Free Fares campaigners and student group Victoria University of Wellington Students' Association held a public panel on the removal of public transport discounts for young people. Photo: RNZ / Krystal Gibbens
Public transport fares have increased from today for young people as the government ended fare subsidies.
The previous government had subsidised free public transport for children under 12 and half-price fares for those under 25.
It was one of the bigger ticket items in the last budget, slated to cost about $327 million over four years.
Labour brought in the initiative to help ease the cost of living pressure on families.
It has slammed National's decision to scrap the scheme, saying weekly expenses will now grow for more than 1.6 million New Zealanders.
People RNZ spoke to across the country people were equally unimpressed.
"I'm outraged at the removal of the subsidies for young people and the free bus fares. It's just outrageous," said one person.
"Having transport be cheap is such a handy thing when supermarket pricing and rent is so outrageous," another said. "[It's] just another cost people have to worry about."
"It makes quite a difference when you're going from one side of the city to the other," said another person.
At Victoria University on Wednesday, Free Fares campaigners and student group VUWSA hosted a panel to talk about the discount removal.
Organiser Hana Pilkinton-Ching said the extra cost would affect families and young people already struggling with the cost of living.
"It is quite counter-intuitive in the midst of the cost of living crisis and the climate crisis that we're taking this back step to make public transport less accessible and affordable for people," Pilkinton-Ching said.
Fellow organiser Mika Hervel was disappointed with the direction the government was taking.
"But it is worth, I think, thinking about the progress we've made over the last three years and overall there are some discounts like the Community Service Card Holder Discounts which are still staying," Hervel said.
But Hervel said tax cuts promised by the government would not account for the extra cost.
Green MP Julie-Anne Genter and Greater Wellington councillor Yadana Saw at the public panel hosted by Free Fares campaigners and student group VUWSA on 1 May, 2024. Photo: RNZ / Krystal Gibbens
Greater Wellington councillor Yadana Saw said there were some ways people could mitigate the higher fares, including off-peak fares, community service card discounts and its trial of on-demand service for residents in Tawa and Porirua CBD.
Despite the external pressures, Metlink was seeing "record levels of patronage", Saw said.
But for many, the extra transport costs would means families have to figure out their funds, she said.
"Is your child going to be doing basketball and music? Are they going to get the extra tuition they need?"
Green MP Julie-Anne Genter said MPs got their parliamentary-related transport paid for by the public.
"The ministers who are making the decisions about doubling the price of public transport for young people and families, they could take public transport for free anyway, but generally they get chauffeur driven limos to do it, which costs way more. And I just think this just demonstrates that there is absolute injustice in the way that the decision-makers are being treated versus the people who are affected by the decisions they make," Genter said.
"Public transport is a public good. It's one of the easiest things that we can do to both help the climate and help people's lives. And we need public transport to be more affordable for all those reasons.
"Making public transport more affordable and more convenient to use benefits everyone. It's something that this government should realise the value of and they should be actively investing in."
People in New Zealand wanted to take public transport "but the government is actively making it more difficult and more expensive", she said.
The government has previously said a number of people did not use public transport, and they were reprioritising the money into tax cuts.
