Dr LIM - 2005-08-17
Disabled Territorians are suffering because you are not prepared to consider the difficulties that multipurpose taxi operators face under your regime. Disabled people cannot get multipurpose taxis for everyday travel because it is not profitable for MPT operators to run these specialised taxis. By not having enough multipurpose taxis, you are restricting the disabled in their full participation in the community and hindering their efforts to live their life to the full. When and how are you going to fix up the taxi licensing regime to provide adequate services for disabled passengers?
ANSWER
Madam Speaker, I thank the member for Greatorex for his question. It is true that there are difficulties with multipurpose taxis. To go through some of the history of this, currently, multipurpose taxi licences are half the general licence rate. The general licence rate is $16 000, and multipurpose taxis have a licence fee of $8000. There is also a concession and voucher scheme that is operated through the Department of Family and Community Services.
Yes, there have been difficulties. There is an issue in relation to a lift fee. This matter was raised last year. The Anti-Discrimination Commissioner raised some issues regarding the lift fee. It is now a point of discussion between the Minister for Family and Community Services and my department. I will hand over to the minister to elaborate further, member for Greatorex.
Ms LAWRIE (Family and Community Services): Madam Speaker, I thank the Minister for Infrastructure and Transport. There are already incentives in place for multipurpose taxi licences. That incentive has been alluded to by the minister. It is 50% of the licence.
Dr Lim: They cannot make a living.
Ms LAWRIE: Member for Greatorex, you asked a question, let me answer. Some courtesy would be welcome.
Dr Lim: You need to understand that.
Madam SPEAKER: Order!
Ms LAWRIE: In addition, you have also heard that there has been some discussion with the Commercial Passenger Vehicle Board about a lift allowance. That was seen in discussion with disabled representatives as a good way to head. However, as you have heard, the Anti-Discrimination Commissioner had a view on that, so we have officer level discussions occurring now about how we can progress the issue of a lift allowance.
A lift allowance is to compensate drivers for the period of time taken lifting a disabled passenger into the taxi when they arrive to collect. Obviously, when they get to the destination, there is also a period of time taken getting them out of the taxi. The issue is, if the flag is not running at that time, the driver’s time is taken when they could otherwise be going to another job.
As a government, we are very actively pursuing a fair compensation for the downtime, if you like, as yet another incentive to encourage more multipurpose taxis to be running. I have to say, though, this is a very long-standing issue. It is something I dealt with eight years ago when I was Executive Director of NT Carers. This is not a new issue.
What is new is that this government is doing quite a lot to address it. We have active discussions between two departments on it. We have had stakeholder consultation on the issue. Further, in my department, we have a review under way about the taxi subsidy scheme itself, because there are a whole range of access issues confronting people relying on the use of disabled modified taxis. That review …
Dr Lim: The review was done two years ago.
Ms LAWRIE: If you do not keep interrupting, you would hear the answer.
That review is almost complete and I am waiting for the final report. I have discussed the review at meetings I have had with stakeholders in the sector, and I am very confident that there will be some improvements to the accessibility of taxis. It is not acceptable that people are waiting, sometimes four hours, for their taxi to come when they have pre-booked that taxi. What I do want to say to the operators and drivers out there is that, when they take a multipurpose vehicle taxi licence, and the 50% discount to get that style of licence, they are also signing up to delivering the service. They must give priority to people with a disability. That is not always happening. We have operational issues about practices within the industry.
That is why the government, quite appropriately, set up an industry board, the Commercial Passenger Vehicle Board of which the Minister for Infrastructure and Transport has carriage. Therefore, for the first time, we have a central point where these very real concerns are being discussed and actively actioned. I thank you for the question because it is an issue, but I have to say it is an issue that this government is tackling - the CLP never tackled it.
ANSWER
Madam Speaker, I thank the member for Greatorex for his question. It is true that there are difficulties with multipurpose taxis. To go through some of the history of this, currently, multipurpose taxi licences are half the general licence rate. The general licence rate is $16 000, and multipurpose taxis have a licence fee of $8000. There is also a concession and voucher scheme that is operated through the Department of Family and Community Services.
Yes, there have been difficulties. There is an issue in relation to a lift fee. This matter was raised last year. The Anti-Discrimination Commissioner raised some issues regarding the lift fee. It is now a point of discussion between the Minister for Family and Community Services and my department. I will hand over to the minister to elaborate further, member for Greatorex.
Ms LAWRIE (Family and Community Services): Madam Speaker, I thank the Minister for Infrastructure and Transport. There are already incentives in place for multipurpose taxi licences. That incentive has been alluded to by the minister. It is 50% of the licence.
Dr Lim: They cannot make a living.
Ms LAWRIE: Member for Greatorex, you asked a question, let me answer. Some courtesy would be welcome.
Dr Lim: You need to understand that.
Madam SPEAKER: Order!
Ms LAWRIE: In addition, you have also heard that there has been some discussion with the Commercial Passenger Vehicle Board about a lift allowance. That was seen in discussion with disabled representatives as a good way to head. However, as you have heard, the Anti-Discrimination Commissioner had a view on that, so we have officer level discussions occurring now about how we can progress the issue of a lift allowance.
A lift allowance is to compensate drivers for the period of time taken lifting a disabled passenger into the taxi when they arrive to collect. Obviously, when they get to the destination, there is also a period of time taken getting them out of the taxi. The issue is, if the flag is not running at that time, the driver’s time is taken when they could otherwise be going to another job.
As a government, we are very actively pursuing a fair compensation for the downtime, if you like, as yet another incentive to encourage more multipurpose taxis to be running. I have to say, though, this is a very long-standing issue. It is something I dealt with eight years ago when I was Executive Director of NT Carers. This is not a new issue.
What is new is that this government is doing quite a lot to address it. We have active discussions between two departments on it. We have had stakeholder consultation on the issue. Further, in my department, we have a review under way about the taxi subsidy scheme itself, because there are a whole range of access issues confronting people relying on the use of disabled modified taxis. That review …
Dr Lim: The review was done two years ago.
Ms LAWRIE: If you do not keep interrupting, you would hear the answer.
That review is almost complete and I am waiting for the final report. I have discussed the review at meetings I have had with stakeholders in the sector, and I am very confident that there will be some improvements to the accessibility of taxis. It is not acceptable that people are waiting, sometimes four hours, for their taxi to come when they have pre-booked that taxi. What I do want to say to the operators and drivers out there is that, when they take a multipurpose vehicle taxi licence, and the 50% discount to get that style of licence, they are also signing up to delivering the service. They must give priority to people with a disability. That is not always happening. We have operational issues about practices within the industry.
That is why the government, quite appropriately, set up an industry board, the Commercial Passenger Vehicle Board of which the Minister for Infrastructure and Transport has carriage. Therefore, for the first time, we have a central point where these very real concerns are being discussed and actively actioned. I thank you for the question because it is an issue, but I have to say it is an issue that this government is tackling - the CLP never tackled it.
Last updated: 09 Aug 2016