Taxi Industry

The Hon. F. PANGALLO (14:56): I seek leave to make a brief explanation before asking the Minister for Primary Industries, representing the Minister for Transport in another place—she is not here today so it will have to be the Attorney-General, representing the Minister for Transport in another place—a question about compensation.

Leave granted.

The Hon. F. PANGALLO: This week, I urged the state government to compensate taxi hire plate owners for financial losses to their businesses and plate values caused when global rideshare company Uber was allowed to operate illegally in South Australia in 2015. My call followed the announcement that Uber has agreed to pay $272 million in compensation to about 8,000 Australian taxi and hire car drivers, operators and licence holders for their loss of income and licence values when the rideshare giant disrupted the Australian taxi industry.

South Australia was not included in the class action because the Department for Infrastructure and Transport claimed it could not find or provide any records of Uber's entry into South Australia to assist the local industry to be part of the class action. The South Australian Taxi Council president and former Speaker of the House of Assembly, John Trainer OAM, sent me a statement yesterday on the issue, which I now seek to table.

Leave granted.

The Hon. F. PANGALLO: In it he said, in part, and I quote:

In all my decades of community involvement I have never been so angry and disgusted as I am right now.

We tried to be part of the class action that concluded yesterday but unlike in other States our Transport Department refused to provide the necessary documentation.

We believe that DIT lied to us, blocked our FOI applications, and then deceived the Ombudsman when we complained.

I also wish to table minutes of Taxi Council meetings from 2019 in which department executive, Ms Emma Kokar, told the council to get Maurice Blackburn, the law firm handling the class action, to contact her for information needed for SA plate owners to join the national action. When a Maurice Blackburn lawyer called Ms Kokar, the lawyer was advised that the department had no information that they could help with. I wish to table those minutes.

Leave granted.

The Hon. F. PANGALLO: Adding insult to injury, the department yesterday said that the South Australian taxi industry can now take its own action against Uber. That will cost an unrealistic $35 million and take more than five years to be finalised—ludicrous when evidence needed has not been disclosed. My questions to the minister are:

1. Will the minister now compensate South Australian plate owners for their financial losses arising from Uber's illegal entry and operation into South Australia from 2015 and, if not, why not?

2. Since the compensation announcement earlier this week, has the state government sought legal advice on similar action being launched in South Australia?

3. Why was the government still issuing plates in 2015 valued in excess of $300,000 each when it had already been in secret negotiations with Uber in late 2014 about entering the market?

4. Can the minister explain how records, notes, emails, phone records and other communications between the then Labor government and a large multinational and Nasdaq publicly listed company wanting to do business in South Australia could possibly go missing, as claimed by his department in freedom of information applications and other requests by the Taxi Council?

5. Finally, will he now instigate an inquiry into the incompetence of his department, and how can the public have confidence that information relating to other important matters is not lost or destroyed when inquiries are made?

The Hon. K.J. MAHER (Minister for Aboriginal Affairs, Attorney-General, Minister for Industrial Relations and Public Sector) (15:00): As the minister representing today the Minister for Primary Industries representing the Minister for Transport, I will be sure to have that passed on to the minister in another place to bring back a reply.