{"id":353303,"date":"2026-03-29T06:33:09","date_gmt":"2026-03-29T06:33:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/353303\/"},"modified":"2026-03-29T06:33:09","modified_gmt":"2026-03-29T06:33:09","slug":"two-australian-states-offer-free-public-transport-to-ease-fuel-pain","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/353303\/","title":{"rendered":"Two Australian states offer free public transport to ease fuel pain"},"content":{"rendered":"

Millions of Australians will ride public transport for free but the fuel relief measure won’t be rolled out nationwide.<\/p>\n

Victoria and Tasmania on Sunday unveiled a temporary fare reprieve as motorists continue to face price pain at the petrol pump.<\/p>\n

Uncertainty and crimped oil supplies due to the Iran war have driven up costs<\/a> and led to fuel shortages at hundreds of service stations.<\/p>\n

In response, the Victorian government will make public transport free for a month from Tuesday to encourage people to ditch their cars and offset rising fuel costs.<\/p>\n

The move is expected to cost Victoria $71 million (NZ$85.4 million) in lost revenue.<\/p>\n

Victorian Premier Jacinta Allan said a regular daily user could save up to $220 (NZ$264.77) over the course of April.<\/p>\n

\"Premiere<\/p>\n

Premiere Jacinta Allan. (Source: Getty)<\/p>\n

She acknowledged the temporary measure would not solve cost-of-living pressures but argued it would ease demand for petrol.<\/p>\n

“People are looking to their governments to do more,” she told reporters on Sunday.<\/p>\n

“We should, and we need to.”<\/p>\n

Public transport patronage will be monitored to gauge if extra services are needed to cope with the forecast influx of passengers.<\/p>\n

In Tasmania, travel on buses and ferries will be free from Monday until July 1.<\/p>\n

An adult catching the bus from Dodges Ferry into Hobart for work each day would save $88 (NZ$105.91) a week, Transport Minister Kerry Vincent said.<\/p>\n

“Families are feeling the pinch, and this important cost-of-living measure will deliver real savings,” she said.<\/p>\n

Other states have been reluctant to follow suit.<\/p>\n

NSW Transport Minister John Graham said the state government would not introduce short-term free travel.<\/p>\n

“This situation will last more than a month,” he said.<\/p>\n

“We need to keep our powder dry to be able to assist the broader economy.”<\/p>\n

Rail, Tram and Bus Union NSW secretary Toby Warnes said it was “beyond belief” the Minns government had not acted to provide free, or at least reduced, public transport fares.<\/p>\n

“Queensland’s transport fares are essentially free year-round, Victoria and Tasmania are now giving free fares, but the people of NSW are missing out,” he said.<\/p>\n

AAP has been told the Queensland Liberal National government has no plans to change its current policy of 50 cent (NZ$0.60) fares.<\/p>\n

WA Premier Roger Cook was non-committal on following Victoria and Tasmania, instead talking up “historically low” existing fares.<\/p>\n

“Rick Astley was top of the charts when fares were this low in Western Australia back in the 80s,” he said.<\/p>\n

The ACT’s lower house of parliament on Tuesday voted against a motion from the Canberra Liberals to introduce 50 cent (NZ$0.60) public transport fares.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Millions of Australians will ride public transport for free but the fuel relief measure won’t be rolled out…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":353304,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[85,111,43,139,69],"class_list":{"0":"post-353303","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-zealand","8":"tag-australia","9":"tag-new-zealand","10":"tag-news","11":"tag-newzealand","12":"tag-nz"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/353303","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=353303"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/353303\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/353304"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=353303"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=353303"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=353303"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}