Light vehicles account for about 11% of Australia’s greenhouse gas emissions, according to federal government analysis.

We use Google reCaptcha to protect our website and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply. For more information see our Privacy Policy. Privacy Notice: Newsletters may contain info about charities, online ads, and content funded by outside parties. Malta and the Estonian capital of Tallinn have announced similar schemes. In 2018, the French city of Dunkirk made public transport free for its 200,000 residents. There is international precedent for the policy. “Long-term, we need to invest in a major expansion of our public transport networks, but a trial of free public transport can be implemented immediately by the federal government and help people right now.” “We’re in a cost-of-living crisis, and with petrol prices set to spike again in May, the cost of getting from A to B is putting more and more pressure on already struggling households,” Watson-Brown said.

The Greens MP said Opec’s decision to cut oil production by about 1.15m barrels a day, in addition to earlier cuts, highlighted the need for governments to make transport cheaper. Sign up for Guardian Australia’s free morning and afternoon email newsletters for your daily news roundup

The 12-month trial is not government policy and is being proposed as ministers warn of budget constraints and significant expenditure, including on the National Disability Insurance Scheme and the estimated $368bn acquisition of nuclear-powered submarines.īut Watson-Brown said the $2.2bn bill for free public transport was one-seventh of the projected $17.1bn cost of stage-three tax cuts in their first year. Costings by the Parliamentary Budget Office predict the policy would likely increase the number of people using public transport and leaving their car at home, but didn’t factor that into the $2.2bn figure.

Uubyte free trial