Bid to Stall Transport Standards Fails Again

By Angus Downie

The DDA Accessible Public Transport Standards have again survived a late move to stall their implementation.

This follows four years of manoeuvring by vested interests, months of "secretive" Canberra meetings and an eleventh hour bid by the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet (PM & C) to foil the Draft Standards at the last hurdle.

And, significantly, it has got all State and Territory governments riled after all transport ministers gave them a green light at the Australian Transport Council (ATC) in Adelaide on April 30 last year.

As Quad Wrangle went to press, the ATC meeting at Port Douglas on May 19 was again being asked to "note that the Federal Department of Transport and Regional Services (DOTRS) and Department of the Attorney-General (A-G's) are progressing implementatiion of the Standards in discussion with State/Territory departments and stakeholders." As the ATC has had the item on its agenda since October 1994, has received a similar report ever since June 1996 and been subjected to high powered lobbying by the Australian Bus and Coach Association (ABCA), it has had enough and is tired of the stalling tactics.

The latest manoeuvrings read like a political "who done it" story as the summary below shows.

During February-March, ABCA heavily lobbied political parties, using the highly inflated multi-billion cost figures (thrown out by the ATC last year as unreliable) to scare the Federal politicians;

It is believed that in February, A-G's and DOTRS prepared a ministerial statement on the Standards which had the effect of pre-empting a decision by Federal Cabinet;

On 13 March when the Standards were due to go to Cabinet for endorsement, the PM & C's Department took them off the agenda and set up an ad hoc inter-departmental committee (IDC) for a further review;

The IDC had members from DOTRS, A-G's, Family and Community Services (FACS) and PM& C's which was represented by Brett Cox on behalf of the departmental head, Max Moore-Wilton who in a past life had attended and played a key role in the ATC's 1994 decision to treat accessible transport as "a top priority;"

As the IDC began its "review" task, it soon became apparent to insiders that PM & C and DOTRS were running the agenda with other members being kept on the periphery;

On 3 April all Federal and State heads of transport agencies (known as SCOT) met in Canberra to set an agenda for the ATC meeting on 19th May.

At 5.49 pm two days later (5 April), Federal DOTRS emailed a 10 point list headed "Suggested action to progress disability standards for public transport" to all state and territory Departments of Transport. It proposed major changes, including blanket exemptions, some suspended actions, a range of technical issues and a proposal that "parallel / supplementary transport be considered on a case by case basis by HREOC....;" As none of this had been mentioned at the SCOT meeting two days before, senior state bureaucrats reacted swiftly by insisting the issue go back to the ATC, while most DOTs and some disability advisory bodies warned about the lack of consultation and the deals that were being done behind closed doors by people with no background knowledge.

Queensland, West Australia, Victoria and NSW were the fastest to move and agreed that the 1999 decision still stood and they were all locked in.

Faced with this revolt, Federal DOTRS circulated an agenda on May 2 while calling a meeting for 10 am on May 5. Attendees included all state and territory DOTs, the Australian Local Government Association, representatives from PM & C and the A-G's Departments with four DOTRS representatives.

The Acting First Assistant Secretary (Lands), Robert Hogan chaired the meeting at which a draft 4-page summary document was circulated.

Unfortunately, this made reference to an alleged agreement signed between ABCA and the National Disability Advisory Council some time ago in which ABCA purported to have the Council's approval for "non-segregated supplementary services," in some instances. This was always an issue that would come back to bite the disability movement.

At the meeting it was made very clear to Canberra that, after four years since the ATC first endorsed the Standards in principle:

All this should mean that, subject to the ATC meeting on 19 May and endorsement by Cabinet, the Standards will be tabled in Federal Parliament in the Spring session.

However, even more significantly, the 5 May meeting decided, among other matters, that:

There were a number of other matters but many of these will be covered by the technical working group and include:

 

 

Kind Regards

Angus Downie

downieangus@stringline.com.au

Ph: +61 (0)3 62641321

Fax/Message +61 (0)3 62641919