Page 1726 - Week 07 - Tuesday, 29 May 1990
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Certain criteria were designed, and the drivers who were eligible were those who met those criteria. They included that somebody had to be engaged in full-time driving for four years prior to 16 July 1986, that taxi driving had to be the primary source of income for that person for those four years, that the applicant had to be an ACT resident, the holder of an ACT taxi drivers licence and not the owner of a taxi or a hire-car licence at the time.
Mr Speaker, there were many more applications for the concessional taxi plates than there were plates available. The man to whom Ms Follett referred, a Mr McArthur, was one of the unsuccessful applicants, who failed to meet all of those criteria, and it was a collective package. The fact that he had had a drink-driving conviction in 1983 was coincidental and a mere addendum to the fact that he did not meet the criteria in order to be issued with a licence.
Since being denied those taxi plates in 1986, Mr McArthur has raised the matter with Federal Minister Holding and, I believe, with Federal Minister Punch, and he has taken it to the Federal Court of Australia and the Commonwealth Ombudsman, all of whom have sustained Minister Scholes' original decision.
It is quite ironic because, upon being elected to this place, I and at least two other members of this Assembly raised the matter with the then Minister, Mrs Grassby, and made representations on Mr McArthur's behalf to see whether there was any way that the matter could be looked into or changed. I can repeat that Mrs Grassby, who was the Minister at the time, saw no reason to change the previous decisions of all those various bodies. Yet, Mr Speaker, it is put that, because this man does not have a set of taxi plates, it is my fault. Nothing could be further from the truth.
I should also like to add that Mr McArthur is in no way precluded from obtaining a taxi licence on the open market or from seeking any additional plates which may be made available. That is the first thing that I wanted to say.
Secondly, Mr Speaker, many people have said tonight that I refused to supply a sample of breath to a policeman. Again, Mr Speaker, nothing could be further from the truth. I was asked to supply samples, and I provided them, twice. On neither occasion did the samples in any way affect the colouration of the crystals which are supposed to measure alcohol. I repeat that I did not refuse to comply with a lawful direction of a police officer at any stage.
Ms Follett: What did they convict you for?
MR DUBY: Why don't you shut up and listen? Subsequently, Mr Speaker, the officer with whom I was having these interfaces asked me to go to the police station, for various reasons. I shall not go into that.
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