Victoria and Tasmania announce free public transport to relieve fuel shortages and prices, but WA won’t follow

WA won’t follow Victoria and Tasmania and make public transport free to combat the two biggest issues confronting households around the nation - fuel shortage fears and soaring petrol prices. Victoria announced that a month of free trains, trams and buses would start on Tuesday. Premier Jacinta Allan said the offer would cost the Government about $70 million but was one way it could “help Victorian families and households right now”. The free ride for Tasmanians will extend even longer, with Premier Jeremy Rockliff saying ferries and buses would be free for three months starting on Monday. Roger Cook said WA public transport users already benefit from discounted fares. While the Government will continue to monitor the impact of higher fuel prices, he said West Australians should “celebrate historically low public transport fares” and joked they are as low as when Rick Astley was topping music charts in the 1980s. “The good thing in Western Australia is that we already have substantially discounted and permanently low fares for public transport, our $2.80 go anywhere fair is a great opportunity for people to get onto a bus, into a train, and to get to and from the city at a very low cost. “We’ve already seen people respond . . . (there’s been) significant increases in patronage on both our trains and busses. “Our TransWA 50 per cent discount in terms of fares is another opportunity for people to travel into regional Western Australia at a very affordable rate.” The free public transport initiatives are a response to high petrol and diesel prices and fuel shortages sparked by the month-long war in the Middle East. The petrol shortage is worse in NSW than in WA but that State has also ruled out free public transport. “I want to be clear, the NSW Government isn’t going down the path of free public transport for a couple of days, or for a month,” NSW Transport Minister John Graham said in response to calls from the Opposition and transport union to reduce fares. He said the fuel crisis was expected to last “longer than a month” and any Government assistance should benefit the wider economy. Independent senator David Pocock also called for the Federal government should help finance free public transport nationwide. Bus use surged in Tasmania last week, with patronage up more than 20 per cent Statewide, in a sign that fuel costs were already driving commuters to ditch their cars. On Monday, State and Territory leaders will meet during National Cabinet to try to co-ordinate a united response to the fuel crisis. After a National Cabinet meeting last week, the former chief executive of the Australian Energy Regulator Anthea Harris was appointed to lead the new Fuel Supply Taskforce which has been set up to oversee a State and Territory-based response to the fuel cris. The taskforce will coordinate a State and Territory-based response to the nationwide fuel supply. On Saturday, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese denied there will COVID style mandates in fuel. “I don’t want things to be mandated, common sense should apply as well,” he said. The average price per litre for unleaded petrol in Perth has jumped from $1.59 in early March to $2.56 - a 61 per cent increase in four weeks. Diesel prices have effectively doubled in the same period and will rise again tomorrow by an average half a cent to $3.16.