NSW Government $110,000+ fine threat from Minister Jo Haylen’s Transport Department – nice one!

Today, Monday 15th April 2024, Nature Trail’s Tour Director, Steve, received an out-of-the blue phone call to our base at 1:38pm from someone called Kimberley Warren.  She claimed to be from the NSW Government’s Department of Transport sub-department, bureaucratically entitled ‘Point to Point Transport Commission‘.

The woman on the phone quickly threatened us with a $110,000 fine because she had been trolling the Internet to find our website and noticed an image of our tour vehicle. She argued that we were not allowed to use this vehicle because we had cancelled our commercial use registration of the car as what the NSW Government terms an Authorised Service Provider.  This was back on 1st July 2019.

NSW GOVERNMENT’S BUREAUCRACY:

Steve explained to the woman that this was correct, because at the time Nature Trail was not trading at the time, so had no customers and that the car was not used for tours nor was the vehicle even commercially registered.  It was just a private car for private use.

Steve also explained that his preliminary registration of Nature Trail as an Authorised Service Provider back on 16 November 2018 was part of the business setup process so as to be fully compliant with relevant regulations ahead of the forthcoming business launch, still then yet to be determined.

Further, Steve liberally explained to this woman on this phone that just seven months after registering, on 17 June 2019 Nature Trail received a fee notice from the Point to Point Transport Commission to pay a minimum fee of $500 to the ‘Point to Point Transport Commission – irrespective of Nature Trail still not trading, so having no customers and irrespective of not using the vehicle for the business in any way.

So Steve then cancelled the registration as an Authorised Service Provider with the NSW Government’s ‘Point to Point Transport Commission‘.

By 2nd July 2019, Steve received a confirmation of that cancellation, letter extract thus:

 

“Dear Steven RIDD,

Notice of Voluntary Surrender

 

Your authorisation, with authorisation number BSP-412488 was surrendered to the Point to Point Transport Commission on 1 July 2019. This has now been finalised and our records have been updated to reflect that you are no longer an authorised service provider under the Point to Point Transport (Taxis and Hire Vehicles) Act 2016 (the Act).
Voluntarily surrendered authorisations are deemed cancelled.”

So, this the end of story with the bureaucracy?

It was despite our best intentions to register before anticipated trading.  Of course, unless Nature Trail started trading of course, so then we would renew the registration process because we would have the incoming revenue to be able to afford such overhead compliance like the Point to Point Transport Commission’s $500+ fees per year from nil tour trips to a whopping 20,000 tour trips per year.

Who the hell delivers $20,000 trips per year besides the NSW Government’s own Transport for NSW department (with its extensive fleet of trains, buses and ferries) or outsourced corporate urban bus companies?  Does Transport for NSW have to pay such fees… back to itself?.

But Nature Trail didn’t and hasn’t started operations, for the following reasons outsides its control, despite our concerted attempts at due diligence as part of our business planning.

Nature Trail tried to launch its tour operating business as a trial back in August 2019.   We undertook a marketing campaign using our new website and a brochure distribution with direct selling.  We then started to receive a few enquiries and managed to start securing a few bookings.

This was all dabbling the water so to speak to gauge potential customer demand.  Yes, we delivered a few cash jobs at cost (no profit).  It was then that we realised that our tour operation business venture looked viable so we began going through all the regulatory compliance processes to legally commence commercial operations, namely:

The upfront overhead costs before any tour guests are found:

  1. $20 million public liability annual insurance premium to be allowed to commercial operate on both Blue Mountains Council (community) land and in the national parks) Annual premium $2000+
  2. Commercial registration of our tour vehicle RMS Fee $500 p.a.
  3. Comprehensive insurance of our tour vehicle $600 p.a.
  4. NPWS Eco-Pass application (very complex, demanding and invasive)
    • Business Name
    • Business Plan – Aims and Objectives – details of your company or trading name, description of your business or tourism product, including the activities you want to conduct in the park, business ‘vision’/mission statement.
    • Operations Manual
    • Risk Management and Emergency Response Plan
    • Route Plans for all proposed trips
    • Our business target market and “unique selling points” – (frankly commercial in confidence and none of their business)
    • Describe the products that you wish to provide in the parks – include details of Types of activities
    • Describe the programmes that you wish to provide in the park – the locations you visit, the duration of your tours – your brochures and other promotional material, including key attractions and a programme guide.
    • Minimal Impact Practices
    • Staff Management and Qualifications
    • Outline your WHS policies and procedures.
    • Risk Management and Emergency Response Plan
    • Identifying hazards and assessing risks
    • Incident and emergency response procedures.
    • Copy of your activity incident report
    • Maximum Client-to-Staff Ratio
    • Activity Equipment Standards
    • First Aid Qualifications
    • First Aid Equipment
    • Equipment Maintenance and Replacement procedures
    • Weather Contingencies
    • Documentation and Record Keeping
  5. Purchase a Personal Locator Beacon and register it with AMSA
  6. Eco-certification (annual renewal fee)
  7. The bloody bureaucratic application for the Authorised Service Provider register again
  8. Etcetera.

 

The combined upfront compulsory overhead costs as prescribed by the NSW government ‘s various departments was set to total $5000 per year.  That is before we could set one foot inside the Blue Mountains Wold Heritage Area with a single paying guest!

NSW GOVERNMENT’S ROLLING LOCKDOWNS

Then within months, totally outside our business control (and planning) from November 2019, the Blue Mountains copped three rolling widespread bushfire emergency lockdowns of our entire region.

This emergency was caused by the NSW Government’s NPWS (Parks Service) and volunteer rural firefighting mob the ‘RFS’ ignoring for two months a series of remote ignitions threatening the Blue Mountains World Heritage Area.  This bushfire emergency lockdown denied all visitation to the Blue Mountains and endured into January.  So of course we had to cancel and refund booked tours and were blanket banned by the NSW Government for taking customers and delivering tours.

Then back-to-back, our Blue Mountains region copped constant torrential rains causing multiple landslips that blocked road and hiking track accesses across the region. The custodial land managers, NSW Government’s NPWS and local Blue Mountains Council do not employ a hydrologist nor geo-technician to proactively assess landslip risks and stabilisation programmes to mitigate impact of high rainfall events – common across our  Blue Mountains sandstone plateaued region.

Then back-to-back again from 28th February 2020, we copped the Chinavirus pandemic due to abject quarantine failures by government for two years straight which locked down the entire economy.  The NSW Health Minister, aptly named Brad Hazzard, ignored  the infected Crusei Ship, Carnival; Cruse Lines Ruby Princess docked at Sydney Circular Quay and let then all disembark before virus tests results were known, and spread the virus throughout Sydney and New South Wales tourists attractions including our Blue Mountains.  Nice One, you hazard!

So as a result, Nature Trail could not trade then nor since.

So we lost motivation to start paying for all the NSW Governmental compliance overheads.

Had we done so, by 2024 over that five year period (2019-2024) of having to customers  no customers Nature Trail would have donated in excess of $25,000 to the incompetent, greedy NSW Government (oblivious to small business) and gone broke in the process.  Bugger that for a joke!   We are in business to make money not lose it and fund  the bureaucrats’ financial bubble lifestyle.

THAT THREATENING SPAM PHONE CALL FROM NSW GOVERNMENT

So, that phone call we got out-of-the-blue on Monday 15th April 2024 was then quickly followed up same day at time stamp 2:21pm, within a readied response less than an hour later from the same agent Kimberley Warren.

Such a fast turnaround between the 20 minute phone call [1:38pm to 2:18pm] and the same woman’s email time stamped at 2:21pm, clearly points to the approach being a prepared template email ready-to-send before the woman’s phone call to us.

It came across as a calculated co-ordinated gotcha (Pearl Harbour style).  It smelled like the NSW Government’s outsourced debt collector; from personal experience, with the same spots and instant dismissive accusatory malice conveyed as that of Service NSW unjustifiably toward Nature Trail since its out of the blue demand threat of 11th April 2023.

Here’s that email threat we copped… (Other tour operators beware!)

Email received 15th April 2024:

“Good Afternoon Steven,

It has been brought to the attention of The Point to Point Transport Commission that you are operating passenger services in Blue Mountains NSW.  In NSW, Point to Point transport is any passenger service in a vehicle (other than a bus) that can take customers on the route they choose, at a time that suits them, for a fare. This includes taxis, limousines, rideshare services, airport transfers and other hire vehicles.

If you choose not to become authorised as a Booking Service provider, you will need to cease offering & advertising passenger services in Blue Mountains.

Penalties of up to $110,000 apply for anyone providing an unauthorised taxi or booking service, while drivers will face penalties if they take bookings or carry out passenger services from unauthorised service providers. Penalties are much higher for second or subsequent offences.

Please see below for links to our website and the current legislation and regulation.

As discussed in our phone call this afternoon you are not permitted to advertise these services if you are not an authorised booking service provider. Also discussed, I will view your website on 19 April 2024 in order to confirm that all advertising has been removed.

https://www.pointtopoint.nsw.gov.au/

https://www.pointtopoint.nsw.gov.au/what-a-service-provider/become-an-authorised-service-provider

https://www.legislation.nsw.gov.au/view/html/inforce/current/sl-2017-0424

https://www.legislation.nsw.gov.au/view/html/inforce/current/act-2016-034

Yours Sincerely

Kimberley Warren
Service & Industry Liaison Officer
Operations
NSW Point to Point Transport Commission

ref:!00D6F01PKI2.!5002t0WShbS:ref”

OUR INITIAL REACTION?:

 

That was a nasty intimidating threatening phone call we just copped.  Surely, it must be a just another low-life spammer?

But then this email from the same woman from the NSW Point to Point Transport Commission?  The NSW Government has stooped to contracting spammers deamndbn $1110,000 our of te blue.

This is Centrelink Robodebt and Service NSW Microbusiness Grant indian giving clawback all over.  These bureaucrats never bloody learn!

 

FACT:  Nature Trail does not ever charge fares to transfer its guests to a tour start and finish location.  It never has and never will.

Instead, we offer up our privately registered tour vehicle as a courtesy car, just as the exclusive end of accommodation hotels do – i.e. those flash new BMWs and Mercedes luxury cars parked in the hotel front drive forecourt.

It’s the same as how Nature Trail offers its guests courtesy Wi-Fi and bottled drinking water for convenience and safety respectively.

So, is this shameful NSW Government next intending to introduce some ‘cash-grap’ licensing regime as well to tour operators offering courtesy Wi-Fi and bottled drinking water?   Is the NSW Government so starved for revenue as to stoop to target fledgling micro businesses such as ourselves?

Unbelievable!

This especially after all the other governmental lockdown denial of business trading in our Blue Mountains.

Governmental bureaucracy subsists in an ignorant pompous vacuous bubble with a idealistic naive perception that bottomless guaranteed taxpayer revenue will endure forever.

Governmental fairyland!  There won’t be any more taxpayers left if government dictats of lockdowns and persecution of private enterprise persists like this.

SO, OUR IMMEDIATE REBUTTAL:

(Typos corrected)

Dear Ms Warren,

I confirm receipt of your phone call to me today from number 02-8650 1783 at 1:38pm from this Transport for NSW subdepartment and your email follow up below.

Frankly, I thought your call may have been another spam call, but actually I interpret it as indeed more ‘NSW Government spam’, so following on from the likes of Service NSW and its ongoing threatening behaviour toward me over the past year.

I trust that fake ‘audit’ of its Micro Business Grants recipients has finally been ended permanently.

Your accusations toward me and tour business Nature Trail are false and unfounded.

Neither has either had a tour vehicle offered as a Point-to-Point transport for fare paying passengers – not as a taxi, limousine, ride-share service, airport transfer or other hire vehicle.

Rather it has always been registered as a private vehicle and offered at no charge as a Probono courtesy transfer for guests on hiking tours.  It saves them driving themselves or walking along the roadside to get to our tour departure location.

Back before all the NSW Government lockdowns staring with its multiple bushfire emergency declarations in 2019, Nature Trail sought to trial the NSW Government’s then new P2P regime by registering just in case business opportunities presented along these lines.

They never did.  I cancelled the P2P registration pleading genuine financial hardship.

Nature Trail has not had one paying guest since due to the NSW Government’s wall to wall socio-economic lockdowns effectively denying tourism visitation to the Blue Mountains region.

The Nature Trail website was made dormant in early 2020 during the start of the subsequent East Coast Low deluges and landslips and then the wall-to-wall NSW Government’s pandemic lockdowns.

Do not threaten me with a $110,000 penalty and more!

As discussed with you in your out-of-the-blue phone call to me today, I have immediately added a bold clause to the Nature Trail website to the effect that Nature Trail cannot currently use its vehicle due to your specific intimidating threat to me.

Read this:  https://naturetrail.com.au/

This clause overrides all offers of tours involving a vehicle.  It is one step from not having a tour operation.  I hope you are happy with yourself in your cosy public servant office with no idea about helping small business like mine get back on their feet.

Leave me alone!

If you further threaten me and my tour business that I must take down Nature Trail’s website, then I construe this as anti-small business prejudice.

I am following your legal threat of bankrupting-level fines up with political and public action about this, including Internet coverage via the Nature Trail blog ‘Mountains Drums’.

You have picked on the wrong person, Ms Warren.

I herein copy in the office of my NSW local member for Blue Mountains, The Hon. Trish Doyle MP, as well as to my solicitor.

 

Sincerely,

Steve

Tour Director