Wednesday, 29 October 2025

 Lily D’AMBROSIO (Mill Park – Minister for Climate Action, Minister for Energy and Resources, Minister for the State Electricity Commission) (20:39): Under standing orders I wish to advise the house of amendments to this bill and request that they be circulated.

 Sam GROTH (Nepean) (20:41): I rise to give a contribution on behalf of the opposition on the Transport Legislation Amendment Bill 2025. With the time of night and the last two days, I will try to keep this as brief as possible. I will also flag that some amendments have just been circulated to the house that the opposition has not yet seen. We will do our best to go through and we will take them on good faith from the government that they are needed and do not change the substance of the bill, but obviously we will need time to go through what those are, and I am sure many others will do that before they make their contribution to this bill.

I think everyone here would believe that Victoria deserves a public transport system that is safe, that is modern, that is fair, that protects its passengers, that protects its passengers’ privacy, their safety, but delivers genuine improvements in service quality and technology. This bill does some of that, but parts of this bill do the complete opposite. The bill in front of us would authorise audio recordings of passengers in taxis and in rideshare vehicles, not only limited to incident-specific situations but broadly, under this legislation, every time you step into a commercial passenger vehicle you will have your trip recorded via audio. It expands surveillance powers dramatically, it gives private operators access to that recording and leaves the privacy settings to be determined later, not by this place, just by the minister by gazette. It also addresses changes to tokens in the way the Myki system operates, and we will go to that in depth. Of course we know Myki has been two decades in the making. Two decades it has taken to get here since Myki was introduced, and there have been a number of failures under this government for a long, long time. We still do not have tap and go here in Victoria, with other jurisdictions. I look forward to the contribution from the member for Murray Plains, who still tells me that there is paper ticketing operating in his area when it comes to V/Line. Not only are we not seeing tap and go in Victoria yet, we are also seeing paper tickets on parts of the network in terms of regional Victoria, I am told by the member from Murray Plains.

We support safety measures. Of course we support modernisation. We do have some concerns around the bill. I do personally as well under section 6 of the Surveillance Devices Act 1999. It is an offence to use a listening device to record a private conversation if the person recording is not a party to that conversation. I understand that the government does not believe there is a conflict in this situation, but through a conversation or an email that we have had with the Office of the Victorian Information Commissioner – and I appreciate the member for Mornington, in his communications with OVIC – they have not been consulted on this bill. They are not aware of a privacy impact assessment that should have been done as to how this affects passengers and their private conversations.

I note that we will not be opposing this bill, but at the same time I think people should have an understanding that if this bill passes this place and the other place, once they step into a taxi or a rideshare vehicle, any private conversation that they have will be recorded, whether that is paying for something over the phone, giving their credit card details, whether it is a legal conversation, a medical conversation, or a conversation with their family that may be private. Now, we understand that when you step into a commercial passenger vehicle, into a taxi, you give up some right to that privacy; you are riding in a form of public transport. But at the same time my understanding is in other jurisdictions like New South Wales and Western Australia that recording is only stored locally within the vehicle where those recordings take place and can only be accessed by the police or the regulator.

In this case with what the government is putting forward it will actually be the booking service providers that will have access and will be required to store those recordings. So if you have a conversation that is confidential in nature, and you give your credit card, what you are expecting is someone, for example, at the depot at 13cabs – and nothing against 13cabs, they do the job that they do – and that booking service provider to protect that audio recording. I personally have concerns, and I think Victorians should just be aware that that is the case, that you are relying on 13cabs or Silver Top or Uber or a commercial driver to keep those conversations confidential.

I am going to talk a little bit, and because we have agreed to try to get out of here tonight, fairly quickly, through some of the pieces around Myki. We are asking the government to trust us with our voice data, but this government’s record on technology is not the greatest, especially when you think about Myki. Approved in 2005 at around a billion dollars, Myki was due to be fully operational by 2007, and the Auditor-General back in 2015 said that delivery time stretched to over nine years. The cost grew by roughly $550 million – that is 55 per cent – and there was poor planning and vague contracts produced through significant delivery risks that were poorly managed because of shortcomings in the state’s initial governance and oversight. We know there are contracts currently being negotiated around the future of Myki and new things being signed; I hope that eventually we get to a position where we see tap and go like there has been in London since 2014 and like we see in other states here in Australia. We know the full rollout of Myki did not occur until 2012, and there was only limited introduction in 2014. The next contract came through in 2017. The Victorian Auditor-General’s Office warned that fewer than half its earlier recommendations had been implemented, and that process risked repeating the same mistakes. In 2013 the government signed a 15-year deal – a $1.7 billion contract – with Conduent business services to modernise Myki and to enable tap and go. Now it is what, 2½ years on, and we still have not seen that. We also know from the state budget this year back in May that the public transport ticketing asset renewal program is running 18 months late and is close to $140 million over budget following a program reset. So Myki has a history of failures under this government. We also know that back in August 2024 this government spent $3.3 million upgrading old Myki readers to 4G because the system was not ready when the 3G was switched off.

In the bill briefing – and I do thank the minister’s advisers in the department for the assistance they gave to the opposition and the questions they have come back on notice with today that I have circulated to members of the opposition – we still do not have an exact timeline; we are saying 2026. There is a history of delays under this government and failures when it comes to Myki. Victorians are ready to see it now. After 20 years I think Victorians want to see Myki. They want to see tap and go. They want to be able to use it on their iPhone, not just their Android. It all needs to be done.

The bill does amend the Transport (Compliance and Miscellaneous) Act 1983 to recognise digital tokens, so it allows the implementation of credit cards, debit cards and mobile devices. My understanding is it will only be done on this for full fares initially – there is not the option for tap and go for concession fares. Also for people out in regional Victoria who may start their journey in an area that does not currently carry Myki and who still require e- and paper tickets, there is a concern about how passengers are going to ticket their journey when Myki and those e-tickets do not line up properly. There is no schedule, there is no transition plan, there is no guide on fare enforcement – there are a lot of questions still to answer.

The other part – very minimal changes to the Bus Safety Act 2009 to remove an outdated requirement for drivers to sign paper accreditation certificates – is great, but I think buses in Victoria are a real missing piece in our public transport system. When you come from an area like mine or the member for Mornington’s on the Mornington Peninsula, our constituents rely heavily on buses. We do not have a train other than the train that stops at Frankston and the V/Line that runs to Stony Point. Unlike metropolitan Melbourne, 82 per cent of the Mornington Peninsula is not covered by public transport. I know the member for Mornington has advocated strongly for buses to go from his electorate through to the Hastings electorate for people to get across; in my electorate of Nepean people currently cannot get from Flinders to Rosebud – they have to actually go back further into town and back towards Frankston to be able to come back out.

When you are living in those areas – and there are a lot of young people who work in the hospitality sector and in the tourism sector who require public transport to get to and from work – you are talking at times about having one to two buses an hour, without the ability to cross certain areas of the peninsula. It is unacceptable. I thank Mr Luu in the other place, who has spoken to me already, in the short time that I have held this portfolio, about the need for upgrades and changes to the bus network throughout the western part of Melbourne, and that is certainly something that I will be looking into strongly. Again, I do thank Mr Luu for raising that already in the short time.

I will be very quick here – I am at 10 minutes, so I think I am going to get eye-rolls from a few. We are not blind to the risks that both drivers and passengers face when it comes to commercial vehicles, to taxis, to fare evasion, to people being ripped off, being charged without a meter. But there are also alternatives that this government should be looking at, and I hope they continue to look at other options in this space. We want to make sure that people’s privacy is protected as much as they are kept safe. That is why I want to move a reasoned amendment. I move:

That all the words after ‘That’ be omitted and replaced with the words ‘this house refuses to read this bill a second time until the government publishes a comprehensive privacy impact assessment relating to the introduction and retention of audio recording, seeks legal advice about the bill’s compatibility with the Surveillance Devices Act 1999, and ensures that appropriate privacy, data security, and legislative consistency safeguards are put in place.’

I will leave my contribution there tonight so we can all get home, and I look forward to others contributing on the bill.

 Josh BULL (Sunbury) (20:52): I am pleased to have the opportunity at this reasonably late hour now to make what will be a short contribution on the Transport Legislation Amendment Bill 2025. I quite like the previous speaker, the member for Nepean. However, I just want to take up some of the commentary around the government’s investment in and commitment to transport in this state. What we have seen over these past nearly 11 years is a significant series of investments, whether that be the Metro Tunnel; the removal of 110 dangerous and congested level crossings by 2030; the commitment to North East Link, which is now more than halfway through; or of course the West Gate Tunnel. It is a significant package of reforms that go to getting people where they need to go each and every day. Unfortunately what we saw in that period from 2010 to 2014 was absolute crickets. I will just make the observation that this government has invested, through budgets and programs and projects, each and every day in our growing communities, our local communities, and certainly hundreds of millions of dollars in buses as well, for growing communities and electric buses on top of that, making sure that those connections are important. We of course reserve the right to continue to do that, and I want to thank each and every person that works in public transport right across the state.

I mentioned that this contribution will be fairly short. The bill before the house tonight implements reforms to the commercial passenger vehicle industry by amending the Commercial Passenger Vehicle Industry Act 2017 to strengthen industry laws, particularly in relation to driver misconduct, and improve industry transparency. The bill will also amend the Transport (Compliance and Miscellaneous) Act 1983 to support the introduction of alternate methods of paying for public transport, enabling the use of debit and credit cards as an alternative to Myki. This is a significant change to the network. It is an important change to the network, and it brings us into line with the wonderful major capital cities right around the world, where, whether you are a traveller, whether you are someone who commutes on the system frequently and often, you are able to tap on and move through. You might be coming from Mordialloc, you might be coming from Mill Park, you might be coming from some of the wonderful places – from Sunbury, from Springvale, from all of these places right across our state. You are able to just move through. You might even be able to come from Brighton. The member from Brighton would be happy to just to tap on and move through. These are the things that we know commuters love, and these are the investments that form not just one but a suite, a range of programs and investments that go to public transport in our state.

Not to be a one-trick pony, but we have been able to deliver Metro, North East Link, level crossing removals and provide for a ticketing system, which we know people love, that is going to make a difference each and every day. To add on to all of that, free PT for those under 18 starting 1 January next year – lots of acronyms; you have got to be careful with those at this hour – and making sure that that investment is there for seniors on weekends as well are important measures. There are really important measures that go to commercial transport within the legislation before the house this evening, and I do not have the opportunity or the time to canvass all of those.

I will say this: the investment that this government has made in transport in our state is of course world class – Metro, level crossing removals, North East Link, the airport rail link. Those opposite often come into this place and ramble on about all the problems and issues here and there, but we remain committed to making sure we are delivering, we are working with growing communities and we are setting this state up to be a world-class public transport state, as we know it can be. These are important investments, and they are investments that we are very proud of.

Given the hour and given the work that has been done by the house both today and yesterday, I want to take the opportunity to very briefly thank every single worker that is involved in public transport projects across the state, building those projects and of course running them – our train drivers, our bus drivers, our ticketing officers, every single person who plays a role. I extend that thanks and acknowledgement to the many people who have brought this bill before the house. With those reasonably short comments, in just over 5 minutes, I happily commend this fabulous bill to the house.

 Lily D’AMBROSIO (Mill Park – Minister for Climate Action, Minister for Energy and Resources, Minister for the State Electricity Commission) (20:57): I move:

That the debate be now adjourned.

Motion agreed to and debate adjourned.

Ordered that debate be adjourned until later this day.