5 May 1999
Disability
Discrimination Commissioner calls for action on
accessible transport
A decision by Federal, State and Territory Transport Ministers to ensure public transport becomes fully accessible to people with disabilities has been welcomed today by Chris Sidoti, Acting Disability Discrimination Commissioner.
Mr Sidoti has urged that the Disability Standards be put to the Federal Parliament for endorsement as soon as possible.
"Implementation of these standards will be important for millions of Australians: first and foremost for people with a disability, but also for older people and anyone who has ever struggled up bus or railway station steps with arms full of children, shopping and pram," Mr Sidoti said.
The standards, to be made under the federal Disability Discrimination Act, provide for public transport services to become fully accessible to people with disabilities over a 20 year period, subject to exceptions where achieving full access within that period would impose unjustifiable hardship on transport operators. They are designed to give all parties greater certainty about the rights and responsibilities which already exist under the Act.
The standards were originally endorsed by the Australian Transport Council (Federal, State and Territory Transport Ministers) in 1996. Last week, after an extensive Regulation Impact Statement process, the Council agreed that the standards should be adopted, subject to technical amendments to the standards and the Act.
Mr Sidoti noted that, while some States were continuing to seek Commonwealth funding to assist with implementation of accessible transport, the agreement that the standards should be adopted was not conditional on that.
"Endorsement of standards should not await further funding discussions. For that matter, transport operators should not await endorsement of standards to achieve accessibility as soon as possible."
For further information
please contact:
Erin Broderick on (02) 9284 9880 or 0419 258 597; or Margie Cook on (02)
9284 9677.
