00:00Leaving home is a gamble for Pauline David.
00:06I'm a bit worried that if I go out I might not be able to get a taxi back home.
00:10Sometimes she waits hours for a cab.
00:13I'll book tickets to go to different events and things and I'm always late.
00:19The Sydney woman has been stuck outside long afterwards.
00:23I've been in the rain a few times as well.
00:26Once she slept in her chair all night at her mother's house when the taxi home never turned up.
00:31My legs were so sore and very swollen.
00:34In October 2019 there were 941 wheelchair accessible taxis registered in NSW.
00:41Now there are only 635. That's a drop of 32%.
00:46We are stopping because we don't have enough work.
00:49Able people, they don't like those big vans.
00:51We're seeing this issue even compounded in regional and remote towns
00:54where some towns in particular have no taxis at all.
00:59The $15 incentive payment for carrying a wheelchair passenger has not risen in eight years.
01:05We believe that that fee should double.
01:07Whilst accessible taxi licences remain free, the cost saving has evaporated due to deregulation.
01:14A regular taxi licence used to cost thousands of dollars a year to lease.
01:19Now they're available for a $200 application fee.
01:22Unfortunately that gap has really closed today.
01:26The taxi industry wants interest free loans and grants for the $100,000 vehicles.
01:32The government has held a series of meetings with the taxi industry and disability advocates.
01:37In a letter seen by the ABC, the Transport Minister has flagged legislative and financial reform.
01:43She says a report on the matter will be released in the coming weeks.
01:46You're having to fight for things that other people take for granted.
01:51A basic freedom increasingly inaccessible.
Comments