Clarification - No plan to buy back taxi plates: MacTiernan

Planning and Infrastructure Minister Alannah MacTiernan has requested a clarification on the story we ran on Wednesday regarding her position on taxi plates buy back.

Below is her statement:

Contrary to the report in WA Business News email on Wednesday, the Government has no plans to revive the proposal to buy back taxi plates.

I told WA Business News that it would only be considered if the industry came to us with a very co-ordinated and widely supported request.

We would be reluctant to invest too much time and effort give the appallingly irresponsible about face performed by the Taxi Council when we developed a buy-back proposal in 2003.

I believe that getting the speculative value out of plates is necessary for the long-term health of the industry. Buy-back was one method of achieving this.

The alternative path is to proceed with leasing plates directly to those who drive cabs and thereby dramatically reducing their operating costs.