Saturday 19 June 2010

28,924 Queenslanders sign petition against licence fee increase

Yet again our debt-ridden state government are trying to round up more donations for their coffers.

A five-year licence will go from $73.30 to $96.05 after July 1st, then to $152.50 by 2014, making Queensland the highest-charging State. It's a 22% rise over last year, following a statewide 9.2% increase in fuel after the subsidy was removed.

The cost of other licences and cards will also go up, from learner's permits, boat licences and proof of age card (formerly 18+ card).

This follows a massive increase in vehicle registration, fuel tax, electricity charges... the list goes on.

The licence increases are all to support a new digital driver's licence, which was to be a cost-neutral project but will now cost $110 million.

The online ePetition reads...
  • "Queensland residents draw to the attention of the House the Government's proposal to double the cost of Queensland Drivers Licences to more than $150, making Queensland licences the most expensive in the Nation. These changes, along with hikes in vehicle registration costs, the new State fuel tax, and above CPI increases for tolls make Queensland the most expensive State in Australia to be a motorist."
To date, 28,924 have requested the Queensland Parliament oppose the massive increase in Queensland drivers licence charges.

To sign the petition, you must be a resident of Queensland and old enough to understand what is it you're are signing. This will exclude some politicians. The ePetition closes on 29th July 2010.

5 comments:

PaulB said...

Everyone look on your next rego notice and you will see something called the "Traffic Improvement fee". When I demanded to know what this actually was I got a response of "Its a fee collected by Queensland Transport on behalf of Treasury who then decide its use".

In other words its a hidden, and possibly illegal tax.

Andrew said...

Holy crap!!!

Is there no end to the revenue raising of this Government??

Petition signed Mike and forwarded on to as many people as I can.

yk said...

Here is just another reason to abolish all state governments and run the place with enhanced Federal and local management. The cost of keeping these throwbacks to a bygone era must be staggering.

Syd Walker said...

The reports refers to: "a new digital driver's licence, which was to be a cost-neutral project but will now cost $110 million."

If true, that's a huge cost blow-out. An explanation is in order.

It would be less annoying if the public could be reassured

(1) that the full privacy and civil liberties implications of the new drivers licence scheme have been thoroughly debated in Parliament - and

(2) that there is clear and easily available information about who will store data retrieved from these cards, how and under what safeguards.

Calling something 'smart' doesn't make it so. IMO, it's smart to ask questions when the State moves to centralize more and more information about its citizens in databases likly to be insecure.

Would any of FNQs four Labor MPs care to respond?

Syd Walker said...

Here's some background reading on the the smart card proposal: two submissions written back when community views were first canvassed, more than half a decade ago.

Government MPs who've since voted in support of the smartcard will doubtless be familiar with material such as this and have well-honed rebuttals ready. But a read may help the rest of us catch up on the community concerns our politicians have presumably been grappling with in recent years, as they worked hard to formulate policies in the public interest.

There's a submission by (a) the Queensland Council for Civil Liberties and (b) Electronic Frontiers Australia. Both are well worth a read, IMO. Both groups opposed the Queensland 'smartcard' and raised a variety of serious concerns relating to privacy, potential misuse, mission creep and other matters.

According to the EFA submission, introduction of the smartcard was originally costed at $60 million.

This is how the QCCC concludes its submission:

"We can see no persuasive arguments for the “Smart Card” driver licence. It is likely to be an expensive white elephant that puts at risk the personal privacy of every Queenslander who drives a motor vehicle, all of whom are required by law to be licensed and therefore to put significant amounts of their personal information at risk. There is still time for Queensland Transport to withdraw the proposal and to support, in any event, our proposal for wide ranging state based privacy legislation which will represent a step forward for privacy in Queensland rather than a step back."