❓ Question regarding taxi industry reform and safety concerns, with the Minister outlining government initiatives including a taxi action plan, increased compliance audits, and investment in security cameras. The Minister addresses concerns about reputation, safety, and viability within the taxi industry.
AnsweredQoN 26Legislative Assembly
QuestionView source ↗
TAXIDRIVER FORUM
Before I ask a question to the Minister for Transport, I take this opportunity to wish my parliamentary colleague, the member for Wanneroo, best wishes for his birthday today. I also congratulate the minister on his appointment as Minister for Transport. I am all too aware of the recent media reports relating to security concerns of taxidrivers and passengers, and I also understand that the Minister for Transport attended a forum with taxidrivers last week. Could he please inform the house on the following — (1) What issues were raised at the meeting? (2) What are this government’s key priorities to reform the taxi industry of Western Australia? (3) What initiatives will this government introduce to ensure that WA taxis become the safest in the nation? Mr T.R. BUSWELL
Before I ask a question to the Minister for Transport, I take this opportunity to wish my parliamentary colleague, the member for Wanneroo, best wishes for his birthday today. I also congratulate the minister on his appointment as Minister for Transport. I am all too aware of the recent media reports relating to security concerns of taxidrivers and passengers, and I also understand that the Minister for Transport attended a forum with taxidrivers last week. Could he please inform the house on the following — (1) What issues were raised at the meeting? (2) What are this government’s key priorities to reform the taxi industry of Western Australia? (3) What initiatives will this government introduce to ensure that WA taxis become the safest in the nation? Mr T.R. BUSWELL
AnswerView source ↗
(1)–(3) I thank the member for the question; it is a very topical issue. A while ago, I met for the first time with the departmental officers who look after taxis. I said I thought we needed to have a forum and invite taxidrivers along, and the colour drained out of their faces as quickly as the Leader of the Opposition’s would have when he saw that fateful email from the member for Pilbara—they were in shock! We went through with it and organised a forum, which was held last week. I think about 150 to 170 taxidrivers came along. I would like to publicly thank all of those drivers; it was a fantastic opportunity to interact with many people who have spent years, in fact decades, serving the public of Western Australia as taxidrivers. They effectively raised three issues with a fair degree of passion. The first issue was what they saw as being a significant undermining of their reputation by the behaviour of a few bad apples in the industry. The second was the obvious concerns about safety. And the third was concerns about viability. As a result of that meeting we will be consulting further with other interest groups in the taxi industry and in the very near future we will be developing a taxi action plan. That taxi action plan will look at three things. It will look at availability, because one of the issues that we have is that a lot of people in Western Australia do not think there are enough cabs available when they need them, and we need to put in place an empirical and proper method to determine service levels and then a plate release program that flows accordingly from that. We need to look at standards at the point of entry to make sure that we have well-trained drivers going into the system. That is about training and it is also about standards. And we need to have a method in place to make sure that those drivers who are in the industry are performing at an appropriate level. The government has taken action in relation to that. Interestingly, in 2008 there were 717 compliance audits or inspections by the taxi regulators of the industry. Last year there were 5 035. That is a sevenfold increase in the number of inspections of the taxi industry under this government, designed to drive improvements in services. The most important area is safety. We have committed $2 million to the Northbridge rank to provide a safe facility in Northbridge for people to catch taxis, and a safe facility in Northbridge for taxidrivers to come and collect patrons, who have effectively been vetted by the process in and around the rank. We have also committed $7.7 million to put a new suite of security cameras in the 1 800-plus cabs in Perth; that is very important. One statistic that concerned me immensely was that in 2009 the police requested 163 downloads of security camera footage from taxi services to assess serious incidents in cabs. In 2010 they requested 259 downloads. The unfortunate reality is that in half the cases in which they requested the downloads, one could not be provided because the quality of the cameras’ footage was so poor. That is just not good enough. The new cameras will be a vast improvement: two cameras inside the vehicle and two outside, full voice recording, images at three frames per second and the material stored for 12 days instead of the current three hours. That will help the police investigate complaints about incidents that happen in taxis, it will also help our compliance regulators use that in-car footage to investigate complaints, particularly complaints against taxidrivers. I think the member for Kingsley can be confident that this government is attempting to come up with what I consider to be a balanced, well-considered and timely response to the real issues that exist in the taxi industry. Earlier today, I heard the Leader of the Opposition say that this government was all talk and no action. The Leader of the Opposition will see action in relation to taxis. If members want to see an example of talk in relation to the taxi industry and want to compare what the two sides of politics in Western Australia can offer the taxi industry, let us look at what the government has talked about: secure taxi ranks, cameras in cars, more compliance audits and a raft of changes to come. The shadow Minister for Transport, Hon Ken Travers, had a brilliant idea to make taxis in Western Australia safer. I am assuming that most of the opposition’s media statements come through the Leader of the Opposition’s office, so they are vetted and approved by him; in fact he indicated that yesterday. The brilliant reform for taxis in Western Australia proposed by the Labor Party is to paint each taxi gold! We have problems with safety, we have problems with availability, we have problems with standards and the Leader of the Opposition’s response is to propose spending $10 million to paint the taxis of Western Australia gold. Is the Leader of the Opposition serious about this gold-plated option for taxis? Is that his policy position about taxis or is it just a weird idea of “Goldfinger” up there in the upper house? “Goldfinger Travers”. And do members know the pearler about all this from old “Goldfinger Travers”? I know that the opposition has looked after him because he sure looked after them. The good old left, it came into play didn’t it? Before I finish, it is interesting, to have a look at the composition of the Leader of the Opposition’s new front bench: metalworkers’ left, the member for Swanbourne; metalworkers’ left, the member for Collie–Preston. Mr F.M. Logan interjected. Mr T.R. BUSWELL : What are you now? You were the new right, you have merged with the old right, so what are you, the new-old right? Mr M. McGowan interjected. Mr T.R. BUSWELL : The miscellaneous workers union left—the artful dodger, the artful dodger from Rockingham, and the queen of the new right, now the new-old right, the member for Midland. She is like the Bea Smith from Prisoner of the new right, that is what she is, ably supported by Franky over there! Bea Smith and Franky are running the Labor Party. And what has happened to the old-old right? They have been kicked right out. They are up in the naughty corner. I now know why the Leader of the Opposition is such an enthusiastic — Several members interjected. Mr F.M. Logan interjected. Mr T.R. BUSWELL : I would be quiet if I were my friend the member for Cockburn. I now know why the Leader of the Opposition is such an enthusiastic supporter of “Goldfinger Travers” and his wonderful plan. I just want to finish with what I think is the most astounding reason for painting taxis gold. Do members know why he says that? It is because they are hard to spot at night. Several members interjected. Mr T.R. BUSWELL : We have to paint them gold because we cannot see them when it is dark! There is a plain choice when it comes to reforming taxis: the gold-plated, see them in the dark option or a sensible, well-planned approach to change.
I am all too aware of the recent media reports relating to security concerns of taxidrivers and passengers, and I also understand that the Minister for Transport attended a forum with taxidrivers last week. Could he please inform the house on the following — (1) What issues were raised at the meeting? (2) What are this government’s key priorities to reform the taxi industry of Western Australia? (3) What initiatives will this government introduce to ensure that WA taxis become the safest in the nation? Mr T.R. BUSWELL replied: (1)–(3) I thank the member for the question; it is a very topical issue. A while ago, I met for the first time with the departmental officers who look after taxis. I said I thought we needed to have a forum and invite taxidrivers along, and the colour drained out of their faces as quickly as the Leader of the Opposition’s would have when he saw that fateful email from the member for Pilbara—they were in shock! We went through with it and organised a forum, which was held last week. I think about 150 to 170 taxidrivers came along. I would like to publicly thank all of those drivers; it was a fantastic opportunity to interact with many people who have spent years, in fact decades, serving the public of Western Australia as taxidrivers. They effectively raised three issues with a fair degree of passion. The first issue was what they saw as being a significant undermining of their reputation by the behaviour of a few bad apples in the industry. The second was the obvious concerns about safety. And the third was concerns about viability. As a result of that meeting we will be consulting further with other interest groups in the taxi industry and in the very near future we will be developing a taxi action plan. That taxi action plan will look at three things. It will look at availability, because one of the issues that we have is that a lot of people in Western Australia do not think there are enough cabs available when they need them, and we need to put in place an empirical and proper method to determine service levels and then a plate release program that flows accordingly from that. We need to look at standards at the point of entry to make sure that we have well-trained drivers going into the system. That is about training and it is also about standards. And we need to have a method in place to make sure that those drivers who are in the industry are performing at an appropriate level. The government has taken action in relation to that. Interestingly, in 2008 there were 717 compliance audits or inspections by the taxi regulators of the industry. Last year there were 5 035. That is a sevenfold increase in the number of inspections of the taxi industry under this government, designed to drive improvements in services. The most important area is safety. We have committed $2 million to the Northbridge rank to provide a safe facility in Northbridge for people to catch taxis, and a safe facility in Northbridge for taxidrivers to come and collect patrons, who have effectively been vetted by the process in and around the rank. We have also committed $7.7 million to put a new suite of security cameras in the 1 800-plus cabs in Perth; that is very important. One statistic that concerned me immensely was that in 2009 the police requested 163 downloads of security camera footage from taxi services to assess serious incidents in cabs. In 2010 they requested 259 downloads. The unfortunate reality is that in half the cases in which they requested the downloads, one could not be provided because the quality of the cameras’ footage was so poor. That is just not good enough. The new cameras will be a vast improvement: two cameras inside the vehicle and two outside, full voice recording, images at three frames per second and the material stored for 12 days instead of the current three hours. That will help the police investigate complaints about incidents that happen in taxis, it will also help our compliance regulators use that in-car footage to investigate complaints, particularly complaints against taxidrivers. I think the member for Kingsley can be confident that this government is attempting to come up with what I consider to be a balanced, well-considered and timely response to the real issues that exist in the taxi industry. Earlier today, I heard the Leader of the Opposition say that this government was all talk and no action. The Leader of the Opposition will see action in relation to taxis. If members want to see an example of talk in relation to the taxi industry and want to compare what the two sides of politics in Western Australia can offer the taxi industry, let us look at what the government has talked about: secure taxi ranks, cameras in cars, more compliance audits and a raft of changes to come. The shadow Minister for Transport, Hon Ken Travers, had a brilliant idea to make taxis in Western Australia safer. I am assuming that most of the opposition’s media statements come through the Leader of the Opposition’s office, so they are vetted and approved by him; in fact he indicated that yesterday. The brilliant reform for taxis in Western Australia proposed by the Labor Party is to paint each taxi gold! We have problems with safety, we have problems with availability, we have problems with standards and the Leader of the Opposition’s response is to propose spending $10 million to paint the taxis of Western Australia gold. Is the Leader of the Opposition serious about this gold-plated option for taxis? Is that his policy position about taxis or is it just a weird idea of “Goldfinger” up there in the upper house? “Goldfinger Travers”. And do members know the pearler about all this from old “Goldfinger Travers”? I know that the opposition has looked after him because he sure looked after them. The good old left, it came into play didn’t it? Before I finish, it is interesting, to have a look at the composition of the Leader of the Opposition’s new front bench: metalworkers’ left, the member for Swanbourne; metalworkers’ left, the member for Collie–Preston. Mr F.M. Logan interjected. Mr T.R. BUSWELL : What are you now? You were the new right, you have merged with the old right, so what are you, the new-old right? Mr M. McGowan interjected. Mr T.R. BUSWELL : The miscellaneous workers union left—the artful dodger, the artful dodger from Rockingham, and the queen of the new right, now the new-old right, the member for Midland. She is like the Bea Smith from Prisoner of the new right, that is what she is, ably supported by Franky over there! Bea Smith and Franky are running the Labor Party. And what has happened to the old-old right? They have been kicked right out. They are up in the naughty corner. I now know why the Leader of the Opposition is such an enthusiastic — Several members interjected. Mr F.M. Logan interjected. Mr T.R. BUSWELL : I would be quiet if I were my friend the member for Cockburn. I now know why the Leader of the Opposition is such an enthusiastic supporter of “Goldfinger Travers” and his wonderful plan. I just want to finish with what I think is the most astounding reason for painting taxis gold. Do members know why he says that? It is because they are hard to spot at night. Several members interjected. Mr T.R. BUSWELL : We have to paint them gold because we cannot see them when it is dark! There is a plain choice when it comes to reforming taxis: the gold-plated, see them in the dark option or a sensible, well-planned approach to change.
(1) What issues were raised at the meeting? (2) What are this government’s key priorities to reform the taxi industry of Western Australia? (3) What initiatives will this government introduce to ensure that WA taxis become the safest in the nation? Mr T.R. BUSWELL replied: (1)–(3) I thank the member for the question; it is a very topical issue. A while ago, I met for the first time with the departmental officers who look after taxis. I said I thought we needed to have a forum and invite taxidrivers along, and the colour drained out of their faces as quickly as the Leader of the Opposition’s would have when he saw that fateful email from the member for Pilbara—they were in shock! We went through with it and organised a forum, which was held last week. I think about 150 to 170 taxidrivers came along. I would like to publicly thank all of those drivers; it was a fantastic opportunity to interact with many people who have spent years, in fact decades, serving the public of Western Australia as taxidrivers. They effectively raised three issues with a fair degree of passion. The first issue was what they saw as being a significant undermining of their reputation by the behaviour of a few bad apples in the industry. The second was the obvious concerns about safety. And the third was concerns about viability. As a result of that meeting we will be consulting further with other interest groups in the taxi industry and in the very near future we will be developing a taxi action plan. That taxi action plan will look at three things. It will look at availability, because one of the issues that we have is that a lot of people in Western Australia do not think there are enough cabs available when they need them, and we need to put in place an empirical and proper method to determine service levels and then a plate release program that flows accordingly from that. We need to look at standards at the point of entry to make sure that we have well-trained drivers going into the system. That is about training and it is also about standards. And we need to have a method in place to make sure that those drivers who are in the industry are performing at an appropriate level. The government has taken action in relation to that. Interestingly, in 2008 there were 717 compliance audits or inspections by the taxi regulators of the industry. Last year there were 5 035. That is a sevenfold increase in the number of inspections of the taxi industry under this government, designed to drive improvements in services. The most important area is safety. We have committed $2 million to the Northbridge rank to provide a safe facility in Northbridge for people to catch taxis, and a safe facility in Northbridge for taxidrivers to come and collect patrons, who have effectively been vetted by the process in and around the rank. We have also committed $7.7 million to put a new suite of security cameras in the 1 800-plus cabs in Perth; that is very important. One statistic that concerned me immensely was that in 2009 the police requested 163 downloads of security camera footage from taxi services to assess serious incidents in cabs. In 2010 they requested 259 downloads. The unfortunate reality is that in half the cases in which they requested the downloads, one could not be provided because the quality of the cameras’ footage was so poor. That is just not good enough. The new cameras will be a vast improvement: two cameras inside the vehicle and two outside, full voice recording, images at three frames per second and the material stored for 12 days instead of the current three hours. That will help the police investigate complaints about incidents that happen in taxis, it will also help our compliance regulators use that in-car footage to investigate complaints, particularly complaints against taxidrivers. I think the member for Kingsley can be confident that this government is attempting to come up with what I consider to be a balanced, well-considered and timely response to the real issues that exist in the taxi industry. Earlier today, I heard the Leader of the Opposition say that this government was all talk and no action. The Leader of the Opposition will see action in relation to taxis. If members want to see an example of talk in relation to the taxi industry and want to compare what the two sides of politics in Western Australia can offer the taxi industry, let us look at what the government has talked about: secure taxi ranks, cameras in cars, more compliance audits and a raft of changes to come. The shadow Minister for Transport, Hon Ken Travers, had a brilliant idea to make taxis in Western Australia safer. I am assuming that most of the opposition’s media statements come through the Leader of the Opposition’s office, so they are vetted and approved by him; in fact he indicated that yesterday. The brilliant reform for taxis in Western Australia proposed by the Labor Party is to paint each taxi gold! We have problems with safety, we have problems with availability, we have problems with standards and the Leader of the Opposition’s response is to propose spending $10 million to paint the taxis of Western Australia gold. Is the Leader of the Opposition serious about this gold-plated option for taxis? Is that his policy position about taxis or is it just a weird idea of “Goldfinger” up there in the upper house? “Goldfinger Travers”. And do members know the pearler about all this from old “Goldfinger Travers”? I know that the opposition has looked after him because he sure looked after them. The good old left, it came into play didn’t it? Before I finish, it is interesting, to have a look at the composition of the Leader of the Opposition’s new front bench: metalworkers’ left, the member for Swanbourne; metalworkers’ left, the member for Collie–Preston. Mr F.M. Logan interjected. Mr T.R. BUSWELL : What are you now? You were the new right, you have merged with the old right, so what are you, the new-old right? Mr M. McGowan interjected. Mr T.R. BUSWELL : The miscellaneous workers union left—the artful dodger, the artful dodger from Rockingham, and the queen of the new right, now the new-old right, the member for Midland. She is like the Bea Smith from Prisoner of the new right, that is what she is, ably supported by Franky over there! Bea Smith and Franky are running the Labor Party. And what has happened to the old-old right? They have been kicked right out. They are up in the naughty corner. I now know why the Leader of the Opposition is such an enthusiastic — Several members interjected. Mr F.M. Logan interjected. Mr T.R. BUSWELL : I would be quiet if I were my friend the member for Cockburn. I now know why the Leader of the Opposition is such an enthusiastic supporter of “Goldfinger Travers” and his wonderful plan. I just want to finish with what I think is the most astounding reason for painting taxis gold. Do members know why he says that? It is because they are hard to spot at night. Several members interjected. Mr T.R. BUSWELL : We have to paint them gold because we cannot see them when it is dark! There is a plain choice when it comes to reforming taxis: the gold-plated, see them in the dark option or a sensible, well-planned approach to change.
(2) What are this government’s key priorities to reform the taxi industry of Western Australia? (3) What initiatives will this government introduce to ensure that WA taxis become the safest in the nation? Mr T.R. BUSWELL replied: (1)–(3) I thank the member for the question; it is a very topical issue. A while ago, I met for the first time with the departmental officers who look after taxis. I said I thought we needed to have a forum and invite taxidrivers along, and the colour drained out of their faces as quickly as the Leader of the Opposition’s would have when he saw that fateful email from the member for Pilbara—they were in shock! We went through with it and organised a forum, which was held last week. I think about 150 to 170 taxidrivers came along. I would like to publicly thank all of those drivers; it was a fantastic opportunity to interact with many people who have spent years, in fact decades, serving the public of Western Australia as taxidrivers. They effectively raised three issues with a fair degree of passion. The first issue was what they saw as being a significant undermining of their reputation by the behaviour of a few bad apples in the industry. The second was the obvious concerns about safety. And the third was concerns about viability. As a result of that meeting we will be consulting further with other interest groups in the taxi industry and in the very near future we will be developing a taxi action plan. That taxi action plan will look at three things. It will look at availability, because one of the issues that we have is that a lot of people in Western Australia do not think there are enough cabs available when they need them, and we need to put in place an empirical and proper method to determine service levels and then a plate release program that flows accordingly from that. We need to look at standards at the point of entry to make sure that we have well-trained drivers going into the system. That is about training and it is also about standards. And we need to have a method in place to make sure that those drivers who are in the industry are performing at an appropriate level. The government has taken action in relation to that. Interestingly, in 2008 there were 717 compliance audits or inspections by the taxi regulators of the industry. Last year there were 5 035. That is a sevenfold increase in the number of inspections of the taxi industry under this government, designed to drive improvements in services. The most important area is safety. We have committed $2 million to the Northbridge rank to provide a safe facility in Northbridge for people to catch taxis, and a safe facility in Northbridge for taxidrivers to come and collect patrons, who have effectively been vetted by the process in and around the rank. We have also committed $7.7 million to put a new suite of security cameras in the 1 800-plus cabs in Perth; that is very important. One statistic that concerned me immensely was that in 2009 the police requested 163 downloads of security camera footage from taxi services to assess serious incidents in cabs. In 2010 they requested 259 downloads. The unfortunate reality is that in half the cases in which they requested the downloads, one could not be provided because the quality of the cameras’ footage was so poor. That is just not good enough. The new cameras will be a vast improvement: two cameras inside the vehicle and two outside, full voice recording, images at three frames per second and the material stored for 12 days instead of the current three hours. That will help the police investigate complaints about incidents that happen in taxis, it will also help our compliance regulators use that in-car footage to investigate complaints, particularly complaints against taxidrivers. I think the member for Kingsley can be confident that this government is attempting to come up with what I consider to be a balanced, well-considered and timely response to the real issues that exist in the taxi industry. Earlier today, I heard the Leader of the Opposition say that this government was all talk and no action. The Leader of the Opposition will see action in relation to taxis. If members want to see an example of talk in relation to the taxi industry and want to compare what the two sides of politics in Western Australia can offer the taxi industry, let us look at what the government has talked about: secure taxi ranks, cameras in cars, more compliance audits and a raft of changes to come. The shadow Minister for Transport, Hon Ken Travers, had a brilliant idea to make taxis in Western Australia safer. I am assuming that most of the opposition’s media statements come through the Leader of the Opposition’s office, so they are vetted and approved by him; in fact he indicated that yesterday. The brilliant reform for taxis in Western Australia proposed by the Labor Party is to paint each taxi gold! We have problems with safety, we have problems with availability, we have problems with standards and the Leader of the Opposition’s response is to propose spending $10 million to paint the taxis of Western Australia gold. Is the Leader of the Opposition serious about this gold-plated option for taxis? Is that his policy position about taxis or is it just a weird idea of “Goldfinger” up there in the upper house? “Goldfinger Travers”. And do members know the pearler about all this from old “Goldfinger Travers”? I know that the opposition has looked after him because he sure looked after them. The good old left, it came into play didn’t it? Before I finish, it is interesting, to have a look at the composition of the Leader of the Opposition’s new front bench: metalworkers’ left, the member for Swanbourne; metalworkers’ left, the member for Collie–Preston. Mr F.M. Logan interjected. Mr T.R. BUSWELL : What are you now? You were the new right, you have merged with the old right, so what are you, the new-old right? Mr M. McGowan interjected. Mr T.R. BUSWELL : The miscellaneous workers union left—the artful dodger, the artful dodger from Rockingham, and the queen of the new right, now the new-old right, the member for Midland. She is like the Bea Smith from Prisoner of the new right, that is what she is, ably supported by Franky over there! Bea Smith and Franky are running the Labor Party. And what has happened to the old-old right? They have been kicked right out. They are up in the naughty corner. I now know why the Leader of the Opposition is such an enthusiastic — Several members interjected. Mr F.M. Logan interjected. Mr T.R. BUSWELL : I would be quiet if I were my friend the member for Cockburn. I now know why the Leader of the Opposition is such an enthusiastic supporter of “Goldfinger Travers” and his wonderful plan. I just want to finish with what I think is the most astounding reason for painting taxis gold. Do members know why he says that? It is because they are hard to spot at night. Several members interjected. Mr T.R. BUSWELL : We have to paint them gold because we cannot see them when it is dark! There is a plain choice when it comes to reforming taxis: the gold-plated, see them in the dark option or a sensible, well-planned approach to change.
(3) What initiatives will this government introduce to ensure that WA taxis become the safest in the nation? Mr T.R. BUSWELL replied: (1)–(3) I thank the member for the question; it is a very topical issue. A while ago, I met for the first time with the departmental officers who look after taxis. I said I thought we needed to have a forum and invite taxidrivers along, and the colour drained out of their faces as quickly as the Leader of the Opposition’s would have when he saw that fateful email from the member for Pilbara—they were in shock! We went through with it and organised a forum, which was held last week. I think about 150 to 170 taxidrivers came along. I would like to publicly thank all of those drivers; it was a fantastic opportunity to interact with many people who have spent years, in fact decades, serving the public of Western Australia as taxidrivers. They effectively raised three issues with a fair degree of passion. The first issue was what they saw as being a significant undermining of their reputation by the behaviour of a few bad apples in the industry. The second was the obvious concerns about safety. And the third was concerns about viability. As a result of that meeting we will be consulting further with other interest groups in the taxi industry and in the very near future we will be developing a taxi action plan. That taxi action plan will look at three things. It will look at availability, because one of the issues that we have is that a lot of people in Western Australia do not think there are enough cabs available when they need them, and we need to put in place an empirical and proper method to determine service levels and then a plate release program that flows accordingly from that. We need to look at standards at the point of entry to make sure that we have well-trained drivers going into the system. That is about training and it is also about standards. And we need to have a method in place to make sure that those drivers who are in the industry are performing at an appropriate level. The government has taken action in relation to that. Interestingly, in 2008 there were 717 compliance audits or inspections by the taxi regulators of the industry. Last year there were 5 035. That is a sevenfold increase in the number of inspections of the taxi industry under this government, designed to drive improvements in services. The most important area is safety. We have committed $2 million to the Northbridge rank to provide a safe facility in Northbridge for people to catch taxis, and a safe facility in Northbridge for taxidrivers to come and collect patrons, who have effectively been vetted by the process in and around the rank. We have also committed $7.7 million to put a new suite of security cameras in the 1 800-plus cabs in Perth; that is very important. One statistic that concerned me immensely was that in 2009 the police requested 163 downloads of security camera footage from taxi services to assess serious incidents in cabs. In 2010 they requested 259 downloads. The unfortunate reality is that in half the cases in which they requested the downloads, one could not be provided because the quality of the cameras’ footage was so poor. That is just not good enough. The new cameras will be a vast improvement: two cameras inside the vehicle and two outside, full voice recording, images at three frames per second and the material stored for 12 days instead of the current three hours. That will help the police investigate complaints about incidents that happen in taxis, it will also help our compliance regulators use that in-car footage to investigate complaints, particularly complaints against taxidrivers. I think the member for Kingsley can be confident that this government is attempting to come up with what I consider to be a balanced, well-considered and timely response to the real issues that exist in the taxi industry. Earlier today, I heard the Leader of the Opposition say that this government was all talk and no action. The Leader of the Opposition will see action in relation to taxis. If members want to see an example of talk in relation to the taxi industry and want to compare what the two sides of politics in Western Australia can offer the taxi industry, let us look at what the government has talked about: secure taxi ranks, cameras in cars, more compliance audits and a raft of changes to come. The shadow Minister for Transport, Hon Ken Travers, had a brilliant idea to make taxis in Western Australia safer. I am assuming that most of the opposition’s media statements come through the Leader of the Opposition’s office, so they are vetted and approved by him; in fact he indicated that yesterday. The brilliant reform for taxis in Western Australia proposed by the Labor Party is to paint each taxi gold! We have problems with safety, we have problems with availability, we have problems with standards and the Leader of the Opposition’s response is to propose spending $10 million to paint the taxis of Western Australia gold. Is the Leader of the Opposition serious about this gold-plated option for taxis? Is that his policy position about taxis or is it just a weird idea of “Goldfinger” up there in the upper house? “Goldfinger Travers”. And do members know the pearler about all this from old “Goldfinger Travers”? I know that the opposition has looked after him because he sure looked after them. The good old left, it came into play didn’t it? Before I finish, it is interesting, to have a look at the composition of the Leader of the Opposition’s new front bench: metalworkers’ left, the member for Swanbourne; metalworkers’ left, the member for Collie–Preston. Mr F.M. Logan interjected. Mr T.R. BUSWELL : What are you now? You were the new right, you have merged with the old right, so what are you, the new-old right? Mr M. McGowan interjected. Mr T.R. BUSWELL : The miscellaneous workers union left—the artful dodger, the artful dodger from Rockingham, and the queen of the new right, now the new-old right, the member for Midland. She is like the Bea Smith from Prisoner of the new right, that is what she is, ably supported by Franky over there! Bea Smith and Franky are running the Labor Party. And what has happened to the old-old right? They have been kicked right out. They are up in the naughty corner. I now know why the Leader of the Opposition is such an enthusiastic — Several members interjected. Mr F.M. Logan interjected. Mr T.R. BUSWELL : I would be quiet if I were my friend the member for Cockburn. I now know why the Leader of the Opposition is such an enthusiastic supporter of “Goldfinger Travers” and his wonderful plan. I just want to finish with what I think is the most astounding reason for painting taxis gold. Do members know why he says that? It is because they are hard to spot at night. Several members interjected. Mr T.R. BUSWELL : We have to paint them gold because we cannot see them when it is dark! There is a plain choice when it comes to reforming taxis: the gold-plated, see them in the dark option or a sensible, well-planned approach to change.
Mr T.R. BUSWELL replied: (1)–(3) I thank the member for the question; it is a very topical issue. A while ago, I met for the first time with the departmental officers who look after taxis. I said I thought we needed to have a forum and invite taxidrivers along, and the colour drained out of their faces as quickly as the Leader of the Opposition’s would have when he saw that fateful email from the member for Pilbara—they were in shock! We went through with it and organised a forum, which was held last week. I think about 150 to 170 taxidrivers came along. I would like to publicly thank all of those drivers; it was a fantastic opportunity to interact with many people who have spent years, in fact decades, serving the public of Western Australia as taxidrivers. They effectively raised three issues with a fair degree of passion. The first issue was what they saw as being a significant undermining of their reputation by the behaviour of a few bad apples in the industry. The second was the obvious concerns about safety. And the third was concerns about viability. As a result of that meeting we will be consulting further with other interest groups in the taxi industry and in the very near future we will be developing a taxi action plan. That taxi action plan will look at three things. It will look at availability, because one of the issues that we have is that a lot of people in Western Australia do not think there are enough cabs available when they need them, and we need to put in place an empirical and proper method to determine service levels and then a plate release program that flows accordingly from that. We need to look at standards at the point of entry to make sure that we have well-trained drivers going into the system. That is about training and it is also about standards. And we need to have a method in place to make sure that those drivers who are in the industry are performing at an appropriate level. The government has taken action in relation to that. Interestingly, in 2008 there were 717 compliance audits or inspections by the taxi regulators of the industry. Last year there were 5 035. That is a sevenfold increase in the number of inspections of the taxi industry under this government, designed to drive improvements in services. The most important area is safety. We have committed $2 million to the Northbridge rank to provide a safe facility in Northbridge for people to catch taxis, and a safe facility in Northbridge for taxidrivers to come and collect patrons, who have effectively been vetted by the process in and around the rank. We have also committed $7.7 million to put a new suite of security cameras in the 1 800-plus cabs in Perth; that is very important. One statistic that concerned me immensely was that in 2009 the police requested 163 downloads of security camera footage from taxi services to assess serious incidents in cabs. In 2010 they requested 259 downloads. The unfortunate reality is that in half the cases in which they requested the downloads, one could not be provided because the quality of the cameras’ footage was so poor. That is just not good enough. The new cameras will be a vast improvement: two cameras inside the vehicle and two outside, full voice recording, images at three frames per second and the material stored for 12 days instead of the current three hours. That will help the police investigate complaints about incidents that happen in taxis, it will also help our compliance regulators use that in-car footage to investigate complaints, particularly complaints against taxidrivers. I think the member for Kingsley can be confident that this government is attempting to come up with what I consider to be a balanced, well-considered and timely response to the real issues that exist in the taxi industry. Earlier today, I heard the Leader of the Opposition say that this government was all talk and no action. The Leader of the Opposition will see action in relation to taxis. If members want to see an example of talk in relation to the taxi industry and want to compare what the two sides of politics in Western Australia can offer the taxi industry, let us look at what the government has talked about: secure taxi ranks, cameras in cars, more compliance audits and a raft of changes to come. The shadow Minister for Transport, Hon Ken Travers, had a brilliant idea to make taxis in Western Australia safer. I am assuming that most of the opposition’s media statements come through the Leader of the Opposition’s office, so they are vetted and approved by him; in fact he indicated that yesterday. The brilliant reform for taxis in Western Australia proposed by the Labor Party is to paint each taxi gold! We have problems with safety, we have problems with availability, we have problems with standards and the Leader of the Opposition’s response is to propose spending $10 million to paint the taxis of Western Australia gold. Is the Leader of the Opposition serious about this gold-plated option for taxis? Is that his policy position about taxis or is it just a weird idea of “Goldfinger” up there in the upper house? “Goldfinger Travers”. And do members know the pearler about all this from old “Goldfinger Travers”? I know that the opposition has looked after him because he sure looked after them. The good old left, it came into play didn’t it? Before I finish, it is interesting, to have a look at the composition of the Leader of the Opposition’s new front bench: metalworkers’ left, the member for Swanbourne; metalworkers’ left, the member for Collie–Preston. Mr F.M. Logan interjected. Mr T.R. BUSWELL : What are you now? You were the new right, you have merged with the old right, so what are you, the new-old right? Mr M. McGowan interjected. Mr T.R. BUSWELL : The miscellaneous workers union left—the artful dodger, the artful dodger from Rockingham, and the queen of the new right, now the new-old right, the member for Midland. She is like the Bea Smith from Prisoner of the new right, that is what she is, ably supported by Franky over there! Bea Smith and Franky are running the Labor Party. And what has happened to the old-old right? They have been kicked right out. They are up in the naughty corner. I now know why the Leader of the Opposition is such an enthusiastic — Several members interjected. Mr F.M. Logan interjected. Mr T.R. BUSWELL : I would be quiet if I were my friend the member for Cockburn. I now know why the Leader of the Opposition is such an enthusiastic supporter of “Goldfinger Travers” and his wonderful plan. I just want to finish with what I think is the most astounding reason for painting taxis gold. Do members know why he says that? It is because they are hard to spot at night. Several members interjected. Mr T.R. BUSWELL : We have to paint them gold because we cannot see them when it is dark! There is a plain choice when it comes to reforming taxis: the gold-plated, see them in the dark option or a sensible, well-planned approach to change.
(1)–(3) I thank the member for the question; it is a very topical issue. A while ago, I met for the first time with the departmental officers who look after taxis. I said I thought we needed to have a forum and invite taxidrivers along, and the colour drained out of their faces as quickly as the Leader of the Opposition’s would have when he saw that fateful email from the member for Pilbara—they were in shock! We went through with it and organised a forum, which was held last week. I think about 150 to 170 taxidrivers came along. I would like to publicly thank all of those drivers; it was a fantastic opportunity to interact with many people who have spent years, in fact decades, serving the public of Western Australia as taxidrivers. They effectively raised three issues with a fair degree of passion. The first issue was what they saw as being a significant undermining of their reputation by the behaviour of a few bad apples in the industry. The second was the obvious concerns about safety. And the third was concerns about viability. As a result of that meeting we will be consulting further with other interest groups in the taxi industry and in the very near future we will be developing a taxi action plan. That taxi action plan will look at three things. It will look at availability, because one of the issues that we have is that a lot of people in Western Australia do not think there are enough cabs available when they need them, and we need to put in place an empirical and proper method to determine service levels and then a plate release program that flows accordingly from that. We need to look at standards at the point of entry to make sure that we have well-trained drivers going into the system. That is about training and it is also about standards. And we need to have a method in place to make sure that those drivers who are in the industry are performing at an appropriate level. The government has taken action in relation to that. Interestingly, in 2008 there were 717 compliance audits or inspections by the taxi regulators of the industry. Last year there were 5 035. That is a sevenfold increase in the number of inspections of the taxi industry under this government, designed to drive improvements in services. The most important area is safety. We have committed $2 million to the Northbridge rank to provide a safe facility in Northbridge for people to catch taxis, and a safe facility in Northbridge for taxidrivers to come and collect patrons, who have effectively been vetted by the process in and around the rank. We have also committed $7.7 million to put a new suite of security cameras in the 1 800-plus cabs in Perth; that is very important. One statistic that concerned me immensely was that in 2009 the police requested 163 downloads of security camera footage from taxi services to assess serious incidents in cabs. In 2010 they requested 259 downloads. The unfortunate reality is that in half the cases in which they requested the downloads, one could not be provided because the quality of the cameras’ footage was so poor. That is just not good enough. The new cameras will be a vast improvement: two cameras inside the vehicle and two outside, full voice recording, images at three frames per second and the material stored for 12 days instead of the current three hours. That will help the police investigate complaints about incidents that happen in taxis, it will also help our compliance regulators use that in-car footage to investigate complaints, particularly complaints against taxidrivers. I think the member for Kingsley can be confident that this government is attempting to come up with what I consider to be a balanced, well-considered and timely response to the real issues that exist in the taxi industry. Earlier today, I heard the Leader of the Opposition say that this government was all talk and no action. The Leader of the Opposition will see action in relation to taxis. If members want to see an example of talk in relation to the taxi industry and want to compare what the two sides of politics in Western Australia can offer the taxi industry, let us look at what the government has talked about: secure taxi ranks, cameras in cars, more compliance audits and a raft of changes to come. The shadow Minister for Transport, Hon Ken Travers, had a brilliant idea to make taxis in Western Australia safer. I am assuming that most of the opposition’s media statements come through the Leader of the Opposition’s office, so they are vetted and approved by him; in fact he indicated that yesterday. The brilliant reform for taxis in Western Australia proposed by the Labor Party is to paint each taxi gold! We have problems with safety, we have problems with availability, we have problems with standards and the Leader of the Opposition’s response is to propose spending $10 million to paint the taxis of Western Australia gold. Is the Leader of the Opposition serious about this gold-plated option for taxis? Is that his policy position about taxis or is it just a weird idea of “Goldfinger” up there in the upper house? “Goldfinger Travers”. And do members know the pearler about all this from old “Goldfinger Travers”? I know that the opposition has looked after him because he sure looked after them. The good old left, it came into play didn’t it? Before I finish, it is interesting, to have a look at the composition of the Leader of the Opposition’s new front bench: metalworkers’ left, the member for Swanbourne; metalworkers’ left, the member for Collie–Preston. Mr F.M. Logan interjected. Mr T.R. BUSWELL : What are you now? You were the new right, you have merged with the old right, so what are you, the new-old right? Mr M. McGowan interjected. Mr T.R. BUSWELL : The miscellaneous workers union left—the artful dodger, the artful dodger from Rockingham, and the queen of the new right, now the new-old right, the member for Midland. She is like the Bea Smith from Prisoner of the new right, that is what she is, ably supported by Franky over there! Bea Smith and Franky are running the Labor Party. And what has happened to the old-old right? They have been kicked right out. They are up in the naughty corner. I now know why the Leader of the Opposition is such an enthusiastic — Several members interjected. Mr F.M. Logan interjected. Mr T.R. BUSWELL : I would be quiet if I were my friend the member for Cockburn. I now know why the Leader of the Opposition is such an enthusiastic supporter of “Goldfinger Travers” and his wonderful plan. I just want to finish with what I think is the most astounding reason for painting taxis gold. Do members know why he says that? It is because they are hard to spot at night. Several members interjected. Mr T.R. BUSWELL : We have to paint them gold because we cannot see them when it is dark! There is a plain choice when it comes to reforming taxis: the gold-plated, see them in the dark option or a sensible, well-planned approach to change.
Interestingly, in 2008 there were 717 compliance audits or inspections by the taxi regulators of the industry. Last year there were 5 035. That is a sevenfold increase in the number of inspections of the taxi industry under this government, designed to drive improvements in services. The most important area is safety. We have committed $2 million to the Northbridge rank to provide a safe facility in Northbridge for people to catch taxis, and a safe facility in Northbridge for taxidrivers to come and collect patrons, who have effectively been vetted by the process in and around the rank. We have also committed $7.7 million to put a new suite of security cameras in the 1 800-plus cabs in Perth; that is very important. One statistic that concerned me immensely was that in 2009 the police requested 163 downloads of security camera footage from taxi services to assess serious incidents in cabs. In 2010 they requested 259 downloads. The unfortunate reality is that in half the cases in which they requested the downloads, one could not be provided because the quality of the cameras’ footage was so poor. That is just not good enough. The new cameras will be a vast improvement: two cameras inside the vehicle and two outside, full voice recording, images at three frames per second and the material stored for 12 days instead of the current three hours. That will help the police investigate complaints about incidents that happen in taxis, it will also help our compliance regulators use that in-car footage to investigate complaints, particularly complaints against taxidrivers. I think the member for Kingsley can be confident that this government is attempting to come up with what I consider to be a balanced, well-considered and timely response to the real issues that exist in the taxi industry. Earlier today, I heard the Leader of the Opposition say that this government was all talk and no action. The Leader of the Opposition will see action in relation to taxis. If members want to see an example of talk in relation to the taxi industry and want to compare what the two sides of politics in Western Australia can offer the taxi industry, let us look at what the government has talked about: secure taxi ranks, cameras in cars, more compliance audits and a raft of changes to come. The shadow Minister for Transport, Hon Ken Travers, had a brilliant idea to make taxis in Western Australia safer. I am assuming that most of the opposition’s media statements come through the Leader of the Opposition’s office, so they are vetted and approved by him; in fact he indicated that yesterday. The brilliant reform for taxis in Western Australia proposed by the Labor Party is to paint each taxi gold! We have problems with safety, we have problems with availability, we have problems with standards and the Leader of the Opposition’s response is to propose spending $10 million to paint the taxis of Western Australia gold. Is the Leader of the Opposition serious about this gold-plated option for taxis? Is that his policy position about taxis or is it just a weird idea of “Goldfinger” up there in the upper house? “Goldfinger Travers”. And do members know the pearler about all this from old “Goldfinger Travers”? I know that the opposition has looked after him because he sure looked after them. The good old left, it came into play didn’t it? Before I finish, it is interesting, to have a look at the composition of the Leader of the Opposition’s new front bench: metalworkers’ left, the member for Swanbourne; metalworkers’ left, the member for Collie–Preston.
Earlier today, I heard the Leader of the Opposition say that this government was all talk and no action. The Leader of the Opposition will see action in relation to taxis. If members want to see an example of talk in relation to the taxi industry and want to compare what the two sides of politics in Western Australia can offer the taxi industry, let us look at what the government has talked about: secure taxi ranks, cameras in cars, more compliance audits and a raft of changes to come. The shadow Minister for Transport, Hon Ken Travers, had a brilliant idea to make taxis in Western Australia safer. I am assuming that most of the opposition’s media statements come through the Leader of the Opposition’s office, so they are vetted and approved by him; in fact he indicated that yesterday. The brilliant reform for taxis in Western Australia proposed by the Labor Party is to paint each taxi gold! We have problems with safety, we have problems with availability, we have problems with standards and the Leader of the Opposition’s response is to propose spending $10 million to paint the taxis of Western Australia gold. Is the Leader of the Opposition serious about this gold-plated option for taxis? Is that his policy position about taxis or is it just a weird idea of “Goldfinger” up there in the upper house? “Goldfinger Travers”. And do members know the pearler about all this from old “Goldfinger Travers”? I know that the opposition has looked after him because he sure looked after them. The good old left, it came into play didn’t it? Before I finish, it is interesting, to have a look at the composition of the Leader of the Opposition’s new front bench: metalworkers’ left, the member for Swanbourne; metalworkers’ left, the member for Collie–Preston.
Before I finish, it is interesting, to have a look at the composition of the Leader of the Opposition’s new front bench: metalworkers’ left, the member for Swanbourne; metalworkers’ left, the member for Collie–Preston.
Mr T.R. BUSWELL : What are you now? You were the new right, you have merged with the old right, so what are you, the new-old right? Mr M. McGowan interjected. Mr T.R. BUSWELL : The miscellaneous workers union left—the artful dodger, the artful dodger from Rockingham, and the queen of the new right, now the new-old right, the member for Midland. She is like the Bea Smith from Prisoner of the new right, that is what she is, ably supported by Franky over there! Bea Smith and Franky are running the Labor Party. And what has happened to the old-old right? They have been kicked right out. They are up in the naughty corner. I now know why the Leader of the Opposition is such an enthusiastic — Several members interjected. Mr F.M. Logan interjected. Mr T.R. BUSWELL : I would be quiet if I were my friend the member for Cockburn. I now know why the Leader of the Opposition is such an enthusiastic supporter of “Goldfinger Travers” and his wonderful plan. I just want to finish with what I think is the most astounding reason for painting taxis gold. Do members know why he says that? It is because they are hard to spot at night. Several members interjected. Mr T.R. BUSWELL : We have to paint them gold because we cannot see them when it is dark! There is a plain choice when it comes to reforming taxis: the gold-plated, see them in the dark option or a sensible, well-planned approach to change.
Mr M. McGowan interjected. Mr T.R. BUSWELL : The miscellaneous workers union left—the artful dodger, the artful dodger from Rockingham, and the queen of the new right, now the new-old right, the member for Midland. She is like the Bea Smith from Prisoner of the new right, that is what she is, ably supported by Franky over there! Bea Smith and Franky are running the Labor Party. And what has happened to the old-old right? They have been kicked right out. They are up in the naughty corner. I now know why the Leader of the Opposition is such an enthusiastic — Several members interjected. Mr F.M. Logan interjected. Mr T.R. BUSWELL : I would be quiet if I were my friend the member for Cockburn. I now know why the Leader of the Opposition is such an enthusiastic supporter of “Goldfinger Travers” and his wonderful plan. I just want to finish with what I think is the most astounding reason for painting taxis gold. Do members know why he says that? It is because they are hard to spot at night. Several members interjected. Mr T.R. BUSWELL : We have to paint them gold because we cannot see them when it is dark! There is a plain choice when it comes to reforming taxis: the gold-plated, see them in the dark option or a sensible, well-planned approach to change.
Mr T.R. BUSWELL : The miscellaneous workers union left—the artful dodger, the artful dodger from Rockingham, and the queen of the new right, now the new-old right, the member for Midland. She is like the Bea Smith from Prisoner of the new right, that is what she is, ably supported by Franky over there! Bea Smith and Franky are running the Labor Party. And what has happened to the old-old right? They have been kicked right out. They are up in the naughty corner. I now know why the Leader of the Opposition is such an enthusiastic — Several members interjected. Mr F.M. Logan interjected. Mr T.R. BUSWELL : I would be quiet if I were my friend the member for Cockburn. I now know why the Leader of the Opposition is such an enthusiastic supporter of “Goldfinger Travers” and his wonderful plan. I just want to finish with what I think is the most astounding reason for painting taxis gold. Do members know why he says that? It is because they are hard to spot at night. Several members interjected. Mr T.R. BUSWELL : We have to paint them gold because we cannot see them when it is dark! There is a plain choice when it comes to reforming taxis: the gold-plated, see them in the dark option or a sensible, well-planned approach to change.
Several members interjected. Mr F.M. Logan interjected. Mr T.R. BUSWELL : I would be quiet if I were my friend the member for Cockburn. I now know why the Leader of the Opposition is such an enthusiastic supporter of “Goldfinger Travers” and his wonderful plan. I just want to finish with what I think is the most astounding reason for painting taxis gold. Do members know why he says that? It is because they are hard to spot at night. Several members interjected. Mr T.R. BUSWELL : We have to paint them gold because we cannot see them when it is dark! There is a plain choice when it comes to reforming taxis: the gold-plated, see them in the dark option or a sensible, well-planned approach to change.
Mr F.M. Logan interjected. Mr T.R. BUSWELL : I would be quiet if I were my friend the member for Cockburn. I now know why the Leader of the Opposition is such an enthusiastic supporter of “Goldfinger Travers” and his wonderful plan. I just want to finish with what I think is the most astounding reason for painting taxis gold. Do members know why he says that? It is because they are hard to spot at night. Several members interjected. Mr T.R. BUSWELL : We have to paint them gold because we cannot see them when it is dark! There is a plain choice when it comes to reforming taxis: the gold-plated, see them in the dark option or a sensible, well-planned approach to change.
Mr T.R. BUSWELL : I would be quiet if I were my friend the member for Cockburn. I now know why the Leader of the Opposition is such an enthusiastic supporter of “Goldfinger Travers” and his wonderful plan. I just want to finish with what I think is the most astounding reason for painting taxis gold. Do members know why he says that? It is because they are hard to spot at night. Several members interjected. Mr T.R. BUSWELL : We have to paint them gold because we cannot see them when it is dark! There is a plain choice when it comes to reforming taxis: the gold-plated, see them in the dark option or a sensible, well-planned approach to change.
I now know why the Leader of the Opposition is such an enthusiastic supporter of “Goldfinger Travers” and his wonderful plan. I just want to finish with what I think is the most astounding reason for painting taxis gold. Do members know why he says that? It is because they are hard to spot at night. Several members interjected. Mr T.R. BUSWELL : We have to paint them gold because we cannot see them when it is dark! There is a plain choice when it comes to reforming taxis: the gold-plated, see them in the dark option or a sensible, well-planned approach to change.
Several members interjected. Mr T.R. BUSWELL : We have to paint them gold because we cannot see them when it is dark! There is a plain choice when it comes to reforming taxis: the gold-plated, see them in the dark option or a sensible, well-planned approach to change.
Mr T.R. BUSWELL : We have to paint them gold because we cannot see them when it is dark! There is a plain choice when it comes to reforming taxis: the gold-plated, see them in the dark option or a sensible, well-planned approach to change.
I am all too aware of the recent media reports relating to security concerns of taxidrivers and passengers, and I also understand that the Minister for Transport attended a forum with taxidrivers last week. Could he please inform the house on the following — (1) What issues were raised at the meeting? (2) What are this government’s key priorities to reform the taxi industry of Western Australia? (3) What initiatives will this government introduce to ensure that WA taxis become the safest in the nation? Mr T.R. BUSWELL replied: (1)–(3) I thank the member for the question; it is a very topical issue. A while ago, I met for the first time with the departmental officers who look after taxis. I said I thought we needed to have a forum and invite taxidrivers along, and the colour drained out of their faces as quickly as the Leader of the Opposition’s would have when he saw that fateful email from the member for Pilbara—they were in shock! We went through with it and organised a forum, which was held last week. I think about 150 to 170 taxidrivers came along. I would like to publicly thank all of those drivers; it was a fantastic opportunity to interact with many people who have spent years, in fact decades, serving the public of Western Australia as taxidrivers. They effectively raised three issues with a fair degree of passion. The first issue was what they saw as being a significant undermining of their reputation by the behaviour of a few bad apples in the industry. The second was the obvious concerns about safety. And the third was concerns about viability. As a result of that meeting we will be consulting further with other interest groups in the taxi industry and in the very near future we will be developing a taxi action plan. That taxi action plan will look at three things. It will look at availability, because one of the issues that we have is that a lot of people in Western Australia do not think there are enough cabs available when they need them, and we need to put in place an empirical and proper method to determine service levels and then a plate release program that flows accordingly from that. We need to look at standards at the point of entry to make sure that we have well-trained drivers going into the system. That is about training and it is also about standards. And we need to have a method in place to make sure that those drivers who are in the industry are performing at an appropriate level. The government has taken action in relation to that. Interestingly, in 2008 there were 717 compliance audits or inspections by the taxi regulators of the industry. Last year there were 5 035. That is a sevenfold increase in the number of inspections of the taxi industry under this government, designed to drive improvements in services. The most important area is safety. We have committed $2 million to the Northbridge rank to provide a safe facility in Northbridge for people to catch taxis, and a safe facility in Northbridge for taxidrivers to come and collect patrons, who have effectively been vetted by the process in and around the rank. We have also committed $7.7 million to put a new suite of security cameras in the 1 800-plus cabs in Perth; that is very important. One statistic that concerned me immensely was that in 2009 the police requested 163 downloads of security camera footage from taxi services to assess serious incidents in cabs. In 2010 they requested 259 downloads. The unfortunate reality is that in half the cases in which they requested the downloads, one could not be provided because the quality of the cameras’ footage was so poor. That is just not good enough. The new cameras will be a vast improvement: two cameras inside the vehicle and two outside, full voice recording, images at three frames per second and the material stored for 12 days instead of the current three hours. That will help the police investigate complaints about incidents that happen in taxis, it will also help our compliance regulators use that in-car footage to investigate complaints, particularly complaints against taxidrivers. I think the member for Kingsley can be confident that this government is attempting to come up with what I consider to be a balanced, well-considered and timely response to the real issues that exist in the taxi industry. Earlier today, I heard the Leader of the Opposition say that this government was all talk and no action. The Leader of the Opposition will see action in relation to taxis. If members want to see an example of talk in relation to the taxi industry and want to compare what the two sides of politics in Western Australia can offer the taxi industry, let us look at what the government has talked about: secure taxi ranks, cameras in cars, more compliance audits and a raft of changes to come. The shadow Minister for Transport, Hon Ken Travers, had a brilliant idea to make taxis in Western Australia safer. I am assuming that most of the opposition’s media statements come through the Leader of the Opposition’s office, so they are vetted and approved by him; in fact he indicated that yesterday. The brilliant reform for taxis in Western Australia proposed by the Labor Party is to paint each taxi gold! We have problems with safety, we have problems with availability, we have problems with standards and the Leader of the Opposition’s response is to propose spending $10 million to paint the taxis of Western Australia gold. Is the Leader of the Opposition serious about this gold-plated option for taxis? Is that his policy position about taxis or is it just a weird idea of “Goldfinger” up there in the upper house? “Goldfinger Travers”. And do members know the pearler about all this from old “Goldfinger Travers”? I know that the opposition has looked after him because he sure looked after them. The good old left, it came into play didn’t it? Before I finish, it is interesting, to have a look at the composition of the Leader of the Opposition’s new front bench: metalworkers’ left, the member for Swanbourne; metalworkers’ left, the member for Collie–Preston. Mr F.M. Logan interjected. Mr T.R. BUSWELL : What are you now? You were the new right, you have merged with the old right, so what are you, the new-old right? Mr M. McGowan interjected. Mr T.R. BUSWELL : The miscellaneous workers union left—the artful dodger, the artful dodger from Rockingham, and the queen of the new right, now the new-old right, the member for Midland. She is like the Bea Smith from Prisoner of the new right, that is what she is, ably supported by Franky over there! Bea Smith and Franky are running the Labor Party. And what has happened to the old-old right? They have been kicked right out. They are up in the naughty corner. I now know why the Leader of the Opposition is such an enthusiastic — Several members interjected. Mr F.M. Logan interjected. Mr T.R. BUSWELL : I would be quiet if I were my friend the member for Cockburn. I now know why the Leader of the Opposition is such an enthusiastic supporter of “Goldfinger Travers” and his wonderful plan. I just want to finish with what I think is the most astounding reason for painting taxis gold. Do members know why he says that? It is because they are hard to spot at night. Several members interjected. Mr T.R. BUSWELL : We have to paint them gold because we cannot see them when it is dark! There is a plain choice when it comes to reforming taxis: the gold-plated, see them in the dark option or a sensible, well-planned approach to change.
(1) What issues were raised at the meeting? (2) What are this government’s key priorities to reform the taxi industry of Western Australia? (3) What initiatives will this government introduce to ensure that WA taxis become the safest in the nation? Mr T.R. BUSWELL replied: (1)–(3) I thank the member for the question; it is a very topical issue. A while ago, I met for the first time with the departmental officers who look after taxis. I said I thought we needed to have a forum and invite taxidrivers along, and the colour drained out of their faces as quickly as the Leader of the Opposition’s would have when he saw that fateful email from the member for Pilbara—they were in shock! We went through with it and organised a forum, which was held last week. I think about 150 to 170 taxidrivers came along. I would like to publicly thank all of those drivers; it was a fantastic opportunity to interact with many people who have spent years, in fact decades, serving the public of Western Australia as taxidrivers. They effectively raised three issues with a fair degree of passion. The first issue was what they saw as being a significant undermining of their reputation by the behaviour of a few bad apples in the industry. The second was the obvious concerns about safety. And the third was concerns about viability. As a result of that meeting we will be consulting further with other interest groups in the taxi industry and in the very near future we will be developing a taxi action plan. That taxi action plan will look at three things. It will look at availability, because one of the issues that we have is that a lot of people in Western Australia do not think there are enough cabs available when they need them, and we need to put in place an empirical and proper method to determine service levels and then a plate release program that flows accordingly from that. We need to look at standards at the point of entry to make sure that we have well-trained drivers going into the system. That is about training and it is also about standards. And we need to have a method in place to make sure that those drivers who are in the industry are performing at an appropriate level. The government has taken action in relation to that. Interestingly, in 2008 there were 717 compliance audits or inspections by the taxi regulators of the industry. Last year there were 5 035. That is a sevenfold increase in the number of inspections of the taxi industry under this government, designed to drive improvements in services. The most important area is safety. We have committed $2 million to the Northbridge rank to provide a safe facility in Northbridge for people to catch taxis, and a safe facility in Northbridge for taxidrivers to come and collect patrons, who have effectively been vetted by the process in and around the rank. We have also committed $7.7 million to put a new suite of security cameras in the 1 800-plus cabs in Perth; that is very important. One statistic that concerned me immensely was that in 2009 the police requested 163 downloads of security camera footage from taxi services to assess serious incidents in cabs. In 2010 they requested 259 downloads. The unfortunate reality is that in half the cases in which they requested the downloads, one could not be provided because the quality of the cameras’ footage was so poor. That is just not good enough. The new cameras will be a vast improvement: two cameras inside the vehicle and two outside, full voice recording, images at three frames per second and the material stored for 12 days instead of the current three hours. That will help the police investigate complaints about incidents that happen in taxis, it will also help our compliance regulators use that in-car footage to investigate complaints, particularly complaints against taxidrivers. I think the member for Kingsley can be confident that this government is attempting to come up with what I consider to be a balanced, well-considered and timely response to the real issues that exist in the taxi industry. Earlier today, I heard the Leader of the Opposition say that this government was all talk and no action. The Leader of the Opposition will see action in relation to taxis. If members want to see an example of talk in relation to the taxi industry and want to compare what the two sides of politics in Western Australia can offer the taxi industry, let us look at what the government has talked about: secure taxi ranks, cameras in cars, more compliance audits and a raft of changes to come. The shadow Minister for Transport, Hon Ken Travers, had a brilliant idea to make taxis in Western Australia safer. I am assuming that most of the opposition’s media statements come through the Leader of the Opposition’s office, so they are vetted and approved by him; in fact he indicated that yesterday. The brilliant reform for taxis in Western Australia proposed by the Labor Party is to paint each taxi gold! We have problems with safety, we have problems with availability, we have problems with standards and the Leader of the Opposition’s response is to propose spending $10 million to paint the taxis of Western Australia gold. Is the Leader of the Opposition serious about this gold-plated option for taxis? Is that his policy position about taxis or is it just a weird idea of “Goldfinger” up there in the upper house? “Goldfinger Travers”. And do members know the pearler about all this from old “Goldfinger Travers”? I know that the opposition has looked after him because he sure looked after them. The good old left, it came into play didn’t it? Before I finish, it is interesting, to have a look at the composition of the Leader of the Opposition’s new front bench: metalworkers’ left, the member for Swanbourne; metalworkers’ left, the member for Collie–Preston. Mr F.M. Logan interjected. Mr T.R. BUSWELL : What are you now? You were the new right, you have merged with the old right, so what are you, the new-old right? Mr M. McGowan interjected. Mr T.R. BUSWELL : The miscellaneous workers union left—the artful dodger, the artful dodger from Rockingham, and the queen of the new right, now the new-old right, the member for Midland. She is like the Bea Smith from Prisoner of the new right, that is what she is, ably supported by Franky over there! Bea Smith and Franky are running the Labor Party. And what has happened to the old-old right? They have been kicked right out. They are up in the naughty corner. I now know why the Leader of the Opposition is such an enthusiastic — Several members interjected. Mr F.M. Logan interjected. Mr T.R. BUSWELL : I would be quiet if I were my friend the member for Cockburn. I now know why the Leader of the Opposition is such an enthusiastic supporter of “Goldfinger Travers” and his wonderful plan. I just want to finish with what I think is the most astounding reason for painting taxis gold. Do members know why he says that? It is because they are hard to spot at night. Several members interjected. Mr T.R. BUSWELL : We have to paint them gold because we cannot see them when it is dark! There is a plain choice when it comes to reforming taxis: the gold-plated, see them in the dark option or a sensible, well-planned approach to change.
(2) What are this government’s key priorities to reform the taxi industry of Western Australia? (3) What initiatives will this government introduce to ensure that WA taxis become the safest in the nation? Mr T.R. BUSWELL replied: (1)–(3) I thank the member for the question; it is a very topical issue. A while ago, I met for the first time with the departmental officers who look after taxis. I said I thought we needed to have a forum and invite taxidrivers along, and the colour drained out of their faces as quickly as the Leader of the Opposition’s would have when he saw that fateful email from the member for Pilbara—they were in shock! We went through with it and organised a forum, which was held last week. I think about 150 to 170 taxidrivers came along. I would like to publicly thank all of those drivers; it was a fantastic opportunity to interact with many people who have spent years, in fact decades, serving the public of Western Australia as taxidrivers. They effectively raised three issues with a fair degree of passion. The first issue was what they saw as being a significant undermining of their reputation by the behaviour of a few bad apples in the industry. The second was the obvious concerns about safety. And the third was concerns about viability. As a result of that meeting we will be consulting further with other interest groups in the taxi industry and in the very near future we will be developing a taxi action plan. That taxi action plan will look at three things. It will look at availability, because one of the issues that we have is that a lot of people in Western Australia do not think there are enough cabs available when they need them, and we need to put in place an empirical and proper method to determine service levels and then a plate release program that flows accordingly from that. We need to look at standards at the point of entry to make sure that we have well-trained drivers going into the system. That is about training and it is also about standards. And we need to have a method in place to make sure that those drivers who are in the industry are performing at an appropriate level. The government has taken action in relation to that. Interestingly, in 2008 there were 717 compliance audits or inspections by the taxi regulators of the industry. Last year there were 5 035. That is a sevenfold increase in the number of inspections of the taxi industry under this government, designed to drive improvements in services. The most important area is safety. We have committed $2 million to the Northbridge rank to provide a safe facility in Northbridge for people to catch taxis, and a safe facility in Northbridge for taxidrivers to come and collect patrons, who have effectively been vetted by the process in and around the rank. We have also committed $7.7 million to put a new suite of security cameras in the 1 800-plus cabs in Perth; that is very important. One statistic that concerned me immensely was that in 2009 the police requested 163 downloads of security camera footage from taxi services to assess serious incidents in cabs. In 2010 they requested 259 downloads. The unfortunate reality is that in half the cases in which they requested the downloads, one could not be provided because the quality of the cameras’ footage was so poor. That is just not good enough. The new cameras will be a vast improvement: two cameras inside the vehicle and two outside, full voice recording, images at three frames per second and the material stored for 12 days instead of the current three hours. That will help the police investigate complaints about incidents that happen in taxis, it will also help our compliance regulators use that in-car footage to investigate complaints, particularly complaints against taxidrivers. I think the member for Kingsley can be confident that this government is attempting to come up with what I consider to be a balanced, well-considered and timely response to the real issues that exist in the taxi industry. Earlier today, I heard the Leader of the Opposition say that this government was all talk and no action. The Leader of the Opposition will see action in relation to taxis. If members want to see an example of talk in relation to the taxi industry and want to compare what the two sides of politics in Western Australia can offer the taxi industry, let us look at what the government has talked about: secure taxi ranks, cameras in cars, more compliance audits and a raft of changes to come. The shadow Minister for Transport, Hon Ken Travers, had a brilliant idea to make taxis in Western Australia safer. I am assuming that most of the opposition’s media statements come through the Leader of the Opposition’s office, so they are vetted and approved by him; in fact he indicated that yesterday. The brilliant reform for taxis in Western Australia proposed by the Labor Party is to paint each taxi gold! We have problems with safety, we have problems with availability, we have problems with standards and the Leader of the Opposition’s response is to propose spending $10 million to paint the taxis of Western Australia gold. Is the Leader of the Opposition serious about this gold-plated option for taxis? Is that his policy position about taxis or is it just a weird idea of “Goldfinger” up there in the upper house? “Goldfinger Travers”. And do members know the pearler about all this from old “Goldfinger Travers”? I know that the opposition has looked after him because he sure looked after them. The good old left, it came into play didn’t it? Before I finish, it is interesting, to have a look at the composition of the Leader of the Opposition’s new front bench: metalworkers’ left, the member for Swanbourne; metalworkers’ left, the member for Collie–Preston. Mr F.M. Logan interjected. Mr T.R. BUSWELL : What are you now? You were the new right, you have merged with the old right, so what are you, the new-old right? Mr M. McGowan interjected. Mr T.R. BUSWELL : The miscellaneous workers union left—the artful dodger, the artful dodger from Rockingham, and the queen of the new right, now the new-old right, the member for Midland. She is like the Bea Smith from Prisoner of the new right, that is what she is, ably supported by Franky over there! Bea Smith and Franky are running the Labor Party. And what has happened to the old-old right? They have been kicked right out. They are up in the naughty corner. I now know why the Leader of the Opposition is such an enthusiastic — Several members interjected. Mr F.M. Logan interjected. Mr T.R. BUSWELL : I would be quiet if I were my friend the member for Cockburn. I now know why the Leader of the Opposition is such an enthusiastic supporter of “Goldfinger Travers” and his wonderful plan. I just want to finish with what I think is the most astounding reason for painting taxis gold. Do members know why he says that? It is because they are hard to spot at night. Several members interjected. Mr T.R. BUSWELL : We have to paint them gold because we cannot see them when it is dark! There is a plain choice when it comes to reforming taxis: the gold-plated, see them in the dark option or a sensible, well-planned approach to change.
(3) What initiatives will this government introduce to ensure that WA taxis become the safest in the nation? Mr T.R. BUSWELL replied: (1)–(3) I thank the member for the question; it is a very topical issue. A while ago, I met for the first time with the departmental officers who look after taxis. I said I thought we needed to have a forum and invite taxidrivers along, and the colour drained out of their faces as quickly as the Leader of the Opposition’s would have when he saw that fateful email from the member for Pilbara—they were in shock! We went through with it and organised a forum, which was held last week. I think about 150 to 170 taxidrivers came along. I would like to publicly thank all of those drivers; it was a fantastic opportunity to interact with many people who have spent years, in fact decades, serving the public of Western Australia as taxidrivers. They effectively raised three issues with a fair degree of passion. The first issue was what they saw as being a significant undermining of their reputation by the behaviour of a few bad apples in the industry. The second was the obvious concerns about safety. And the third was concerns about viability. As a result of that meeting we will be consulting further with other interest groups in the taxi industry and in the very near future we will be developing a taxi action plan. That taxi action plan will look at three things. It will look at availability, because one of the issues that we have is that a lot of people in Western Australia do not think there are enough cabs available when they need them, and we need to put in place an empirical and proper method to determine service levels and then a plate release program that flows accordingly from that. We need to look at standards at the point of entry to make sure that we have well-trained drivers going into the system. That is about training and it is also about standards. And we need to have a method in place to make sure that those drivers who are in the industry are performing at an appropriate level. The government has taken action in relation to that. Interestingly, in 2008 there were 717 compliance audits or inspections by the taxi regulators of the industry. Last year there were 5 035. That is a sevenfold increase in the number of inspections of the taxi industry under this government, designed to drive improvements in services. The most important area is safety. We have committed $2 million to the Northbridge rank to provide a safe facility in Northbridge for people to catch taxis, and a safe facility in Northbridge for taxidrivers to come and collect patrons, who have effectively been vetted by the process in and around the rank. We have also committed $7.7 million to put a new suite of security cameras in the 1 800-plus cabs in Perth; that is very important. One statistic that concerned me immensely was that in 2009 the police requested 163 downloads of security camera footage from taxi services to assess serious incidents in cabs. In 2010 they requested 259 downloads. The unfortunate reality is that in half the cases in which they requested the downloads, one could not be provided because the quality of the cameras’ footage was so poor. That is just not good enough. The new cameras will be a vast improvement: two cameras inside the vehicle and two outside, full voice recording, images at three frames per second and the material stored for 12 days instead of the current three hours. That will help the police investigate complaints about incidents that happen in taxis, it will also help our compliance regulators use that in-car footage to investigate complaints, particularly complaints against taxidrivers. I think the member for Kingsley can be confident that this government is attempting to come up with what I consider to be a balanced, well-considered and timely response to the real issues that exist in the taxi industry. Earlier today, I heard the Leader of the Opposition say that this government was all talk and no action. The Leader of the Opposition will see action in relation to taxis. If members want to see an example of talk in relation to the taxi industry and want to compare what the two sides of politics in Western Australia can offer the taxi industry, let us look at what the government has talked about: secure taxi ranks, cameras in cars, more compliance audits and a raft of changes to come. The shadow Minister for Transport, Hon Ken Travers, had a brilliant idea to make taxis in Western Australia safer. I am assuming that most of the opposition’s media statements come through the Leader of the Opposition’s office, so they are vetted and approved by him; in fact he indicated that yesterday. The brilliant reform for taxis in Western Australia proposed by the Labor Party is to paint each taxi gold! We have problems with safety, we have problems with availability, we have problems with standards and the Leader of the Opposition’s response is to propose spending $10 million to paint the taxis of Western Australia gold. Is the Leader of the Opposition serious about this gold-plated option for taxis? Is that his policy position about taxis or is it just a weird idea of “Goldfinger” up there in the upper house? “Goldfinger Travers”. And do members know the pearler about all this from old “Goldfinger Travers”? I know that the opposition has looked after him because he sure looked after them. The good old left, it came into play didn’t it? Before I finish, it is interesting, to have a look at the composition of the Leader of the Opposition’s new front bench: metalworkers’ left, the member for Swanbourne; metalworkers’ left, the member for Collie–Preston. Mr F.M. Logan interjected. Mr T.R. BUSWELL : What are you now? You were the new right, you have merged with the old right, so what are you, the new-old right? Mr M. McGowan interjected. Mr T.R. BUSWELL : The miscellaneous workers union left—the artful dodger, the artful dodger from Rockingham, and the queen of the new right, now the new-old right, the member for Midland. She is like the Bea Smith from Prisoner of the new right, that is what she is, ably supported by Franky over there! Bea Smith and Franky are running the Labor Party. And what has happened to the old-old right? They have been kicked right out. They are up in the naughty corner. I now know why the Leader of the Opposition is such an enthusiastic — Several members interjected. Mr F.M. Logan interjected. Mr T.R. BUSWELL : I would be quiet if I were my friend the member for Cockburn. I now know why the Leader of the Opposition is such an enthusiastic supporter of “Goldfinger Travers” and his wonderful plan. I just want to finish with what I think is the most astounding reason for painting taxis gold. Do members know why he says that? It is because they are hard to spot at night. Several members interjected. Mr T.R. BUSWELL : We have to paint them gold because we cannot see them when it is dark! There is a plain choice when it comes to reforming taxis: the gold-plated, see them in the dark option or a sensible, well-planned approach to change.
Mr T.R. BUSWELL replied: (1)–(3) I thank the member for the question; it is a very topical issue. A while ago, I met for the first time with the departmental officers who look after taxis. I said I thought we needed to have a forum and invite taxidrivers along, and the colour drained out of their faces as quickly as the Leader of the Opposition’s would have when he saw that fateful email from the member for Pilbara—they were in shock! We went through with it and organised a forum, which was held last week. I think about 150 to 170 taxidrivers came along. I would like to publicly thank all of those drivers; it was a fantastic opportunity to interact with many people who have spent years, in fact decades, serving the public of Western Australia as taxidrivers. They effectively raised three issues with a fair degree of passion. The first issue was what they saw as being a significant undermining of their reputation by the behaviour of a few bad apples in the industry. The second was the obvious concerns about safety. And the third was concerns about viability. As a result of that meeting we will be consulting further with other interest groups in the taxi industry and in the very near future we will be developing a taxi action plan. That taxi action plan will look at three things. It will look at availability, because one of the issues that we have is that a lot of people in Western Australia do not think there are enough cabs available when they need them, and we need to put in place an empirical and proper method to determine service levels and then a plate release program that flows accordingly from that. We need to look at standards at the point of entry to make sure that we have well-trained drivers going into the system. That is about training and it is also about standards. And we need to have a method in place to make sure that those drivers who are in the industry are performing at an appropriate level. The government has taken action in relation to that. Interestingly, in 2008 there were 717 compliance audits or inspections by the taxi regulators of the industry. Last year there were 5 035. That is a sevenfold increase in the number of inspections of the taxi industry under this government, designed to drive improvements in services. The most important area is safety. We have committed $2 million to the Northbridge rank to provide a safe facility in Northbridge for people to catch taxis, and a safe facility in Northbridge for taxidrivers to come and collect patrons, who have effectively been vetted by the process in and around the rank. We have also committed $7.7 million to put a new suite of security cameras in the 1 800-plus cabs in Perth; that is very important. One statistic that concerned me immensely was that in 2009 the police requested 163 downloads of security camera footage from taxi services to assess serious incidents in cabs. In 2010 they requested 259 downloads. The unfortunate reality is that in half the cases in which they requested the downloads, one could not be provided because the quality of the cameras’ footage was so poor. That is just not good enough. The new cameras will be a vast improvement: two cameras inside the vehicle and two outside, full voice recording, images at three frames per second and the material stored for 12 days instead of the current three hours. That will help the police investigate complaints about incidents that happen in taxis, it will also help our compliance regulators use that in-car footage to investigate complaints, particularly complaints against taxidrivers. I think the member for Kingsley can be confident that this government is attempting to come up with what I consider to be a balanced, well-considered and timely response to the real issues that exist in the taxi industry. Earlier today, I heard the Leader of the Opposition say that this government was all talk and no action. The Leader of the Opposition will see action in relation to taxis. If members want to see an example of talk in relation to the taxi industry and want to compare what the two sides of politics in Western Australia can offer the taxi industry, let us look at what the government has talked about: secure taxi ranks, cameras in cars, more compliance audits and a raft of changes to come. The shadow Minister for Transport, Hon Ken Travers, had a brilliant idea to make taxis in Western Australia safer. I am assuming that most of the opposition’s media statements come through the Leader of the Opposition’s office, so they are vetted and approved by him; in fact he indicated that yesterday. The brilliant reform for taxis in Western Australia proposed by the Labor Party is to paint each taxi gold! We have problems with safety, we have problems with availability, we have problems with standards and the Leader of the Opposition’s response is to propose spending $10 million to paint the taxis of Western Australia gold. Is the Leader of the Opposition serious about this gold-plated option for taxis? Is that his policy position about taxis or is it just a weird idea of “Goldfinger” up there in the upper house? “Goldfinger Travers”. And do members know the pearler about all this from old “Goldfinger Travers”? I know that the opposition has looked after him because he sure looked after them. The good old left, it came into play didn’t it? Before I finish, it is interesting, to have a look at the composition of the Leader of the Opposition’s new front bench: metalworkers’ left, the member for Swanbourne; metalworkers’ left, the member for Collie–Preston. Mr F.M. Logan interjected. Mr T.R. BUSWELL : What are you now? You were the new right, you have merged with the old right, so what are you, the new-old right? Mr M. McGowan interjected. Mr T.R. BUSWELL : The miscellaneous workers union left—the artful dodger, the artful dodger from Rockingham, and the queen of the new right, now the new-old right, the member for Midland. She is like the Bea Smith from Prisoner of the new right, that is what she is, ably supported by Franky over there! Bea Smith and Franky are running the Labor Party. And what has happened to the old-old right? They have been kicked right out. They are up in the naughty corner. I now know why the Leader of the Opposition is such an enthusiastic — Several members interjected. Mr F.M. Logan interjected. Mr T.R. BUSWELL : I would be quiet if I were my friend the member for Cockburn. I now know why the Leader of the Opposition is such an enthusiastic supporter of “Goldfinger Travers” and his wonderful plan. I just want to finish with what I think is the most astounding reason for painting taxis gold. Do members know why he says that? It is because they are hard to spot at night. Several members interjected. Mr T.R. BUSWELL : We have to paint them gold because we cannot see them when it is dark! There is a plain choice when it comes to reforming taxis: the gold-plated, see them in the dark option or a sensible, well-planned approach to change.
(1)–(3) I thank the member for the question; it is a very topical issue. A while ago, I met for the first time with the departmental officers who look after taxis. I said I thought we needed to have a forum and invite taxidrivers along, and the colour drained out of their faces as quickly as the Leader of the Opposition’s would have when he saw that fateful email from the member for Pilbara—they were in shock! We went through with it and organised a forum, which was held last week. I think about 150 to 170 taxidrivers came along. I would like to publicly thank all of those drivers; it was a fantastic opportunity to interact with many people who have spent years, in fact decades, serving the public of Western Australia as taxidrivers. They effectively raised three issues with a fair degree of passion. The first issue was what they saw as being a significant undermining of their reputation by the behaviour of a few bad apples in the industry. The second was the obvious concerns about safety. And the third was concerns about viability. As a result of that meeting we will be consulting further with other interest groups in the taxi industry and in the very near future we will be developing a taxi action plan. That taxi action plan will look at three things. It will look at availability, because one of the issues that we have is that a lot of people in Western Australia do not think there are enough cabs available when they need them, and we need to put in place an empirical and proper method to determine service levels and then a plate release program that flows accordingly from that. We need to look at standards at the point of entry to make sure that we have well-trained drivers going into the system. That is about training and it is also about standards. And we need to have a method in place to make sure that those drivers who are in the industry are performing at an appropriate level. The government has taken action in relation to that. Interestingly, in 2008 there were 717 compliance audits or inspections by the taxi regulators of the industry. Last year there were 5 035. That is a sevenfold increase in the number of inspections of the taxi industry under this government, designed to drive improvements in services. The most important area is safety. We have committed $2 million to the Northbridge rank to provide a safe facility in Northbridge for people to catch taxis, and a safe facility in Northbridge for taxidrivers to come and collect patrons, who have effectively been vetted by the process in and around the rank. We have also committed $7.7 million to put a new suite of security cameras in the 1 800-plus cabs in Perth; that is very important. One statistic that concerned me immensely was that in 2009 the police requested 163 downloads of security camera footage from taxi services to assess serious incidents in cabs. In 2010 they requested 259 downloads. The unfortunate reality is that in half the cases in which they requested the downloads, one could not be provided because the quality of the cameras’ footage was so poor. That is just not good enough. The new cameras will be a vast improvement: two cameras inside the vehicle and two outside, full voice recording, images at three frames per second and the material stored for 12 days instead of the current three hours. That will help the police investigate complaints about incidents that happen in taxis, it will also help our compliance regulators use that in-car footage to investigate complaints, particularly complaints against taxidrivers. I think the member for Kingsley can be confident that this government is attempting to come up with what I consider to be a balanced, well-considered and timely response to the real issues that exist in the taxi industry. Earlier today, I heard the Leader of the Opposition say that this government was all talk and no action. The Leader of the Opposition will see action in relation to taxis. If members want to see an example of talk in relation to the taxi industry and want to compare what the two sides of politics in Western Australia can offer the taxi industry, let us look at what the government has talked about: secure taxi ranks, cameras in cars, more compliance audits and a raft of changes to come. The shadow Minister for Transport, Hon Ken Travers, had a brilliant idea to make taxis in Western Australia safer. I am assuming that most of the opposition’s media statements come through the Leader of the Opposition’s office, so they are vetted and approved by him; in fact he indicated that yesterday. The brilliant reform for taxis in Western Australia proposed by the Labor Party is to paint each taxi gold! We have problems with safety, we have problems with availability, we have problems with standards and the Leader of the Opposition’s response is to propose spending $10 million to paint the taxis of Western Australia gold. Is the Leader of the Opposition serious about this gold-plated option for taxis? Is that his policy position about taxis or is it just a weird idea of “Goldfinger” up there in the upper house? “Goldfinger Travers”. And do members know the pearler about all this from old “Goldfinger Travers”? I know that the opposition has looked after him because he sure looked after them. The good old left, it came into play didn’t it? Before I finish, it is interesting, to have a look at the composition of the Leader of the Opposition’s new front bench: metalworkers’ left, the member for Swanbourne; metalworkers’ left, the member for Collie–Preston. Mr F.M. Logan interjected. Mr T.R. BUSWELL : What are you now? You were the new right, you have merged with the old right, so what are you, the new-old right? Mr M. McGowan interjected. Mr T.R. BUSWELL : The miscellaneous workers union left—the artful dodger, the artful dodger from Rockingham, and the queen of the new right, now the new-old right, the member for Midland. She is like the Bea Smith from Prisoner of the new right, that is what she is, ably supported by Franky over there! Bea Smith and Franky are running the Labor Party. And what has happened to the old-old right? They have been kicked right out. They are up in the naughty corner. I now know why the Leader of the Opposition is such an enthusiastic — Several members interjected. Mr F.M. Logan interjected. Mr T.R. BUSWELL : I would be quiet if I were my friend the member for Cockburn. I now know why the Leader of the Opposition is such an enthusiastic supporter of “Goldfinger Travers” and his wonderful plan. I just want to finish with what I think is the most astounding reason for painting taxis gold. Do members know why he says that? It is because they are hard to spot at night. Several members interjected. Mr T.R. BUSWELL : We have to paint them gold because we cannot see them when it is dark! There is a plain choice when it comes to reforming taxis: the gold-plated, see them in the dark option or a sensible, well-planned approach to change.
Interestingly, in 2008 there were 717 compliance audits or inspections by the taxi regulators of the industry. Last year there were 5 035. That is a sevenfold increase in the number of inspections of the taxi industry under this government, designed to drive improvements in services. The most important area is safety. We have committed $2 million to the Northbridge rank to provide a safe facility in Northbridge for people to catch taxis, and a safe facility in Northbridge for taxidrivers to come and collect patrons, who have effectively been vetted by the process in and around the rank. We have also committed $7.7 million to put a new suite of security cameras in the 1 800-plus cabs in Perth; that is very important. One statistic that concerned me immensely was that in 2009 the police requested 163 downloads of security camera footage from taxi services to assess serious incidents in cabs. In 2010 they requested 259 downloads. The unfortunate reality is that in half the cases in which they requested the downloads, one could not be provided because the quality of the cameras’ footage was so poor. That is just not good enough. The new cameras will be a vast improvement: two cameras inside the vehicle and two outside, full voice recording, images at three frames per second and the material stored for 12 days instead of the current three hours. That will help the police investigate complaints about incidents that happen in taxis, it will also help our compliance regulators use that in-car footage to investigate complaints, particularly complaints against taxidrivers. I think the member for Kingsley can be confident that this government is attempting to come up with what I consider to be a balanced, well-considered and timely response to the real issues that exist in the taxi industry. Earlier today, I heard the Leader of the Opposition say that this government was all talk and no action. The Leader of the Opposition will see action in relation to taxis. If members want to see an example of talk in relation to the taxi industry and want to compare what the two sides of politics in Western Australia can offer the taxi industry, let us look at what the government has talked about: secure taxi ranks, cameras in cars, more compliance audits and a raft of changes to come. The shadow Minister for Transport, Hon Ken Travers, had a brilliant idea to make taxis in Western Australia safer. I am assuming that most of the opposition’s media statements come through the Leader of the Opposition’s office, so they are vetted and approved by him; in fact he indicated that yesterday. The brilliant reform for taxis in Western Australia proposed by the Labor Party is to paint each taxi gold! We have problems with safety, we have problems with availability, we have problems with standards and the Leader of the Opposition’s response is to propose spending $10 million to paint the taxis of Western Australia gold. Is the Leader of the Opposition serious about this gold-plated option for taxis? Is that his policy position about taxis or is it just a weird idea of “Goldfinger” up there in the upper house? “Goldfinger Travers”. And do members know the pearler about all this from old “Goldfinger Travers”? I know that the opposition has looked after him because he sure looked after them. The good old left, it came into play didn’t it? Before I finish, it is interesting, to have a look at the composition of the Leader of the Opposition’s new front bench: metalworkers’ left, the member for Swanbourne; metalworkers’ left, the member for Collie–Preston.
Earlier today, I heard the Leader of the Opposition say that this government was all talk and no action. The Leader of the Opposition will see action in relation to taxis. If members want to see an example of talk in relation to the taxi industry and want to compare what the two sides of politics in Western Australia can offer the taxi industry, let us look at what the government has talked about: secure taxi ranks, cameras in cars, more compliance audits and a raft of changes to come. The shadow Minister for Transport, Hon Ken Travers, had a brilliant idea to make taxis in Western Australia safer. I am assuming that most of the opposition’s media statements come through the Leader of the Opposition’s office, so they are vetted and approved by him; in fact he indicated that yesterday. The brilliant reform for taxis in Western Australia proposed by the Labor Party is to paint each taxi gold! We have problems with safety, we have problems with availability, we have problems with standards and the Leader of the Opposition’s response is to propose spending $10 million to paint the taxis of Western Australia gold. Is the Leader of the Opposition serious about this gold-plated option for taxis? Is that his policy position about taxis or is it just a weird idea of “Goldfinger” up there in the upper house? “Goldfinger Travers”. And do members know the pearler about all this from old “Goldfinger Travers”? I know that the opposition has looked after him because he sure looked after them. The good old left, it came into play didn’t it? Before I finish, it is interesting, to have a look at the composition of the Leader of the Opposition’s new front bench: metalworkers’ left, the member for Swanbourne; metalworkers’ left, the member for Collie–Preston.
Before I finish, it is interesting, to have a look at the composition of the Leader of the Opposition’s new front bench: metalworkers’ left, the member for Swanbourne; metalworkers’ left, the member for Collie–Preston.
Mr T.R. BUSWELL : What are you now? You were the new right, you have merged with the old right, so what are you, the new-old right? Mr M. McGowan interjected. Mr T.R. BUSWELL : The miscellaneous workers union left—the artful dodger, the artful dodger from Rockingham, and the queen of the new right, now the new-old right, the member for Midland. She is like the Bea Smith from Prisoner of the new right, that is what she is, ably supported by Franky over there! Bea Smith and Franky are running the Labor Party. And what has happened to the old-old right? They have been kicked right out. They are up in the naughty corner. I now know why the Leader of the Opposition is such an enthusiastic — Several members interjected. Mr F.M. Logan interjected. Mr T.R. BUSWELL : I would be quiet if I were my friend the member for Cockburn. I now know why the Leader of the Opposition is such an enthusiastic supporter of “Goldfinger Travers” and his wonderful plan. I just want to finish with what I think is the most astounding reason for painting taxis gold. Do members know why he says that? It is because they are hard to spot at night. Several members interjected. Mr T.R. BUSWELL : We have to paint them gold because we cannot see them when it is dark! There is a plain choice when it comes to reforming taxis: the gold-plated, see them in the dark option or a sensible, well-planned approach to change.
Mr M. McGowan interjected. Mr T.R. BUSWELL : The miscellaneous workers union left—the artful dodger, the artful dodger from Rockingham, and the queen of the new right, now the new-old right, the member for Midland. She is like the Bea Smith from Prisoner of the new right, that is what she is, ably supported by Franky over there! Bea Smith and Franky are running the Labor Party. And what has happened to the old-old right? They have been kicked right out. They are up in the naughty corner. I now know why the Leader of the Opposition is such an enthusiastic — Several members interjected. Mr F.M. Logan interjected. Mr T.R. BUSWELL : I would be quiet if I were my friend the member for Cockburn. I now know why the Leader of the Opposition is such an enthusiastic supporter of “Goldfinger Travers” and his wonderful plan. I just want to finish with what I think is the most astounding reason for painting taxis gold. Do members know why he says that? It is because they are hard to spot at night. Several members interjected. Mr T.R. BUSWELL : We have to paint them gold because we cannot see them when it is dark! There is a plain choice when it comes to reforming taxis: the gold-plated, see them in the dark option or a sensible, well-planned approach to change.
Mr T.R. BUSWELL : The miscellaneous workers union left—the artful dodger, the artful dodger from Rockingham, and the queen of the new right, now the new-old right, the member for Midland. She is like the Bea Smith from Prisoner of the new right, that is what she is, ably supported by Franky over there! Bea Smith and Franky are running the Labor Party. And what has happened to the old-old right? They have been kicked right out. They are up in the naughty corner. I now know why the Leader of the Opposition is such an enthusiastic — Several members interjected. Mr F.M. Logan interjected. Mr T.R. BUSWELL : I would be quiet if I were my friend the member for Cockburn. I now know why the Leader of the Opposition is such an enthusiastic supporter of “Goldfinger Travers” and his wonderful plan. I just want to finish with what I think is the most astounding reason for painting taxis gold. Do members know why he says that? It is because they are hard to spot at night. Several members interjected. Mr T.R. BUSWELL : We have to paint them gold because we cannot see them when it is dark! There is a plain choice when it comes to reforming taxis: the gold-plated, see them in the dark option or a sensible, well-planned approach to change.
Several members interjected. Mr F.M. Logan interjected. Mr T.R. BUSWELL : I would be quiet if I were my friend the member for Cockburn. I now know why the Leader of the Opposition is such an enthusiastic supporter of “Goldfinger Travers” and his wonderful plan. I just want to finish with what I think is the most astounding reason for painting taxis gold. Do members know why he says that? It is because they are hard to spot at night. Several members interjected. Mr T.R. BUSWELL : We have to paint them gold because we cannot see them when it is dark! There is a plain choice when it comes to reforming taxis: the gold-plated, see them in the dark option or a sensible, well-planned approach to change.
Mr F.M. Logan interjected. Mr T.R. BUSWELL : I would be quiet if I were my friend the member for Cockburn. I now know why the Leader of the Opposition is such an enthusiastic supporter of “Goldfinger Travers” and his wonderful plan. I just want to finish with what I think is the most astounding reason for painting taxis gold. Do members know why he says that? It is because they are hard to spot at night. Several members interjected. Mr T.R. BUSWELL : We have to paint them gold because we cannot see them when it is dark! There is a plain choice when it comes to reforming taxis: the gold-plated, see them in the dark option or a sensible, well-planned approach to change.
Mr T.R. BUSWELL : I would be quiet if I were my friend the member for Cockburn. I now know why the Leader of the Opposition is such an enthusiastic supporter of “Goldfinger Travers” and his wonderful plan. I just want to finish with what I think is the most astounding reason for painting taxis gold. Do members know why he says that? It is because they are hard to spot at night. Several members interjected. Mr T.R. BUSWELL : We have to paint them gold because we cannot see them when it is dark! There is a plain choice when it comes to reforming taxis: the gold-plated, see them in the dark option or a sensible, well-planned approach to change.
I now know why the Leader of the Opposition is such an enthusiastic supporter of “Goldfinger Travers” and his wonderful plan. I just want to finish with what I think is the most astounding reason for painting taxis gold. Do members know why he says that? It is because they are hard to spot at night. Several members interjected. Mr T.R. BUSWELL : We have to paint them gold because we cannot see them when it is dark! There is a plain choice when it comes to reforming taxis: the gold-plated, see them in the dark option or a sensible, well-planned approach to change.
Several members interjected. Mr T.R. BUSWELL : We have to paint them gold because we cannot see them when it is dark! There is a plain choice when it comes to reforming taxis: the gold-plated, see them in the dark option or a sensible, well-planned approach to change.
Mr T.R. BUSWELL : We have to paint them gold because we cannot see them when it is dark! There is a plain choice when it comes to reforming taxis: the gold-plated, see them in the dark option or a sensible, well-planned approach to change.
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