Cabbies angry at rideshare decision

THE Queensland Supreme Court has ruled against more than 1350 taxi drivers who sued the State Government over the rideshare industry’s impact on taxi licence values.

But lawyers for the group said there may be room to appeal the decision in the High Court.

The closed action case was filed in 2019, and garnered support from Bob Katter and Katter’s Australian Party.

Townsville Taxis general manager Daniel Capps was disappointed and angry their claim had been dismissed.

Mr Capps said the rideshare industry has decimated the value of taxi licences, with a taxi licence losing about $400,000 in value in Townsville since rideshare services launched in Queensland.

“The point of the courts is to protect the little guy against the heavy-handedness of the executive and that hasn’t happened,” he said. “We’re not just talking about people’s individual jobs being at risk, we’re talking about people’s retirements, children’s inheritance.”

Mr Capps said his company had probably lost about $4 million in the value of licences.

Maitland Lawyers principal John Maitland, who represented the taxi drivers in the class action, said in the next week, the legal team would go over the judgment in depth.

Mr Maitland said he expected the drivers would ask them to appeal the decision in the High Court.

Mr Katter said the taxi owners had never said they wanted rideshare banned, but were seeking compensation from the State Government for hanging them out to dry.

“Two-thousand taxi owners owned a property right created by the State Government … (who) then took it away.”

The State Government declined to comment.