A small crowd of taxi drivers and their family members drove from Melbourne to protest in front of Public Transport Minister Jacinta Allan’s Mitchell Street office yesterday.

Led by the Taxi Action Group, the protesters called for better compensation for licences they say are worth a fraction of what they paid for them following an overhaul of the regulatory system for hire cars.

Group spokesman Anthony Parisi said while competition with ride-sharing services like Uber was welcomed, taxi drivers had been “decimated at the stroke of a pen” by the government’s plan.

“If we’d lost our business and our asset due to competition that’s fine, but what we can’t lose our asset to is the stroke of a pen,” he said.

Ms Allan said her office had held a number of meetings with taxi industry representatives, including licence-holders and their families, but “their ongoing campaign of disruption” was “resulting in turning people away from their cause”.

“Ride sharing is here to stay and it has had an impact on the taxi and hire car industry as we know it, there needed to be change and we’re putting in place a framework that is designed to recognise that passengers have a choice,” she said.

“We have the largest compensation arrangements on the table of any Australian state, significant support for licence holders who are going through this difficult transition period, and we are going to continue to talk to them and continue to work through these issues.”

Mr Parisi acknowledged public support was not on the drivers’ side but said it was “desperate times” for the industry.

“We’re calling for the public just to really put yourself in our shoes,” he said.

“How would you like the government to come to you overnight and say ‘your house isn’t worth anything, we’re going to take it, we’re going to offer you $100,000 and it’s your problem’.

“It doesn't make sense.”