The Victorian state government will make public transport free for the next month.<\/p>\n
Passengers will not have to touch-on their myki travel card and all public transport gates will be open from March 31.<\/p>\n
Trains, trams and buses are expected to get busier but the government says thousands of extra services have been added to the network to meet demand.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is a temporary measure to help with the cost of living; it will take pressure off the pump and help you save,\u201d Victorian Premier Jacinta Allan said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis won\u2019t solve every problem but it\u2019s an immediate step to help Victorians right now while we keep working on new solutions to make Victoria more affordable.\u201d<\/p>\n
The move comes as fuel prices skyrocket toward $3 per litre amid the war in the Middle East, and critical oil shipments are held up in the Strait of Hormuz.<\/p>\n
Australia currently has 39 days of petrol, 30 days of diesel and 30 days of jet fuel in stocks.<\/p>\n
More than 100 petrol stations across Victoria have already run out of fuel, with hundreds more affected across the country.<\/p>\n
The Victorian government has not ruled out extending free public transport beyond April, saying they will monitor the situation and the ongoing impact of the war.<\/p>\n
Emergency laws will also be introduced to federal parliament on Monday which would allow the government to underwrite fuel suppliers.<\/p>\n
The government will not pay for the fuel but rather use public funds as insurance for companies having to buy supplies.<\/p>\n
Tasmania makes public transport free for three months<\/p>\n
Tasmania has followed suit, with the state\u2019s government announcing free public transport for three months beginning March 30.<\/p>\n
\u201cFrom tomorrow, Tasmanian public transport will be free. We\u2019ll be keeping it free until July 1,\u201d Tasmanian Premier Jeremy Rockliff said on Sunday.<\/p>\n
– AAP<\/p>\n
Play Video<\/p>\n
Victoria announces free public transport for the month of April as petrol prices approach $3 per litre and over 100 petrol stations across the state run out of fuel.<\/p>\n
Victoria announces free public transport for the month of April as petrol prices approach $3 per litre and over 100 petrol stations across the state run out of fuel.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Victorian state government will make public transport free for the next month. Passengers will not have to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":571061,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[255657,43,5575,6897,12241,44,41,39,42,40,255658,1346],"class_list":["post-571060","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-conflict-and-war","tag-headlines","tag-iran","tag-israel","tag-middle-east","tag-news","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories","tag-united-states-usa","tag-world-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/571060","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=571060"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/571060\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/571061"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=571060"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=571060"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=571060"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}