Pay Your Way
September 4th 2006 13:03
Today I broke the law... technically.
The ticket machine on the tram to uni was broken and so, as a group, all of us who were passengers on the tram decided that this meant we got a free ride. So yes, I broke the law, but if a ticket inspector had caught me the chances of me having to pay my fine were very small...
However, the experience did get me thinking about the Metlink campaign against fare evaders. For those who are not native to Melbourne all the trains and trams around the city have posters like "Attention Fare Evaders: the person next to you is paying for your trip, maybe you should take them out to dinner to thank them..." basically every one of them ends with "...or alternatively, you can pay your way!"
Probably close to a year ago now, somebody went around the city at night and put up a whole bunch of posters titled "Attention Ticket Inspectors". Unfortunately they were all taken down before I got to read any but the impression was that I'm not the only one pissed off about the signs. In fact Metlink even played on those feelings with: "Attention Fare Evaders: You're the reason these annoying signs are everywhere..." yeah good one!
So what? I hear you ask. People should pay their way. Yes, I agree, I am just concerned about whether Metlink can judge. Melbourne's public transport was privatised in the mid 90s by the Liberal Government under Jeff Kennett. The Liberals came into government with a state enormously in debt. The previous Labor government had put an enormous ammount of money into much needed infrastructure, however the bills were piling up. The Liberals' answer to this was to sell off all of Victoria's public assets including the State Electricity Corporation (making my dad's job a lot less secure, unlike Andrew Bolt I reveal conflicts of interest...), the State Bank and our public transport system.
The public transport system has been difficult to make a profit from and now the companies will only maintain transport if they receive subsidies from the State Government. This is an example of PPPs (Public-Private Partnerships) which have seen government and business working together to develop projects, however this usually results in more public money being spent than if the government had decided to go it alone!
So isn't it strange that Metlink are calling fare evaders "free-loaders"?
If these companies are supported by millions of dollars of tax payers' money, haven't we already paid our way?
With petrol prices the way they are, perhaps it is time for the government to get public transport back into public hands. Even Jeff Kennett has come out and said that private public transport isn't working. Public transport is one of my pet interests as a Green so you can probably expect to hear a bit more from me about it, but yes... I'm not advocating fare-evading, but people in glass houses shouldn't throw stones.
The ticket machine on the tram to uni was broken and so, as a group, all of us who were passengers on the tram decided that this meant we got a free ride. So yes, I broke the law, but if a ticket inspector had caught me the chances of me having to pay my fine were very small...
However, the experience did get me thinking about the Metlink campaign against fare evaders. For those who are not native to Melbourne all the trains and trams around the city have posters like "Attention Fare Evaders: the person next to you is paying for your trip, maybe you should take them out to dinner to thank them..." basically every one of them ends with "...or alternatively, you can pay your way!"
Probably close to a year ago now, somebody went around the city at night and put up a whole bunch of posters titled "Attention Ticket Inspectors". Unfortunately they were all taken down before I got to read any but the impression was that I'm not the only one pissed off about the signs. In fact Metlink even played on those feelings with: "Attention Fare Evaders: You're the reason these annoying signs are everywhere..." yeah good one!
So what? I hear you ask. People should pay their way. Yes, I agree, I am just concerned about whether Metlink can judge. Melbourne's public transport was privatised in the mid 90s by the Liberal Government under Jeff Kennett. The Liberals came into government with a state enormously in debt. The previous Labor government had put an enormous ammount of money into much needed infrastructure, however the bills were piling up. The Liberals' answer to this was to sell off all of Victoria's public assets including the State Electricity Corporation (making my dad's job a lot less secure, unlike Andrew Bolt I reveal conflicts of interest...), the State Bank and our public transport system.
The public transport system has been difficult to make a profit from and now the companies will only maintain transport if they receive subsidies from the State Government. This is an example of PPPs (Public-Private Partnerships) which have seen government and business working together to develop projects, however this usually results in more public money being spent than if the government had decided to go it alone!
So isn't it strange that Metlink are calling fare evaders "free-loaders"?
If these companies are supported by millions of dollars of tax payers' money, haven't we already paid our way?
With petrol prices the way they are, perhaps it is time for the government to get public transport back into public hands. Even Jeff Kennett has come out and said that private public transport isn't working. Public transport is one of my pet interests as a Green so you can probably expect to hear a bit more from me about it, but yes... I'm not advocating fare-evading, but people in glass houses shouldn't throw stones.
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