CLANCY OVERELL | Editor | CONTACT
What the fuck.
Those were the three words that rang out through the halls of Australian Parliament House this morning. There were similar scenes right across the country in the New South Wales and Victorian Parliaments.
This comes as Queensland’s Labor government has wholeheartedly promised to keep public transport fares at a flat rate of 50 cents – even after the October election.
With Queenslanders heading to the polls next month to decide who leads their state, the cost-of-living crisis currently gripping Australian society is expected to be the major election issue.
And offering 50 cent fares, anywhere in the state, no matter how long, on state-run public transport, seems to be exactly the type of action that the voters are expecting from the politicians that they have elected to represent them.
In fact, this policy is so popular that the state opposition has had to match the commitment, in a hilarious political concession that goes against every fibre of their conservative bootstraps ideologies.
This simple, but very much needed cost-of-living releif has saved commuters $37 million since the 50 cent fares were introduced several months ago. That’s 37 million dollars that Queenslanders can now redirect towards the price-gouging supermarkets and energy companies that our Federal Government in Canberra is terrified of reprimanding.
While the Queensland media continue to do their very best to not report on the 50 cent fares policy in an effort to shoehorn their preferred right-wing party into power, it seems more and more commuters are discovering this cost-of-living relief every day – with rates of public transport spiking by 10% right across the state.
And while Labor may be down in the polls, it has certainly sent a message to voters their state government understand how fucking hard life is right now.
It’s also sent a message to the terrified political establishment further south in Canberra, Sydney and Melbourne.
“What the fuck is this bloke doing!?” asks one terrified Canberra insider.
“We are meant to be distracting everyone with transgender sports debates and social media bans… Not this shit”
“This is giving everyone the wrong idea about what governments are for”
When asked if perhaps Queensland’s 50 cent fares might set a precedent of cost-of-living relief elsewhere in the country, the insider said fuck no.
“We tried to do something big with the referendum, and the people didn’t want it. We aren’t announcing anything big ever again”
