Improving transport for Victorians with limited mobility: A better Multi Purpose Taxi Program Discussion Paper – Dec 2015
The Victorian Equal Opportunity and Human Rights Commission (‘the Commission’) welcomes the opportunity to make a submission to the discussion paper ‘A better Multi-Purpose Taxi Program.’
About the submission
The laws under which the Commission has responsibilities are relevant to the taxi industry in a number of ways. The Equal Opportunity Act 2010 (‘the Act’) makes it unlawful to discriminate in the provision of goods and services, including transport. The Act imposes a positive duty on organisations covered by the Act to take responsible and proportionate measures to eliminate discrimination. This places an additional obligation on taxi service providers and regulators, including the Taxi Services Commission (TSC), to implement proactive measures to prevent discrimination in the provision of taxi services on the basis of attributes covered by the Act. Broadly, the Act makes it unlawful to treat a person unfavourably because they have a disability and applies to systems, policies and practices that are not reasonable and may disadvantage people with disabilities.