walking . is . overrated

It seems that a number of airlines in our friendly neighbouring country of Australia have recently applied to their Human Rights Commission for an exemption to the international law requiring access to transport for disabled people. The airlines are mainly the very in-vogue “budget” airlines, who are (understandably) looking to cut costs across the board. The only problem is, part of their “cost-cutting” plans involve removing the ability for those in power chairs, for example, to travel. Further examples include The (Australian) Public Interest Advocacy Centre pursuing court action against Virgin Blue to head off moves to require some people with disabilities to buy a second ticket for a carer if they want to travel.

Thankfully, human rights commissioner Graeme Innes had this to say in response:

“It’s fine for low-cost or budget airlines to reduce services, but not carrying passengers with disabilities can’t be part of those reductions and to do so is against the law.

As commissioner, I intend to ensure wherever I can that airlines meet their obligations to all passengers, not just passengers with disabilities.”

Hopefully Virgin’s NZ subsidiary, Pacific Blue, won’t be cutting their wheelchair-related costs any time soon! Cheers to RollingRains for bringing this story to my attention.