TV breakfast host Karl Stefanovic has fired back at a road rule plan over rising fuel costs, suggesting this move should happen instead.
As Australia grapples with the skyrocketing price of fuel and transport costs on the back of the Middle East crisis, Stefanovic has discussed a number of suggestions put forward that could make things easier for the average Aussie.
In speaking on his eponymous podcast The Karl Stefanovic Show on Wednesday, the Channel 9 presenter spoke of how reducing the road speed limit by 10 km/h could help reduce petrol consumption.
However, he had another idea.
“Somebody needs to come up with a plan,” he said.
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“Because people’s livelihoods are at stake.
“They are recommending that speed limits on our roads come down by 10km/h to reduce overall oil use by cars by one to six per cent.
“They saying households should work from home where possible.
“The problem with that is, we went through all of this through Covid. But what happens to the small businesses that rely on foot traffic?
“The cities need to do their bit in allowing more fuel to go through to the country.
“Consuming less in the cities, it’s a big deal.
“So, here’s the suggestion: for the duration of all this from tomorrow onwards – free public transport.”
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However, Stefanovic’s noble proposal is likely to be met with roadblocks by our politicians.
In the ACT on Tuesday, a motion brought forward in local parliament by the Canberra Liberals to offer 50 cent fares for public transport in response to high fuel costs was voted down.
Labor minister Tara Cheyne said the idea to reduce fares to 50 cents as “fanciful”, the ABC reported.
ACT MPs were instead planning to lobby Prime Minister Anthony Albanese to get the Commonwealth to pay for 50c fares.
NSW Premier Chris Minns said free public transport was not a practical solution.
“Seventy-five per cent of what it costs to take someone from Hurstville, for example, to the city is already covered by the taxpayer,” he told ABC Radio Sydney.
“Every dollar that we get from the fare box we pump back into public transport to provide more public transport.
“If we were to turn that off, even for a short period of time, it has an impact somewhere else in the system.”
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Minns also said work-from-home mandates for the NSW public sector wouldn’t solve fuel shortages, much of which has been blamed on panic buying
“Most of our employees are nurses, paramedics, police officers, firefighters. We just can’t issue that order and if we did, it would have a negligible effect in terms of fuel consumption,” he said.
However a six-month trial of 50c fares on Queensland public transport brought in last year has now become permanent, showing cheaper fares can be done. The government claims usage of the service has increase around 20 per cent in that time. But the cost to taxpayers is considerable – around $300m per year.
New New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani has controversially pledged to make all buses in the city free at a cost of around $1bn a year.
Stefanovic’s discussion of lower speed limits to reduce fuel usage is in line with suggestions made from the International Energy Agency earlier this week.
