{"id":54150,"date":"2026-07-20T04:51:10","date_gmt":"2026-07-20T04:51:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/54150\/"},"modified":"2026-07-20T04:51:10","modified_gmt":"2026-07-20T04:51:10","slug":"greens-accuse-airtrain-of-ripping-off-queensland-taxpayers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/54150\/","title":{"rendered":"Greens accuse AirTrain of ripping off Queensland taxpayers"},"content":{"rendered":"

Brisbane’s “rip-off” airport shuttle service paid zero income tax to Australia while parking its assets overseas, Greens MP Michael Berkman has said.<\/p>\n

Financial reports by USS Axle, which owns the Brisbane AirTrain service, show the company paid zero income tax between 2015 and 2025 financial years.<\/p>\n

USS Axle’s parent company, Universities Superannuation Scheme, is based in the United Kingdom and holds significant international assets.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Michael Berkman says AirTrain is ripping off Queensland taxpayers.\u00a0 (ABC News: Janelle Miles)<\/p>\n

“It looks like AirTrain’s owner has set up complex financial arrangements including taking out a loan from its own parent company to dodge tax,” Mr Berkman said.<\/p>\n

“While Queenslanders are working hard, paying their taxes and struggling with fuel and transport costs, the AirTrain’s foreign owners are ripping us all off.”<\/p>\n

AirTrain is a private service running on public infrastructure, meaning it can set its own fares and that Queensland’s 50 cent fares do not apply.<\/p>\n

A standard one-way AirTrain ticket costs $23.30 per person, with concessions for children.<\/p>\n

AirTrain’s exclusive deal with the state government prohibits any other form of direct public transport to the airport until 2036.<\/p>\n

The only other public transport option is taking a shuttle service to the DFO mall on the outskirts of the airport, and then catching connecting buses and trains into the city.<\/p>\n

This method typically takes two to three times longer than the AirTrain.<\/p>\n

Plans are underway to build a Metro bus line to the DFO mall and connect passengers to the terminal via a shuttle bus, since the line is not allowed to go directly to the airport.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"Signage<\/p>\n

DFO Brisbane is just outside AirTrain’s exclusion zone. (ABC News: Jim Malo)<\/p>\n

Under USS Axle’s contract, AirTrain is not due to return to public hands until 2036.<\/p>\n

Mr Berkman said the state government should try to nationalise AirTrain, offering to buy it back for $45 million.<\/p>\n

He said if the owners refused the offer, the state government should legislate to force it on the grounds it was “an unacceptably bad deal for Queensland” ahead of the 2032 Olympics.<\/p>\n

Under the existing contract, AirTrain will be the only direct public transport option for international visitors when the 2032 Olympics rolls around.<\/p>\n

Mr Berkman said nationalising AirTrain would allow the state government to reduce tickets to 50 cents and extend the Gold Glider bus line into the airport.<\/p>\n

“Ditching the AirTrain contract sends exactly the right message: that we won’t let corporations hold Queenslanders to ransom anymore,” Mr Berkman said.<\/p>\n

“By ending the private contract we could also get to work building a new station at DFO, and boost frequency from 30 minutes to every 15 minutes.”<\/p>\n

AirTrain and Brisbane Airport were contacted for comment.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Brisbane’s “rip-off” airport shuttle service paid zero income tax to Australia while parking its assets overseas, Greens MP…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":54151,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[47515,99,1207,4417,47516,47518,47517],"class_list":["post-54150","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-brisbane","tag-airtrain","tag-brisbane","tag-brisbane-airport","tag-greens","tag-michael-berkman","tag-universities-superannuation-scheme","tag-uss-axle"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/54150","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=54150"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/54150\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/54151"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=54150"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=54150"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=54150"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}