Submission to the Third Review of the Disability Standards for Accessible Public Transport 2002

PIAC’s submission reiterated many of our concerns from our submission to the Second Review, particularly as few of those issues had been satisfactorily addressed in the time since then.

This included concerns surrounding the lack of transparency in implementation of the Transport Standards. PIAC has therefore called for:

• Better reporting on compliance by transport operators and providers
• Funding to the Australian Human Rights Commission to provide independent oversight and
• Co-ordinated reporting on overall compliance by the Commonwealth Department of Transport and/or COAG.

PIAC also expressed concerns about the limitations of an individual complaints-driven process, especially for accountability and enforcement of the Transport Standards. PIAC called for:

• Clarity that a breach of the Transport Standards is unlawful
• Allowing organisations to bring complaints about breaches of the Standards to the Australian Human Rights Commission and
• Limitations on costs for people bringing complaints for breaches of the Standards.

Finally, PIAC raised specific examples of problems arising under the Transport Standards, including the need to ensure Uber and other ride-sharing services are required to comply with the Standards, the lack of audible next-stop announcements on Sydney buses and the inaccessibility of many taxi services.