QLD taxi rentiers turn violent

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By Leith van Onselen

The fight between the Queensland taxi industry and ridesharing service Uber-X has gotten ugly, with two Uber drivers reportedly bashed in Fortitude Valley and Kangaroo Point early on Monday morning.

Greg Collins, the owner of the Virginia-based cab company Complete Taxi Management, gloated about the incidents on the Brisbane Taxi Driver Facebook page, noting:

“F***ing slap him like I did to the prick in Warner St the other night, I am f***ing over them,” Mr Collins wrote.

“You wait I will f***ing get them.

“They won’t and can’t defend themselves they are illegal.

“If it was 30 years ago in my time, they wouldn’t last five minutes.”

The post has since been deleted, but a screen capture is shown below, courtesy of Fairfax:

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ScreenHunter_9623 Oct. 07 08.54

Uber Australia’s head of policy, Brad Kitschke, responded claiming that social media sites of taxi groups were “riddled” with calls for violence against its drivers:

“We saw these groups post on their Facebook sites and these group’s members post on their Facebook sites inciting and encouraging similar sorts of activity and we don’t think that’s acceptable.”

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But in a classic case of ‘blame the victim’, Taxi Council Queensland’s chief executive, Benjamin Wash, said Uber must shoulder some responsibility for the attacks:

“I think Uber coming into any jurisdiction, operating based on a set of rules that they determine, ignoring the rule of law, and just expecting everyone to come on board leaves them exposed to some degree of culpability.”

Sadly, with Uber-X operating in regulatory limbo, and an estimated 15,000 Uber-X drivers currently operating in Australia (with numbers growing by the day on the back of strong demand), such assaults could become more common.

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The only real solution is for Australia’s state governments to follow the ACT’s lead and bring Uber-X into the regulatory net, providing greater certainty to it and the taxi industry.

There are huge potential benefits to consumers and the economy from ridesharing, and it’s long overdue that regulation recognises its worthwhile place in the transport landscape.

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About the author
Leith van Onselen is Chief Economist at the MB Fund and MB Super. He is also a co-founder of MacroBusiness. Leith has previously worked at the Australian Treasury, Victorian Treasury and Goldman Sachs.