Summary
Summary WEstjustice Sunshine Youth Office client data and anecdotal reports show significant problems with public transport fares and fines for young people aged 14 to 17 years travelling to and from school.
The right to education for every young person is a community expectation, a political aim, and a legal requirement. This includes access to school and encouragement to participate.
Travel to and from school on the Victorian public transport system is too costly for a significant proportion of students in the west of Melbourne. This is creating transport poverty.
Transport poverty results in contact with the infringements system, which is complex, ineffective and a source of social hardship for young people. This includes missing school, homelessness and emotional distress.
New thinking about young people and the public transport system is required.
Recommendations
1. Provide free public transport travel to all passengers up to 18 years of age and to any passenger who is a secondary student where their parent, carer or guardian is in receipt of Centrelink income or a healthcare card.
2. Accept identification issued by any authorised educational institution as evidence of age or student status for the purposes of free travel.
3. Authorise educational institutions to issue Myki travel cards to students free of charge.
4. Cancel all outstanding public transport fines related to Myki ticketing issues and fares which were incurred while a young person was under 18 years of age.
5. Abolish the public transport fines system for all young people under 18 years of age.
6. Develop new policy focused on innovative, non‐fiscal responses to encouraging positive travelling behaviours.
7. Abolish fines as criminal sanctions for young people under 18 years of age and replace these with innovative, non‐fiscal responses to criminal behaviours.
8. Abolish the Children and Young Persons Infringement Notice System (‘CAYPINS’). 9. Create a new consultation body that works with schools and youth support services to continuously collect data about the transport needs of young people. Use this data to create a new approach to mobility for young Victorians, with a particular focus on travel to and from places of education and the prevention of future transport poverty.
