Page 1044 - Week 03 - Wednesday, 30 March 2011
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delays in receiving payments through the taxi subsidy scheme and some drivers either do not like WAT work or feel that their training is lacking, especially in loading, securing and unloading clients. I have been told that some of the current drivers are supportive of moving towards a new model of operating WATs and are starting collectively to talk about what type of scheme they would like to see up and running and how they could be a part of it.
At the moment the government’s solution is to issue four new wheelchair accessible taxi licences and establish a central booking system. Of the submission received, I do not believe they recommended that new licences be issued. In fact, the PWC report of May 2010 indicated that, from consultation with groups representing people with disability and submissions to the discussion paper, the situation can be improved, not necessarily by increasing the WAT fleet size but by better utilisation of the existing WAT fleet.
I note the PWC report did recommend a central booking system, but it did also say that if the central booking system was unsuccessful the government should move to provide a more operational role in managing the WAT fleet—for example, using the model proposed by the WAT Consortium. As noted earlier, this model requires the ACT government to provide a not-for-profit WAT service through the existing ACTION bus system to remove viability issues for WAT operators and drivers and ensure a focus on passengers with disability.
Salaried drivers would work regular shifts as part of the ACTION WAT team, providing better career options and remuneration for WAT drivers. There would be a minimum number of WATs on stand-by to provide capacity to the system promptly if required. Passengers would use an ACTION bus ticket or a swipe card system, overcoming problems with the existing paper-based taxi subsidy scheme. The Greens believe that consideration should also be given to a not-for-profit organisation running the WAT fleet, which would be determined through a tender process. This would also potentially address some of the concerns which exist with ACTION taking over the WAT service.
Going back to the 2005 WAT review, the previous minister, Mr Hargreaves, stated in this place that the ACT government had agreed with all of the 39 recommendations. This included the introduction of micromanagement by taxi networks. The 2005 report also said that if a 2008 review showed that micromanagement by the networks had been ineffective, the department of urban services was to investigate the feasibility of other options for the management of wheelchair accessible public passenger services. Recommendation 15 from the 2005 review called for a single micromanaged network, and recommendation 29 called for a separate booking number for wheelchair hirings to be mandated through the taxi network service standards and staffed appropriately.
Unfortunately, the central booking service that was introduced in 2007 proved unsuccessful after just three months, despite the government allocating around $100,000 for this service. It is worth acknowledging that the primary reason that the disability community accepted the notion of more micromanagement was because
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