Page 445 - Week 02 - Wednesday, 20 February 2019

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(j) the Government considers taxi plates as a community asset that delivers essential services to the community, rather than an exclusive investment product;

(k) the Government believes it did not purport to sell an investment scheme, nor a business model, but rather to provide a taxi licence for a holder to be able to operate a vehicle to provide taxi services;

(l) approximately 60 percent of perpetual taxi plates are held by people who reside outside the ACT; and

(m) the Government has arranged for counselling to be provided to members of the ACT taxi industry. Members of the industry can access free counselling by contacting Woden Community Service;

(2) further notes that:

(a) between 2011 and 2017, the ACT population increased by 12 percent, to more than 410 000. At the same time, the number of visitors to the ACT grew 36 percent, to more than 4 944 000. This was the fastest growing population of any state or territory in Australia;

(b) stakeholder groups such as the Australian Hotels Association and Canberra Airport have called for the number of taxis in Canberra to increase;

(c) the Government announced in 2018 that it would release 80 standard government-leased taxi plates, with 15 plates released in October 2018, a further 30 released in January 2019 and 35 to be released by the end of March 2019;

(d) the Government considers passenger safety to be of paramount importance;

(e) all public drivers, including taxi drivers, rideshare drivers and public and community bus drivers require a Working With Vulnerable People (WWVP) check;

(f) the Government only uses checks requested by and issued to itself to ensure the highest level of protection is provided through the WWVP scheme;

(g) the time taken to process a WWVP card is largely determined by the time taken to receive a criminal history check from the Federal Government;

(h) government requested criminal history checks provide a greater level of information than those requested through other means;

(i) the average processing time for a WWVP check in January was 4.6 working days;

(j) Access Canberra works with employers in the taxi industry to prioritise applications for individuals where there is a direct employment impact of being registered. The employer provides a list of names and, where the person has already applied, the processing is expedited; and

(k) consultation on extending the allowable age of taxi vehicles closed in November, and the Government is currently evaluating these submissions; and


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