Transport Matters Party | |
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Founders | Rod Barton André Baruch |
Founded | 9 January 2018 |
Registered | 30 April 2018 |
Dissolved | 28 July 2023 |
Ideology | Taxi industry advocacy Ban on Uber Environmentalism[1] |
Colours | Orange |
Victorian Legislative Council | 1 / 40 (2018−2022)
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Website | |
www | |
The Transport Matters Party was an Australian political party active in Victoria.[2] The party was registered with the Victorian Electoral Commission on 30 April 2018, after an application was received by the VEC on 9 January 2018.[3]
Co-founder Rod Barton announced on 23 June 2023 that the party would disband after an unsuccessful membership drive. It was formally dissolved on 28 July 2023.[4]
The party was co-founded by Rod Barton and André Baruch, both hire car operators.[5]
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.[6][7] 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.[8]
Transport Matters was registered federally on 24 March 2020.[9] However, the party was voluntarily de-registered federally on 16 December 2021, having never competed at a federal election.[10]
The party described itself as possessing a centre-left policy agenda; in addition to the party's core focus on transport, it also championed environmental issues and small business interests.[11] The party advocated for major transport projects including the East West Link, then North East Link, the West Gate Tunnel, the Suburban Rail Loop and a fully publicly-owned Melbourne Airport rail line.[11][12][13]
The party's policy priorities included:
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.[15] Ultimately, the party polled 0.62% of the vote and Barton was elected to the Legislative Council for a four-year term.
Year | No of votes | % of vote | Seats won | +/– | Notes |
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2018 | 22,051 | 0.62 (#17) | 1 / 40
|
1 | Shared balance of power |
2022 | 10,605 | 0.28 (#21) | 0 / 40
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1 |