November 2004.
THE Government is copping flak for spending more than $250,000 getting people off the dole and behind the wheel of taxis, in an industry already bursting at the seams.
The Taxi Federation has described the spending as “craziness”, a waste of taxpayer money and an ill-conceived move designed to shorten the dole queue without any consideration of industry implications.
Figures issued by Associate Social Development Minister Rick Barker reveal that the Government has spent $262,902 since July last year helping 124 beneficiaries secure work as taxi drivers.
Most of the spending ($222,654) was on wage subsidies to help 91 “disadvantaged clients” gain fulltime employment.
Five people received enterprise allowance subsidies and grants worth $34,684 while a further 28 beneficiaries received $5564 worth of work-start grants.
Federation executive director Tim Reddish said the start-up grants cre ated uneven competition and were frustrating for established cabbies who were already struggling to make a living.
“It’s craziness. There’s certainly not a shortage of drivers.”
The money would be better spent on enforcing compliance, he said. The industry has been in the spotlight this year with reports of drivers fighting at cab ranks, dodging gst payments and being implicated in a string of alleged sexual assaults.
The federation is advocating a three-year moratorium banning new entrants into the market, but Transport Safety Minister Harry Duynhoven told the federation’s conference in September that there would be no moves to limit the number of drivers.
ACT MP Deborah Coddington said the last thing New Zealand needed was more taxi drivers and called the Government’s spending a “totally inappropriate” use of taxpayers’ money.
Though she supported getting people off benefits and into work, they should be steered toward industries where there were shortages, she said.
Ian Gaskin, the boss of Wellington company Gold and Black Taxis, said paying beneficiaries to become cabbies was sending them, and the rest of the industry, down the road to bankruptcy.
However, Richard Wright, manager of Wellington’s Taxi School, accused the Taxi Federation of “rank hypocrisy” in denouncing the funding, saying he had trained people on Social Development grants who had gone on to durable jobs as taxi drivers in federation member companies.
“There is a strong customer demand at certain times.
“If they can meet that demand and make a good living, then what’s wrong with that?”
