Submission to the Aviation Green Paper

The Federal Government is developing its Aviation White Paper, which will set direction for Australia’s aviation industry over the coming decades to 2050. PIAC made a submission responding to a number of questions posed by the Government’s Green Paper about disability access and consumer rights.

PIAC believes existing discrimination law and regulatory frameworks have failed to ensure people with disability have access to air travel equivalent to the rest of the community. Our main recommendations draw upon solutions that have been successful in overseas jurisdictions:

1. Develop a set of Disability Standards to govern air travel, which outline detailed minimum standards for disability access at all stages of an air travel journey – from booking a ticket, to boarding an aircraft, to disembarking at the destination.
2. Give the Australian Human Rights Commission power to proactively monitor airports and airlines and enforce those Standards as a regulator.

Our submission was widely endorsed by a range of organisations representing people with disability and consumers, and lawyers acting for people with disability.