-cent public transport fares have led to a 20 per cent increase in public transport use. We could have the same here in Victoria if this state Labor government adopted the Greens’ plan for 50-cent public transport fares here in Victoria.