Fund Our Port Macquarie-Hastings Ferries
Petitioner:
Miss Lauren Edwards
| Member:
Williams, Leslie
| No. of Signatories:
247
| Date closed:
28/06/2024
To the Speaker and Members of the Legislative Assembly, we the residents of, and visitors to, the Port Macquarie-Hastings LGA bring to the attention of the House the inequity in the funding of ferry transport services in NSW that sees some ratepayers burdened with the delivery and operational costs and not others.
The rising costs of providing and operating a ferry service are crippling to Local Government financial sustainability and were made worse when the Federal Government introduced a mandatory increased maintenance frequency schedule. Many ferry services that are funded and operated by the NSW Government via TfNSW and often, users incur no charge for the service and yet for a select few, ferry fees are charged and must continue to rise to offset costs. Just one Council-operated ferry has been successful in receiving grant funding over four years from the State Government and relieving their ratepayers of the full burden of operating costs. The Port Macquarie-Hastings ferry services are essential to our North Shore residents, with the only other possibility for travel into the rest of their LGA, being to drive approximately 1 hour and 20 minutes or 100 km one-way through the LGA to our North, there is no other reasonable travel option available.
The undersigned petitioners implore the Legislative Assembly to call on the Government to Fund our Ferries via TfNSW taking over the provision of the Port Macquarie-Hastings ferry services or via the creation of a permanent funding stream to assist with the costs.
