Four out of the six states in Australia have rejected the call to make public transport free despite the escalating fuel prices.
Hundreds of petrol stations in the country are experiencing fuel shortages due to the conflict in the Middle East.
Currently, only the state of Victoria and Tasmania are offering free public transport.
The state of Victoria has announced that it will make all public transport free for the next month starting from the 31st of March. The state of Tasmania has made public transport free until the 1st of July.
The remaining four states in the country have rejected the call to make public transport free. State of New South Wales, which is the most populated in the country, has rejected the call.
The state’s Transport Minister, John Graham, stated that the state will not make public transport free despite the escalating fuel prices.
Minister stated that the state needs to make sure that it has the financial ability to sustain the economy. The Minister stated that making public transport free costs the state millions of dollars every day.
Sydney’s commuter population has already increased without any fare reductions, with bus and rail usage rising 3.7% and 4.5%, respectively, over the previous three weeks.
Queensland has indicated that it has no plans to increase its current 50 cent flat fares, which were implemented permanently last year.
The South Australian transport minister, Joe Szakacs, however, also failed to waive the fare.
He referred to the existing concessions that seniors get free travel and students get discounted fares.
In addition to this, the state was also expanding the Seniors Card program. This will enable another 80,000 people in the state to get free public transport access.
The holdout states are under increasing pressure from the unions, crossbenchers, and opposition parties.
ACT Senator David Pocock and the Greens have been pushing for free or 50 cent fares across the country until the fuel crisis ends.
The rationale they provided was that this will save fuel in cities and enable the rural population and agricultural sectors to access fuel.
A federal response focused on the bowser
Rather than getting caught up in the debate over public transport, the federal government took the opportunity provided by the national cabinet meeting on Monday to announce that the fuel excise will be halved for three months.
The heavy vehicle road user charge will be slashed to zero.
Treasurer Jim Chalmers said that the $2.55 billion package was expected to take half a percentage point off the headline inflation rate until the June quarter.
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said that the Australian public was under serious strain and that the federal government was taking action with the implementation of a four stage plan to address the fuel crisis.
It appears that neither Victoria nor Tasmania intends to make the measures permanent beyond the deadlines they have set.
The split reflects a basic conflict between states that are counting on the crisis to outlast any short term solution, and those that are counting on an immediate solution to the crisis.
With petrol prices showing no signs of relief nor any letup in the conflict, the debate on whether Aussies should ride for free is unlikely to subside any time soon.
