The cancellation of the Regional Seniors Travel Card has been a controversial one, but after being taken to parliament last week, the debate revealed it may have been doomed all along. 

The $250 prepaid card was designed to acknowledge that seniors living in regional NSW have a lot more difficulties accessing transport than their metro counterparts, and often at a much heftier price. 

The Nationals’ party have been at the forefront of a petition to bring back the card, with MP Adam Marshall bringing the debate to parliament last week, after it earned over 22,000 signatures from concerned citizens. 

“The spurious reason the Government gave for removing the card was that the seniors were rorting the scheme by buying cigarettes and junk food,” Northern Tablelands MP Adam Marshall said in the debate. 

“I call BS on that claim.”

Nationals' MP Adam Marshall took the petition signed by 22,000 community members to parliament. (Facebook: Adam Marshall)

The Labor party, who were in government when the card was cut, maintained that the state’s record-breaking debt and inherited ‘budget blackholes’ were the key reason the card couldn’t be continued, despite merit for the idea. 

“The regional seniors travel card was not put in the budget that was handed down Funding was only provided for the previous final year, not going forward,” Labor MP Clayton Barr said. 

“The sad truth is that National Party members were out campaigning that they were going to deliver something that had been deliberately left out of the budget. They did not know, so viewers should not go too hard on them when they return to their electorates,” Mr Barr said. 

“Their leadership should have let them know the money did not exist in the budget going forward…I know it is sad for some members, but it is a fact.”

While Labor noted that - with adjustments - the card was a worthwhile project, $187 million in NSW debt made the program’s continuation impossible at the time. 

“Sadly, the regional seniors travel card joined a number of others that were entirely unfunded or only partially funded by (the former government),” Labor MP Liza Butler said. 

“In total, the previous Government spent nearly half‑a‑billion dollars on travel cards that could have been spent on our local roads and roads all over the State that are falling to pieces because of (the opposition),” she said. 

Since the card was launched in 2020, 1.3 million cards were issued before the travel card program was launched.

The petition has been noted by Parliament.