HUNDREDS of Victorian taxi operators staged a mock auction at State Parliament to oppose proposed reforms to their industry.

Taxi Industry Stakeholders Victoria spokesman Harry Katsiabanis said proposals put forward in Professor Allan Fels' inquiry into the industry would bankrupt drivers by reducing the value of licences.

"If we triple the taxis on our roads, drivers will wait and wait."
— HARRY KATSIABANIS

"We believe it is very important that drivers are [rewarded]," he said.

"What we don't like is the proposal that Professor Fels has put through where you can rent a licence from a government for $20,000 a year as opposed to an owner who has been in the industry forever."

The draft report into the industry recommended reducing the cost of a taxi licence from a current market value of up to $500,000 to $20,000 a year to encourage competition and redirect profits to drivers. The state government was handed the report this month, though its contents have not yet been made public.

Mr Katsiabanis said proposals in the report would lead to thousands of extra taxis flooding Melbourne’s streets: “The industry is currently conducting 0.76 jobs per hour [per driver]; if we double and triple the number of taxis on our roads, then obviously the drivers will wait and wait and wait.”

The mock auctioneer said yesterday’s “sale” of Parliament House used a similar formula to that proposed by Professor Fels: “The way we will conduct this auction, ladies and gentlemen, we will start at the top and instead of continuing up, we will be continuing down.”

The Taxi Services Commission said the protest was a publicity stunt and there appeared to be few taxi ads in the event.

It tweeted: “Suspect that these investors are misrepresenting the facts for the sake of a stunt: There is NOT a proposal. [The] draft report proposed licence fees be controlled to manageable $20k, meaning excessive profits can be redirected to drivers.”