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BRIEF
Handcuffs for fare evaders?

Selena Black

4 August 2007

#151; A report in the August 2 Herald Sun has Rail, Tram and Bus Union state secretary Trevor Dobbyn calling for ticket inspectors to be issued with handcuffs, because he says, “Our officers get publicly vilified for what looks like an assault on someone, but in fact they are trying to restrain them after they’ve been arrested”.

Ticket inspectors are widely reviled by Melbourne’s public transport users, in part because inspectors have often abused their authority and assaulted passengers, but also because of their frequent refusals to show any leniency to passengers who were unable to purchase a ticket due to the long queues at ticket machines. The penalties for travelling without a ticket start at $150 for a first offence.

Ben Courtice, the Socialist Alliance candidate for the federal seat of Gellibrand in Melbourne’s west, told Green Left Weekly that “Dobbyn should be fighting for solutions to the problems that commuters face — including making public transport free — rather than calling for increased powers for ticket inspectors. Melbourne’s public transport is in need of improvement in so many ways. Handcuffing petty fare evaders is not going to fix anything.”