From:
IAN IRWIN [ianjulie@ozemail.com.au]
Sent:
Wednesday, June 14, 2000 8:27
To:
David MASON; Ian w Irwin; julia haraksin
Subject:
Fw: ORTA Application for s55 Exemption under DDA
Please
submit. Thanks. Julie Haraksin and Ian Irwin
-----Original
Message-----
From:
IAN IRWIN <ianjulie@ozemail.com.au>
To:
disabdisc@hreoc.gov.au <disabdisc@hreoc.gov.au>
Date:
Tuesday, 13 June 2000 23:59
Subject:
ORTA Application for s55 Exemption under DDA
>I
write to express my vehment opposition to the ORTA application for
>exemption
under s55 of the DDA.
>Granting
the reequested exemption would seriously compromise the objectives
>of
the DDA because in essence doing so condones failure to comply with the
>Act
from the time an applicant becomes (or should become) aware of
>obligations
to put in train measures (which do not create "unjustifiable
>hardship")
to meet the requirements of the Act.
>
>To
grant an exemption now opens the way for future applicants to ignore the
>Act's
clear objectives by waiting until time and circumstances have
achieved
>a
balance of unjustifiable hardship so as to defeat even the most
forseeable
>acts
of discrimination.
>
>I
and a great many others have consistently and sometimes forcefully placed
>the
facts before NSW Transport Authorities that their plans were tardy, ill
>conceived
and inadequate. For them now to succeed
in relying on what I
>argue
is considered incompetence would make a farce of the Act and those
who
>would
seek to oversight its operation and return us to a stage where
>disruptive
transport stopages by people with disabilities were again seen
as
>the
only way of ensuring adequate effort.
>
>Clearly
people with disabilities will loose now, regardless of the decision
>by
the Commission, because despite the representations accessible transport
>is
simply inadequate. But the Commission
should not accept that its role
is
>to
be an arbitrator here as to which group loses and by how much. Rather
it
>should
allow the penalties under the Act to operate unfettered. Only by
>doing
so will those who fail to take the DDA seriously be forced to bear
the
>consequences
of their inactions.
>
>Ian
Irwin
>9418.7795
>