How to Vote: Ripoff Style

Well it's state election day 2015. After an ultra short campaign we're ready to give our voting recommendations . At the start of the campaign we set out to compare the published policies of the three parties LNP, ALP, and Greens, but that didn't happen so you wont be getting a point by point comparison, just our honest assessment.

 

Vote 1 Greens. 

The Greens took the opportunity to do some blue sky thinking and came up with a policy and plans that we could really get behind. Who knows if they would stand up to budget scrutiny but the Greens committed to extending concessions to the unemployed and removing the absurd bureaucracy around the TTCC card and that's an important first step. The only thing the Greens plan was missing was a commitment to improving community consultation.

Vote 2 Labor. 

Mid campaign we were promised a public transport policy statement from Labor's transport spokesperson Jackie Trad. The policy never appeared. A week and a half later Jackie indicated in a candidates debate that the Labor party supported the extending of concessions to unemployed (a big policy shift), removing TTCC bureaucracy, and starting a fare reform process. Though Jackie's statements about finally bringing Queensland into line with the rest of the country on unemployed concessions were welcome it was too little too late. By not releasing public transport policy statements at any stage Labor withheld the trigger for discussion and debate in the media. While Labor were withholding their public transport policy they were also campaigning on anti-privatisation and their Cross River Rail infrastructure plans. Given that we're experiencing a protracted affordability crisis which started with the previous Labor government we find their unwillingness to be upfront extremely disappointing.

Vote 3 LNP. 

The LNP have brought nothing new to the table during this election campaign. No new ideas or plans, no sweeteners. A vote for the LNP is a vote for the 5 bilion dollar Bus and Train Tunnel and more of the same brutal approach that has left train stations understaffed and a massive number of Senior Network Officers deployed. If voted in the LNP will continue with their aweful community engagement, reduction of services, poor planning, and continued systemic failure. Public transport users will continue to suffer, especially those in areas outside metropolitan Brisbane.

Note: Our voting recommendations were written with input from many of our team members some of whom have affiliations with political parties. Some of our team have just finished high school, some are university students, and others have experience in community work. Our sense of fairness and honesty unites us.

Fairness, Honesty, Talk to us!

It's the night before the election, Jan 30th, 2015 and we're disappointed that the ALP and LNP left the affordability crisis in South East Queensland off their campaign agendas. Promised policy statements never appeared and no debate could take place. 

The Translink Ripoff team have been bouncing around some ideas and below you can read the values we want politicians to take on board. We will assess what policy and commitments have been put forward against our values and give you an honest assessment of each party in our next post. 

Fairness

 

High fares, tiny and complex zones, disappearing services, and cumbersome bureaucracy (TTCC) make us all struggle, but the people who struggle the most are the unemployed and under employed, many of whom can’t afford transport, or are forced to severely limit their transport use. Fairness can only happen when politicians make plans with battlers in mind.

 

 

Honesty

The people of SEQ know that their public transport system is woefully inadequate and far too expensive.  And yet Translink and State Government’s selective and strategic use of statistics and design of survey parameters suggests the opposite.  No amount of spin or advertising is going to fix the system. We need politicians to be upfront and face reality. Politicians need to do what needs to be done to get to a decent system, and that starts with honesty.

 

Talk to us!

 

Public transport needs to deliver the services that people want. The best way to find out what the people want is to talk to us. Ask us about the services we want delivered, let us talk to the planners, and listen for our answers.

It's Election Time: Compare the State Capitals