TAXIS, COUNTRY

Ms BREUER (Giles) (15:57): I rise today to respond to some comments from the member for Stuart yesterday, and it is always a pleasure to respond to the member for Stuart's comments. We have many things in common. We share most of the state with our electorates. Of course, my electorate is bigger than his, as I keep telling him. But we do have a lot in common.

Yesterday the member for Stuart spoke on country taxis, and I am pleased to report back that there have been some quite significant changes to the system since the letter that the member for Stuart quoted from was written, which was some six to eight months ago.

I also received at the time a number of petitions, and I received a letter from Chris Brougham, who owns Des's Cabs in our part of the state. I also had a lot of constituents contact me at the time, because they had been told that they were not going to get their vouchers. This is people with disabilities, and pensioners who had taxi vouchers were told that they would not be honoured.

This was quite distressing at the time, because I was very concerned, and I wondered what the Minister for Transport was doing. However, one call to the Minister for Transport and within about two hours we started to resolve the problem very, very quickly. I pay credit to the Minister for Transport; he is always very, very good if you contact his office about these issues.

The member for Stuart was talking yesterday about the fact that the vouchers were not being honoured, and also that there were different rules for country taxis and that there was a lot of discrimination against country taxis. Just as some background, can I say that the Passenger Transport Act 1994 recognises country taxis, and vehicles in country regions are recognised as taxis where they are issued with a licence by the local council. The act recognises that councils have the power to make by-laws under the Local Government Act 1934 to license taxis outside metropolitan Adelaide, if they choose to do so.

The Passenger Transport Act protects operators with a taxi licence by stating that only those with a licence can call themselves a taxi. The passenger transport legislation also provides, for areas where council does not license taxis under by-laws, for the Department for Transport, Energy and Infrastructure to grant approval to operators to use a taxi meter, have a roof sign and ply for hire from hail or rank, but not use the word taxi because they do not have a licence.

This arrangement had not proved to be a significant issue with regional councils until recent years, but in recent years regional councils have decided to either repeal their by-laws or they have simply allowed them to lapse. This has created a problem for existing country taxi operators who wish to retain their business name and their label as a taxi.

The present situation arose where regional councils chose not to use these by-law making powers to license taxis. The operators wish to continue to be called taxis—and this is one of the issues that the member for Stuart talked about—and not be accredited in a generic category of non-metropolitan small passenger vehicles with approval to operate a taxi-type service.

The category of accreditation is being created specifically for country taxis at present, not licensed by local government within the passenger transport legislation. The state government is presently drafting regulations to recognise country taxis in their own right, where councils do not license them. In the interim, operators of country taxi services are temporarily exempted in areas not licensed by councils from the prohibition in the act—and the prohibition, of course, is not being able to use the word 'taxi'. So I am very pleased that we have done something, that we have moved on this and that action is taking place. I can also say that all the vouchers were paid or were honoured. Originally people were told that they would not be; but they were.

I particularly want to congratulate our country taxi services on the excellent service they provide. Drivers are a pleasure to be with; they are always friendly, they speak English, their taxis are relatively clean, and the drivers know where they are going and what they are doing. However, in the last few days I have had the opportunity to use many taxis in Adelaide and I cannot say the same standard applies to taxis here. I am shocked at the decline in taxi services in Adelaide; I have not used them for a number of years, but I have been appalled at the service I have received over the last few days. The taxis smell and are dirty, and I have great trouble with the drivers—who are often rude and obnoxious, who have difficulty understanding what I am saying, and who have no idea where they are going.

I think it is time that the Adelaide Metropolitan Taxi Service smartened up its act and did something about it. Perhaps because of our employment situation they are not getting drivers of the calibre they had a few years ago, but the service is not good enough. What do our tourists think?

Time expired.