NSW must embrace “shared economy”: Labor leader

The NSW Labor leader will introduce a private member’s Bill calling on the state government to embrace and regulate the “shared economy”, in response to the growing popularity of services such as Uber and Airbnb.

In an opinion article for The Sydney Morning Herald, leader of the opposition Luke Foley asserted that UberX, Airbnb, GoGet and other peer-to-peer platforms could help address many of the problems facing NSW today.

“Housing is unaffordable, but many households have spare rooms. We lack storage, but cram our garages and sheds with tools and equipment we rarely use,” Foley said.

“You can’t find a park around key commuter hubs, yet most carports and driveways on residential streets around train stations are unused for most of the day. Our roads are congested — with vehicles full of spare seats.”

The shared economy can provide the solutions to these problems, but ensuring they have a chance to thrive in the state will require a regulatory overhaul, Foley said.

He called for regulation that provides the fast-developing industry with certainty. Doing so will require a collaborative regulatory framework that involves regulators, platforms and users.

Foley noted that Uber celebrated 1 million UberX trips in Sydney after just 12 months of operation, despite ridesharing remaining technically illegal in New South Wales. This suggests that regulators would be unable to stop the development of the sharing economy even if they wanted to.

Uber noted that Foley has joined a growing chorus of support among lawmakers for ridesharing and other services.

Victorian Opposition Leader Matthew Guy recently asserted that the state government should make Uber regulation a top priority, while ACT Chief Minister Andrew Barr has committed to introducing a regulatory framework for ridesharing in the national capital.

Image courtesy of Gustavo da Cunha Pimenta under CC.