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Legislative Council - Fifty-Second Parliament, Second Session (52-2)
2012-07-17 Daily Xml
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DISABILITY ACCESS, AIRLINE TRAVEL

The Hon. K.L. VINCENT (15:15): I seek leave to make an explanation before asking the Minister for Business Services and Consumers a question regarding air travel for people with disabilities.

Leave granted.

The Hon. K.L. VINCENT: On 12 June 2012, a well-known Adelaide disability advocate was returning from his annual family holiday in Fiji. They had risen early, prepared for travel, and checked out from their hotel and were at Nadi airport by 7.15am. On arrival at the airport to check in for the return flight to Adelaide, some 105 minutes before the scheduled departure, the constituent was told the flight was oversold and did not have enough seats and he and his family would not be able to board that particular flight. They would either have to come back tomorrow or accept carriage on an earlier flight to Brisbane, with a six-hour wait there before flying back to Adelaide.

As on the outward-bound leg, the booked return flight had been via Sydney, with a short transfer between flights. The alternative was not only different to the paid-for and ticketed flight route, but changed the meal time, flying times and route plan of these passengers. They were travelling on full economy fares that had been booked and paid for on 7 September 2011, nine months before their travel date.

This story was, of course, covered in The Advertiser on 28 June and at the time in the news article the large Australian airline questioned said it was standard industry practice for airlines to overbook international flights. They acknowledged an overbooking rate of up to 10 per cent. The airline spokesperson also said that it was standard practice in the hotel and other time-sensitive industries.

I am not sure what other industries the spokesperson was referring to, but I am not aware of any other travel service that can ticket you and take your money for nine months and then not provide you with the service promised without good reason. This is not an unforeseen travel delay caused by bad weather or engineering difficulties. This is the airline effectively planning to have some customers miss out. Even in Adelaide's troubled public transport services, it would be hard to imagine ministers allowing consumers to be so ripped off.

Since this story came out, constituents have contacted my office, and the disability advocate involved has also contacted the offices of other MPs reporting similar stories of travel woes. The particular issue with this story is not just the standard inconvenience involved. In this particular case, the constituent was travelling with his adult child who has an intellectual disability, and she already finds travelling a challenge. Add these factors of a changed route, timing and the meal planning, and this father had one very agitated co-traveller to manage.

Australia's most well-known airline has a 51-page Disability Access Facilitation Plan. Bumping their loyal passengers, who also have disabilities, off flights does not seem to fit comfortably within the guidelines of this document. The difficulties constituents are reporting to me regarding their travel plans, particularly with airlines, are continuing to increase.

In 2012, when we are supposed to be facilitating full access to society for people with disabilities, it would seem that we are moving backwards, not forwards. I note also that the front page of the Sunday Mail on 8 July this year announced the appointment of a federal airline complaints czar, or Airline Customer Advocate, in Julia Lines. This has come off the back of increasing volumes of complaints about the services provided—

The PRESIDENT: The honourable member should ask her questions.

The Hon. K.L. VINCENT: —this is the very last sentence, I promise—by airlines and cover airlines licensed within Australia. My questions to the minister are—and I promise they were worth waiting for:

1. Is the minister concerned about South Australian consumers paying for flights that airline companies are fully aware they may not be able to board due to the practice of overbooking?

2. Has the minister had a discussion with his federal counterpart Anthony Albanese regarding this South Australian case or other situations in which consumers have not been given what they have paid for from airlines?

3. Is the minister concerned that these issues seem to discourage people with disabilities and their families from accessing travel options?

4. Will he encourage minister Anthony Albanese to introduce regulations that prevent airlines from 'bumping' travellers with special needs such as disabilities?

5. Why do Australia's national airlines seem to wield so much power with our state and federal governments when other industries are held to account by government to their consumers?

The Hon. G.E. GAGO (Minister for Agriculture, Food and Fisheries, Minister for Forests, Minister for Regional Development, Minister for Tourism, Minister for the Status of Women) (15:21): I thank the honourable member for her most interesting explanation and her questions. Having been the former consumer minister, I have some awareness of the complexity around some of these issues, and I was consumer minister at the time when the national consumer law was brought in and there were a range of provisions made around unifying laws around the contracts and tightening up basic contract provisions. I know a couple of industries were targets at the time: one of them was airlines and the other one was gymnasiums. Both were fairly notorious for the number of complaints from consumers around a number of concerns. In relation to airlines, the issue of bumping people off flights, etc., was raised at that time.

I know that a number of changes were made when the national consumer law came in and improvements to universal contracts were made to uniform standard contracts around the nation. I know that certainly did improve a number of service provisions in relation to that. However, I am also aware that it was not a panacea; it did not address all the issues that were involved.

Basically it is a federal government issue because it now comes under the national consumer law and it is a matter for the federal government. However, I am happy to refer those matters to the Minister for Business Services and Consumers, and I am sure he would be more than happy to give an update in terms of his negotiations and input into national forums around addressing those sorts of consumer issues.

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