WEstJustice today released a ground-breaking report called Fare Go: Myki, Transport Poverty and access to education in Melbourne’s West.
Here is the report: Fare Go Report
It makes the point that, especially in disadvantaged suburbs, Myki fares compete with a kid’s ability to get breakfast or buy books:
“There are many poor families in this school community who can’t even feed their children breakfast – they are fed through the school. Many families can’t afford the initial payment for Myki.”
“A lot [of students] stay at home, miss out on school until they can top up [Myki], starting the cycle of educational disadvantage.“
In the course of 12 years at school, a student will pay about $7,500 in public transport fares. Public transport is an important integer in our social life. Making sure kids can get to school is essential. Public transport is not just about revenue raising.
The system is complex, even for adults, and especially for kids:
“I helped one boy to contest fines…. I made numerous phone calls…tried to explain that he had a mental illness… also had an insecure home life… I spoke to three different people three times, got the same response, then someone said, ‘go and plead the mercy of the Magistrate’. Going to court then causes much stress and anxiety. In fact, this boy was struggling to speak in sentences. I can’ t imagine him going to court. I haven’t heard from him, so I don’t know what happened to him.”
We should never allow the cost of public transport, and the complexities of the system of fines, get in the way of a kid’s education.
The Report includes some very sensible recommendations, including:
1. Provide free public transport travel to all passengers up to 18 years of age and to any passenger who is a secondary student where their parent, carer or guardian is in receipt of Centrelink income or a healthcare card.
2. Accept identification issued by any authorised educational institution as evidence of age or student status for the purposes of free travel.
3. Authorise educational institutions to issue Myki travel cards to students free of charge.
4. Cancel all outstanding public transport fines related to Myki ticketing issues and fares which were incurred while a young person was under 18 years of age.
5. Abolish the public transport fines system for all young people under 18 years of age.
If you value the education of children, urge the Victorian Government consider the contents of this Report.
We fought PTV last year through the Victorian Equal Opportunity and Human Rights (VEORC) process when they refused my daughter a concession card solely because she is a New Zealand Citizen, despite us residing in Victoria for 15 years and paying decent taxes through this period.
They are allowed to discriminate through Section 220DA of the Transport Compliance Act (which justifies discrimination of Victorian residents based on their country of birth and residency status) and Section 75 of the Victorian Equal Opportunity Act (that allows discrimination because of “Statutory Authority”).
We won a concession card and they made minimal changes to the process to accommodate. Last year I was locked into the Victorian Human Rights System (that allows discrimination by Statutory Authority), and although we got a card, PTV continues to discriminate.
The matter needs to be taken under the Federal system (that has no such allowance for discrimination under statutory authority), and challenge section 75 of the Victorian Equal Opportunity Act (remember a federal law trumps a state law in any inconsistency).
Removal of section 75 of the EO Act, would make section 220DA of the Transport Compliance Act crumble into insignificance and stop straight away all discrimination on public transport in Victoria.
Victoria is the only state (and I can’t find any other country or district across the world) that discriminates against its residents in the manner it does.
As a recent import to Victoria, having lived in four other states at various times, it seems to me that public transport is very expensive here. It also seems that governments regard public transport as something they have to begrudgingly provide (witness the high fares and the treatment meted out to “fare evaders”). I could provide a long list of improvements (a good start would be to copy the fare structure of Sydney trains), but I’ll give this one: make public transport for kids going to and from school FREE. They do it in NSW. It can’t be too difficult.
I just read the WEstjustice report. Yes, make transport to and from school FREE and make the process simple and straight forward. No excuses. If not, it is Kennett’s Victoria yet. Has the Minister responded to the report?