Transport Matters Party
Transport Matters is an Australian political party. It is a party in Victoria, Australia registered by the Victorian Electoral Commission on 30 April 2018, after an application was received by the VEC on 9 January 2018. Transport Matters was registered federally on the 24th of March 2020.Policies and philosophy
The party is opposed to the deregulation of the taxi and hire car industry in Victoria, and the operation of ride-sharing services in the state.History
The party was co-founded by Rod Barton and André Baruch, both hire car operators.
Most of the party's members are taxi drivers or taxi licence owners involved in a class action lawsuit against Uber for loss of income between 2014 and 2017, when the company operated in Victoria as an illegal taxicab operation. Uber was legalised in Victoria in August 2017 following the deregulation of the taxi/ride-share industry in the state.
In May 2019, more than 6,000 taxi and car-hire drivers, operators and licence owners across four states commenced the class action in the Victorian Supreme Court.Electoral results
At the 2018 Victorian state election, the party was the beneficiary of a highly convoluted series of preference flows in the group voting ticket for the Legislative Council organised by Glenn Druery. With these beneficial preferences it was estimated that the party could get elected on less than 0.3% of the vote in the Eastern Metropolitan Region. Ultimately, the party polled 0.62% of the vote and Barton was elected to the Legislative Council for a four-year term.
