Disability Council of Queensland
Resources Committee
Coordinator: John Homan
Phone: 07 4939 7189 GPO P.O.Box 806
Mobile: 0408 211 734 E-mail: homan@rocknet.net.au BRISBANE – 4001
Application for temporary exemption under Disability Discrimination Act section 55:
Olympic Roads and Transport Authority
The Disability Council of Queensland at its meeting on 7 June, 2000 decided to object to the granting of an exemption and related applications on two grounds:
By not making a single reference to time lines in its application ORTA is pretending that it is dealing with a sudden, unforeseen and unexpected crisis, which can only be resolved by sanctioning breaches of the DDA anywhere but in Sydney.
Though the DDA has been in force since 1992, and Draft Accessible Transport Standards were approved in mid 1996, ORTA has at no time been proactive in meeting its obligations under the DDA. Where on the other hand South Australia has had a policy of fleet renewal with accessible buses only, at a rate of 50 per year
When it became known that Sydney was to host the Olympics and Para Olympics in 2000, more than 4 years ago, ORTA ignored the wake up call.
In March 1998 the National Disability Advisory Council (NDAC) – the principal advisory body to Federal Minister Jocelyn Newman – was represented at a workshop run by the Sydney Paralympic Organizing Committee (SPOC). NDAC raised a number of concerns relating to transport issues, and SPOC undertook to take this to ORTA. Regular contact between the NDAC and SPOC have been maintained since. In spite of this ORTA and Bus2000 slept on.
Or did they?
There is ample evidence to show that at least four years ago ORTA and Bus2000 embarked on a deliberate policy of meeting Sydney’s needs by creating needs elsewhere: Robbing Peter to pay Paul.
ORTA and Bus2000 started a recruiting drive to get bus operators in NSW to commit accessible buses to Bus2000 for the duration of the Olympics and Para Olympics. As a consequence this would deprive, and discriminate against people reliant on this type of transport in their daily life, where operators were to withdraw their accessible buses.
The Disability Council of Queensland finds that:
To grant the exemption on the grounds that it solves the crises that ORTA and Bus2000 created for themselves, knowingly and voluntarily, is totally unacceptable to the Disability Council of Queensland.
If this exemption is granted the Disability Council of Queensland expects that the status of the Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission will be much diminished, and its reputation as a protector and champion for human rights and equality will be irreparably damaged.
Granting the exemption asked for will also set a precedent that will make non compliance more the rule rather than the exception, reducing the DDA to a mere token act.
On behalf of Council,
John Homan,
Member
9 June, 2000.
The Disability Council of Queensland advises the minister for Disability Services the Hon Anna Bligh MLA, and Disability Services Queensland