Public transport will be free for everyone under 18 across Victoria from 1 January 2026, under a budget measure Premier Jacinta Allan announced on Sunday 18 May 2025. The government says it will save families up to $755 per child a year.
The Announcement
Allan announced the change two days before the budget, telling reporters it would cover trams, trains, buses and coach services in metropolitan, regional and rural Victoria, and would apply to more than one million young Victorians. Children in areas that do not use the myki ticketing system are also eligible, the government said.
“Free public transport for every child, every day, everywhere,” Allan said. “Families are doing it tough and I’m on their side.”
The budget was handed down two days later, on Tuesday 20 May, by Treasurer Jaclyn Symes, and funded the measure.
How It Works
Under the scheme, a new youth myki will be issued and used like any other myki card. Children keep tapping on and off as they do now, and the card will stay valid until the holder turns 18.
myki is the card passengers use to pay fares across Victoria’s public transport network.
Public Transport Minister Gabrielle Williams said the measure would save families money. “This will save so many struggling families thousands of dollars a year,” she said. “Cheaper school runs, cheaper weekends at the footy, and one less thing for families to worry about.”
The Money
The program is funded in the budget, at a cost reported by The Guardian and 7NEWS of $318 million over four years. Budget documents describe $320 million against the combined package of free under-18 travel and free weekend travel for seniors.
The government’s savings estimates are $755 per child a year against the cost of a yearly student pass, $2,265 for a family with three children, and $1,144 for a student who buys daily fares four times a week.
The Second Measure and the Budget Context
A second measure in the same budget makes seniors eligible for free travel statewide on weekends, at a cost of $2.2 million over four years. The existing 50 per cent weekday discount for seniors continues.
The budget assumed 1,200 fewer public service positions, with the potential to approach 3,000 after a review.
On the state’s finances, 7NEWS reported from the mid-year update that net debt was projected at $187.3 billion by mid-2028 and that debt servicing would cost about $25 million a day at that point. The Guardian reported net debt rising from about $155.5 billion in mid-2025 to $194 billion by June 2029. The two projections come from different documents.
Asked whether the forecast surplus would slip, Allan did not say, arguing that the fiscal strategy was “working”.
The Reaction
Opposition Leader Brad Battin said the state Labor government had maxed out Victoria’s credit card. “We can’t continue down the same path,” he said.
Shadow Treasurer James Newbury pointed to operating expense growth. “In terms of operating expenses, they’re currently projecting 0.2 per cent growth but they’ve averaged 7.2 per cent growth,” he said. “These aren’t just slightly fudged figures.”
Asked whether the free fares were a vote play, Allan said: “You have a choice to make. You back in working people and families when they are looking to governments to provide real cost of living help right now.”
One procedural step accompanied the budget: a resolution was needed for Symes, an upper-house MP, to give the budget speech in the lower house. It was the first time the arrangement had been used since the 2008 to 2010 period.
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Sources: Premier of Victoria, https://www.premier.vic.gov.au/sites/default/files/2025-05/250518-Free-Public-Transport-For-Every-Child%2C-Every-Day%2C-Everywhere.pdf; The Guardian, https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2025/may/18/victoria-free-public-transport-under-18-children; 7NEWS, https://7news.com.au/news/victorian-government-announces-free-public-transport-for-kids-in-budget-sweetener-c-18730785
Photo: Liamdavies, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
Illustrative: a Melbourne tram in Bourke Street, photographed in December 2013. The photograph does not show the youth myki scheme or any person described in the article.
