The Cairns Post

Uber pays its fair share

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REFERRING to the text of David the cabbie (14/11). He claims that the taxi industry is contributi­ng to government revenue.

It is not the taxi industry that pays these taxes, it is the end user, who pays twice, namely for the licence of the owner, plus the driver.

Uber and Uber drivers also pay a GST to the government and as a foreign company has to pay this tax of their own revenues.

Uber drivers are also now charged an annual Uber licence fee, for which they get nothing in return, not like taxis that enjoy the rank privileges.

As only few people can own a taxi license – equivalent to the price of a house – it can hardly be said that it is a fair and equal level playing field.

When you have an industry with no vision for the future, eventually the future will overrun you and the following reality becomes harsh and brutal.

Time for the taxi industries to stop wallowing in their own pity and make big changes to themselves. As a start, deregulate and abolish those taxi licenses. Werner Sandner, Woree 1558: Elizabeth I becomes Queen of

England on death of Mary I. 1796: Death of Catherine II the Great,

German-born empress of Russia. 1800: The US Congress meets for the first time in the new capital, Washington. 1838: The birth of the Melbourne Cricket Ground is heralded in a match between civilian and military teams on Batman’s Hill. 1869: Suez Canal opens in Egypt, linking

Mediterran­ean and Red Seas. 1913: First vessels pass through Panama

Canal. 1972: Former Argentine dictator Juan D Peron returns to his homeland after 17 years of exile. 1974: First general election in Greece for more than 10 years ends in a decisive victory for the New Democracy Party. 1993: South African leaders endorse new

Constituti­on to end apartheid. 1996: David Dicks, 18, (above) returns to Australia after completing a solo roundworld yacht voyage. 2011: US President Barack Obama makes

his first visit to Australia.

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