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CONTENT
1. WHEELCHAIR ACCESSIBLE TAXIS & HREOCIn early February, PDCN President, John Moxon, and our Executive Officer, Dougie Herd, met with Graham Innes (Deputy Disability Commissioner) and David Mason (Disability Rights Unit) of HREOC to discuss their draft report and our response on wheelchair accessible taxis and discrimination. We’ve been told the final report will be published “soon”. We agreed that State regulators are crucial stakeholders in the debate about wheelchair accessible taxi services. PDCN has been making precisely that point to the Minister and Department of Transport. We will continue to make the case that discriminatory services must be eliminated. As we have written before: we urge anyone with a clear complaint about second-rate services and less favourable treatment because of your disability the do this: COMPLAIN TO THE PROPER AUTHORITIES IT’S YOUR RIGHT AND RESPONSIBILITY Here’s how to complain: There are two ways to complain about poor quality- taxi services: Complain to the NSW Regulator Phone the Taxi Complaints Hotline: 1800 648 478 or 131 500 The hotline is staffed 6am-10pm 7 days a week. People can call and lodge complaints over the 'phone. You will need either the taxi number plate (the 'T-registration') or the driver ID (displayed on the dashboard as a legal requirement) – “to make things easier” People can also lodge
information/feedback/complaints on a form on the 131 500
website (Transport Infoline) at: Complain to HREOC about disability discrimination and taxis If you feel a taxi operator or driver
has discriminated against you, you can and should complain
to HREOC. At this stage HREOC still requires complaints to
be submitted in writing. You can get information about
submitting a complaint to HREOC at: HREOC has produced an online
complaints form. It is located at:
2. NSW MINISTER FOR TRANSPORT’S POLICY ADVISER AND PDCN MEETThe same day as we met with HREOC, the PDCN President and EO met Ms Sandy Grekas, Policy Advisor to the Minister of Transport. In brief, we discussed the following:
We closed the meeting by agreeing to meet again soon, probably with Departmental Officials from the NSW Taxi & Hire Car Bureau to discuss … you guessed it … wheelchair accessible taxis and discrimination. 3. ACCESSIBLE PARKINGOur Transport Policy Group has been discussing ways we can bring about changes to the system for issuing RTA parking permits to people with disability. As the recent article in the Sydney Morning Herald showed, abuse of the system can occur almost anywhere. We have been considering a range of questions:
We have raised these questions and others in a meeting with a policy adviser to the Minister of Transport and a letter to the Director General of the Department. We will issue a discussion paper soon for public consultation. Watch this space. 4. NATIONAL DAY OF ACTION ON ACCESSIBLE PARKING RIGHTS – 25TH SEPTEMBERPut this date in your diary today: Wednesday, 25th September 2002. The Physical Disability Council of Australia has called for 25th September to be a national day on accessible parking rights. PDCN will be actively involved in promoting the day to people with physical disability and the general population of the communities, towns and cities of NSW.
Watch this space. 5. COUNTRYLINK SERVICES AND MOTORISED SCOOTERSState Rail’s Countrylink services have a policy that prohibits motorised scooters. We believe this is discriminatory policy and have written to the Minister, calling for change. We raised this unnecessary barrier with the Minister’s policy adviser when we met her two weeks ago. We’re waiting for a formal response, although we understand State Rail is actively re-considering its position. When we hear, we’ll let you know. In the meantime, if you’ve been refused a rail service because you use a motorised scooter: contact us pdcnsw@pdcnsw.org.au 6. DADHC DIRECTOR GENERAL MEETS PDCN MANAGEMENT COMMITTEEMs Margaret Allison, Director General of the NSW Department of Ageing, Disability & Home Care (DADHC) attended the January meeting of our Management Committee. The DG spent an hour with committee members, answering questions and contributing to discussions about some key issues for people with physical disability. These included:
7. BARRIER-FREE HOUSINGCommittee members and staff from PDCN attended a day-long “Industry Development Forum” on housing and support for people with disability and older people. The event was organised by DADHC and NSW Housing. Although there were interesting parts to the event and our reps were able to raise issues about access in the workshops, the focus was not predominantly on what could be called physical disability issues. Nevertheless, we distributed 250 copies of our Housing Brochure (with a flyer for the day) to participants. Our President spoke with the forum’s Chairperson, Ms Margaret Allison, about our concern that more houses must be built to visitable, adaptable and accessible standards and that the cost of disability needs to be factored into any schemes to assist low income earners to purchase homes. Officials from Housing NSW took away an extra 50 copies of our housing brochure. We’ll follow up that interest, very soon. 8. PDCN HOUSING BROCHUREIn the five working weeks since the New Year we’ve distributed more than 3,000 copies of our brochure on adaptable housing. Many of that number have come from people and organizations who saw a copy and asked for more. If you want a copy (or more copies) of the brochure contact Sharon at: pdcnsw@pdcnsw.org.au Hurry while stocks last! 9. STANDARDS FOR AN ACCESSIBLE BUILT ENVIRONMENT?The day after the Housing and Support event, PDCN reps attended a consultation in Sydney on the Australian Building Code Board Directions Report on progress towards a new standard on accessible built environment. We’ll give a report soon. As you must expect by now, we took this excellent opportunity to distribute another 60 of our excellent and popular brochure on adaptable housing! 10. SYDNEY 2002 GAY GAMES VI SPORT AND CULTURAL FESTIVALScholarships for people with specific needs and disability to attend the Games Sydney 2002 Gay Games VI recently announced details of its innovative Scholarship Program which will see up to 800 lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people from Australia and around the world receive financial assistance for registration, travel and hosted housing during the Games in November this year. Scholarships will be offered to participants in the sport, conference and cultural programs. Those to be targeted for Scholarships include people with specific needs and/or disability or their carers; Indigenous Australians and other First Nations Peoples; people from Asia and the Pacific; young people; women on low incomes; people from and/or isolated part of Australia; and people from outside Australia & the Asia Pacific region who live in countries where there is state-sponsored or tolerated violence against gay/lesbian/bisexual/transgender people or from countries with new/emerging gay/lesbian/bisexual/transgender communities. How to apply for a scholarship Applications for the Scholarship
Program can be completed on line at More information More information about the Games,
Global Rights Conference Program and the Sydney 2002
Scholarship Program is available at Sydney2002 Gay Games VI
website: Enquiries can be addressed to Bev Robinson via snd@sydney2002.org.au 11. JOB VACANCY: PDCN ADMINISTRATION OFFICER$33,000 to $35,000 plus Super PDCN seeks an Administration Officer to provide organisational and office support to the committees, volunteers and staff of this peak disability body. We require a proficient user of MS Office with good communication skills, organisational ability and experience of accounts payments. Experience of using Microsoft Outlook and MYOB Accounts programmes would be desirable. 12. JOB VACANCY: PDCN PROJECT OFFICER (ADVOCACY SKILLS DEVELOPMENT)(PLEASE NOTE: 12 month, fixed term contract) SACS Grade 4 $38,200 - $39,400 plus Super PDCN wishes to employ a skilled and creative development worker who will work as a member of our small team to support individuals with physical disability throughout NSW to contribute more effectively and confidently to advocacy networks locally, regionally and across the State. We are looking for someone who can develop training and skills development materials, courses, programmes and publications. We need someone who has the confidence, imagination and creative drive to test, develop and use new materials with people with physical disability in a range of locations and from a variety of backgrounds. Applications from people with disability are especially welcome
Dougie Herd, PDCN Executive
Officer Tel: (02) 9552 1606; 1 800 688 831
PDC NSW Inc is funded by the NSW Government's Ageing and Disability Department. Views expressed by PDC NSW Inc are not necessarily endorsed by the NSW Government.
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