The Berejiklian Government has excluded aged pensioners and veterans living in the Wollongong local government area from the new $250 Regional Seniors Travel Card, which was promised during the March election.
The new card will be available from January 2020 to purchase fuel and pay for taxi fares from participating providers in regional NSW, and pre-booked NSW TrainLink train and coach services.
The new card will be made available to seniors in the Shellharbour local government area, but not to seniors living in Wollongong.
Premier Gladys Berejiklian MP promised to govern for everyone in NSW “no matter where they live or what their circumstances” (The Sydney Morning Herald, 15 April 2019).
No candidate standing for the Liberal Party in the March election disclosed that the Government would deliberately excluded seniors from eligibility for the new transport card on the basis of where they lived.
The latest snub to seniors living in the Wollongong local government area comes on top of sporting groups continuing to be denied the opportunity to apply for funding programs.
Member for Wollongong, Paul Scully has been campaigning for the Berejiklian Government to reverse its decision to exclude Wollongong-based sporting groups from funding grants and will now go into bat for Wollongong’s seniors to be included in the new travel card.
Comments attributable to Paul Scully MP:
“This is miserable, mean-spirited, stingy, penny-pinching by the Premier.
“The Government should not be treating our elderly and frail pensioners and veterans with such callous disdain and disregard.
“They deserve far better treatment than this arrogant and sneaky media announcement this afternoon.
“I’ll be letting the Premier and Minister for Transport and Roads, Andrew Constance, know that they should reverse the decision to exclude Wollongong’s pensioners and veterans from this new travel concession card.
“I’m getting sick and tired of Wollongong being excluded at every turn by the Berejiklian Government. This has now gone too far.”
