When he was still alive, Narelle Blinman's husband had a plan to secure her financial security after he had gone.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
That plan hasn't worked out.
Mrs Blinman says their savings have been decimated because of changes made to the ACT government's system for licensing taxis.
The government allocates "plates" - the right to operate a taxi - to operators for a fee. Two years ago, it decided to release another 50 plates, at a cost of $5,000 a year to lease. It's just released another 30.
Mrs Blinman says this means the five plates she and her husband bought to be their superannuation have now become worth a fraction of their former value. The cost of owning the right to run a taxi is falling fast, and that means those who bought earlier at much higher prices are struggling.
Before Mr Blinman died, he drove his own bus and saved every cent to invest in the five plates. At that time, they cost around $250,000 each - a total of $1.25 million dollars.
But the ACT government has changed the system to try to encourage more taxi drivers to stay in the business, as Uber encroaches on the market. One of the ways of making the system more attractive for taxi drivers was to make the plates cheaper.
And that, according to Mrs Blinman, has made their old investment virtually worthless. She struggles to pay bills, including those for her husband's care in his final months. He died in December.
At 75, Mrs Blinman says she has to keep working.
She says that because she is the victim of a change in government policy, she should be compensated as people in similar situations in NSW have been.
When people invest in company shares and the market falls, they take the hit - but Mrs Blinman says this is different because she is the victim of an arbitrary change in government policy.
She is not alone.
According to Petar Ivanovski, the new chairman of the ACT Taxi Plate Owners Association: "The losses for plate owners are severe and at crisis point for many families."
"The policy changes implemented by the ACT government have resulted in the massive devaluation of the investments of taxi plate owners," he says.
Mr Ivanovksi says the association is contemplating legal action, though he won't say what the basis for such action might be.
A counselling phone line has been set up by the ACT government for people who have lost out due to the policy change.
A government spokeswoman said on Thursday that that government was committed to making Canberra "an accessible, inclusive city" but it was also "keenly aware of the personal pressure" many participants in the industry might be feeling as the transport industry evolved.
"The government is committed to ensuring that personal counselling services for those in the on-demand transport industry are available for those who may require some additional support with ongoing change," the spokeswoman said.
She said that following a review of the impacts of regulatory reform, the government recognised the benefits of increasing the available supply of taxi licences.
A key action to come out of the review was the government committing to release 80 further government-issued standard taxi licences by March 2019, bringing the total number in the market to 408.
The spokeswoman said a buyback process had been considered as part of the evaluation, however perpetual plate holders had already benefited from the regulatory framework over several decades.
