00:00Paula Hobley, a Victorian woman who is blind, was refused Uber trips more than 30 times.
00:08So she took Uber to the federal court over for discrimination.
00:13And in the settlement with Uber over this particular case where there was no admission of liability,
00:20it was agreed that Uber would subject itself to an external review of its operations
00:28and that in the next two years, Uber will kind of undergo this review.
00:33There will be recommendations made, those recommendations to be implemented
00:38and then an evaluation be done on those recommendations.
00:42And that will then be released in 2028.
00:45Now, this review will be done by or chaired by a person with lived experience.
00:50So a person with disability, obviously quite important, particularly for the disabled community.
00:55And, you know, this is an issue that has been plaguing the community for a really long time,
01:01not just Uber drivers refusing, but also taxi drivers refusing to pick up people with guide dogs and assistance animals.
01:10So this is a significant step.
01:13There is a bit of criticism over the fact that it is taking two years for the information about the review
01:19and the recommendations and how Uber has gone with them to be released.
01:23But for Paula Hobley, the woman who took this to the federal court,
01:27she says, finally, there's some movement on this issue that will hopefully stamp it out.
01:32Uber has said that it does not take the drivers refusing the rides with assistance animals or guide dogs lightly.
01:41It has introduced policies and procedures in order to allow people to, you know, hold drivers to account,
01:48to inform drivers of illegal obligations and also strategies to evaluate the effectiveness of those policies and procedures.
01:58Obviously, it has pointed out to the ABC in its statement that the details of this particular settlement are confidential.
02:06But what will happen now really is this review.
02:09And then what will happen after that is really the point of, you know,
02:13I think a lot of people are waiting to see what is the result of that review
02:17and will it stamp out what many people have described as an endemic issue.
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