We don’t need another review into NSW taxis

25 June 2010
by Shane Evans
Former Howard Government Staffer

Taxis are one of the great gripes of NSW, particularly in Sydney.  There are not enough of them, many drivers don’t know where they are going, and they are often dirty, unreliable, fail to turn up (the cabs, and sometimes even the drivers).  On top of this they charge an extra 10 per cent if you don’t pay cash. 

It’s a natural reflex to the blame the drivers.  But the reality is they are simply the front line representatives of a system which is so twisted by self-interest and distorted by piecemeal regulation that somewhere along the way the punters were forgotten. 

Few industries so desperately and overtly demonstrate the state of inertia which has descended like a fog on NSW.  For over a decade, reports have been commissioned, duly highlighted the deficiencies of the industry and made recommendations for reform. 

In 1999 the independent Pricing and Regulatory Tribunal (IPART) recommended the taxi fleet be increased by a quarter.  In 2000 the National Competition Council noted the problems generated by restricting the number of taxi plates and concluded that the ‘costs of the existing restrictions to Sydney customers alone have been estimated at $75 million per annum’.  Presumably, that didn’t include the myriad of flow on consequences generated by lack of availability, poor service and detriment to the state’s reputation. 

When reporting on the IPART recommendations in 1999, the Sydney Morning Herald detailed the influence of ‘Sydney taxi king Reg Kermode’ who, with self-serving predictability successfully petitioned against changes to the industry under the failsafe guise of safety and standards. 

In 2008 the former head of the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission noted that ‘a lot of important bodies – the Productivity Commission and the ACCC and the National Competition Council and others – have studied the system, said it’s bad for the public, called for reform, and nothing’s happened’. 

As recently as June this year the NSW Parliament’s Select Committee on the NSW Taxi Industry tabled its report.  Quelle surprise, the press release accompanying the report stated ‘there remains significant need for further reform to create a competitive and viable taxi industry that can meet the needs of all its stakeholders’.  Equally unsurprising, the committee, like those that had gone before it, focused a lot of energy on Reg Kermode and the vested interests who for years have called the shots in the NSW taxi industry.

And so it goes on, recommendations are made, lobbying is done, announcements are released, donations are offered and backflips performed.  The end result is tokenistic glacial reform coupled with long forgotten empty gestures which ensure that nothing really changes.

Like it or not, at the very minimum NSW taxis have an image problem. 

It’s time to turn the debate on its head.  NSW is ready for reform that puts the greater good first.  It’s time that consumers, tourists, businesses and potential competitors are given priority, or at the very least an equal say.  The vested interests in the taxi industry can’t complain that the government hasn’t tried to do it their way, and there are hundreds of thousands of individuals and businesses that stand to benefit from the inconvenience of a few who have had it too good for too long.

 About the author:

Shane Evans Shane Evans lives and works in Sydney.  He began his career working in his family’s small business where an encounter with the CFMEU sparked an interest in politics and public policy.  After spending time working overseas on governance and service delivery in failing local authorities, he returned to Australia to work as an adviser to the Howard Government.