Thousands of taxi licence holders, together with the support of their family and friends, will be taking a stand against the Victorian government at Parliament House on Saturday in a bid to gain greater compensation when their licences are compulsorily bought back in 2018.

Organised by Taxi Power, Anthony Parisi is one of the frustrated licence holders committed to showing the government that he is dedicated to fighting for recognition of his life’s work and to avert further disaster and financial ruin for hardworking families.

“This has imposed an inordinate amount of unnecessary stress that could have mostly been avoided using a series of consultative techniques with a committee of taxi licence owners and other significant industry participants,” Mr Parisi told Neos Kosmos.

“Unilateralism usually leads to poor decisions.”

As it stands, the state government’s buy-back scheme will provide a maximum of $100,000 for the first licence, and in the case of owning additional licences, $50,000 for the second − a significantly lower market value than that of 2010-11, when it stood at an estimated $500,000.

But Mr Parisi says that it is not compensation that reflects the market pricing that they are after, but an outcome that is more akin to “justice”.

“We’re seeking a greater consideration of justice towards the pricing of every taxi licence and more respect accorded to all taxi licence owners for helping to build the Victorian economy over several decades,” Mr Parisi said.

“Compensation should be given for every taxi licence as an asset that is owned by the licence owner. Whatever price was paid by the current licence owner plus an interest calculation applied to each licence [as] if the licence or asset was not purchased and the amount of money was instead placed in an interest-bearing account from an Australian bank.”

Joining taxi licence holders in their fight are Labor Federal Member for Batman David Feeney MP and Labor Federal Member for Willis, Peter Khalil MP, who will be key speakers on the day.

Those attending are being encouraged to wear something yellow to show their support, and will have the option of purchasing a yellow T-shirt from the site on the day.

The protest will take place on Saturday 3 December, on the steps of Parliament House, Spring St, Melbourne, VIC from 1.00 pm to 3.00 pm.