Indian cabbies release arrogant manifesto [Diversity is bliss!]

Fare dinkum cabbie crisis

Neil Mitchell

May 01, 2008 12:00am

SEMI-ORGANISED ugliness confronted common sense on the streets of
Melbourne yesterday and the ugliness won.

After a 22-hour racially driven blockade that was about far more
than the sloppiness of the taxi system the State Government bowed to
the bullying and did what it should have done months ago.

As a result the Public Transport Minister Lynne Kosky looked
confused and indecisive.

There is now a clear strategy for anyone dealing with this minister:
apply the pressure and organise a celebration.

You’ll get what you want.

Consider her style. Between 8.38am and 8.42am yesterday on 3AW she
five times said she would refuse to meet the protesting cab drivers
until they ended the blockade.

Shortly before noon, with the streets still blocked, she began that
meeting.

At 8.40am the minister said: “We will not be held over a barrel on
this issue.” Soon after 2pm she capitulated.

At 8.42am she said security screens would not be compulsory for
taxis and they would not be subsidised by the Government.

By mid-afternoon she had promised the screens would be mandatory by
Christmas with half the cost paid by government.

The minister also agreed to pre-payment of fares between 10pm and
5am and waived parking fines incurred by the protesters.

Try doing that if you are the average motorist.

Ms Kosky even embraced dinky little education campaigns that will
teach cab drivers how to cuddle difficult customers and show the
rest of us why our local cabbie should really be nominated for the
Nobel Prize.

What condescending nonsense is this? We already have publicly funded
advertising telling us how to eat, drink and turn off the lights.

Now there will be campaigns promoting cabbies.

It really is simpler.

If taxi drivers want more respect they should provide a better
service.

If they want more respect they need to keep their cabs clean, behave
with simple courtesy and work out where the MCG is.

Many already get respect because they do that and know their way
around town.

Too many do not.

But there must also be concern that what happened in the streets
yesterday was about more than taxis.

Some in the industry estimate that 80 per cent of drivers are from
India, Pakistan or Somalia, and many of them are students.

Certainly yesterday’s protest looked racially driven and sounded a
little like the beginning of a scream of protest from groups that
consider themselves to be an imported underclass.

Look at the people protesting and chanting and blockading the centre
of the city.

There were no white faces.

And consider this attitude.

These are slogans from written material collated anonymously but
circulated by the protesters.

It claims to have been prepared by a person who is neither a migrant
nor a cab driver, so perhaps it comes from one of those professional
troublemakers who infiltrate such gatherings of angry men.

But it was enthusiastically handed out by those protesters who were
migrants, cab drivers, and angry:

“We do not just work in your 7-Elevens, we do not just work in your
petrol stations, we do not just drive your cabs. We drive your
economy.”

Or this: “Our parents never sent us (here) to receive our dead
bodies.”

Or this: “We are providing a service to them, a nice service, why
are they rude to us?”

Of course, the drivers have sound complaints. Pay rates in the
industry are appalling.

Working conditions are dreadful.

The Government had been slow to act on safety.

But to accuse police of deliberately ignoring attacks on drivers is
offensive and wrong.

Victoria Police are overworked and have other significant problems
but they are not racist.

They do not ignore violent crime.

At times some in Melbourne’s taxi industry seem to be world-class
whingers running a second-class system.

And what happened yesterday further damaged an already discredited
industry.

Still, at least it reinforced what should have been obvious.

Nobody is happy with the way the cabs work.

The drivers feel under-valued and if anyone wants to compile a list
of passenger complaints they will fill a library.

But there must be an answer.

This mess has been tolerated for too long.

Jeff Kennett had many critics but few would doubt he left the taxi
industry in a condition that we now can only dream about.

For some reason it all seems to have become too hard.

Various ministers have dithered and the Victorian Taxi Directorate
is not worth feeding with public money.

A fresh start is needed and the Government must consider
establishing a Cab Commissioner with authority to shake up the
industry, demand performance, rewrite rules and if necessary
increase fares.

Driver frustration led to yesterday’s lunacy in the streets.

If the system does not improve the passengers will be next to erupt.

nmitchell@3aw. com.au

Neil Mitchell broadcasts from 8.30am weekdays on 3AW

http://www.news. com.au/heraldsun /story/0, 21985,23624724-
5000117,00.html