NSW Labor has called for the NSW Government to fast track incentives to wheel chair taxi operators in regional NSW, after Milton Ulladulla Taxis on the South Coast announced they have withdrawn their wheelchair services.

The Wheelchair Accessible Taxi (WAT) Loan Scheme was introduced in 2016/17, but of the 208 applications in its first year, only a quarter of applications were successful in obtaining the loans.

Questions by NSW Labor last week indicated that as at September 2022, approximately $2.3 million was available in the funding pool and of the 208 applications received, 152 were unsuccessful.

The Point to Point Independent Review in 2020 specifically warned that the government’s deregulation process should ‘coincide’ with new wheelchair taxi incentives:

The review recommends that, to coincide with changes to taxi licence supply and in addition to current incentives and subsidies, further measures be introduced to  ensure the ongoing provision and commercial viability of wheelchair accessible services.
(Recommendation 8)

The NSW Taxi Council suggested in the Transport Disability Incentives and Subsidies Review – February 2020, that:

The interest free loan scheme should be available all year round and that funding should also be available for upgrades and repairs to extend the life of the vehicle.

Despite these clear warnings, the Perrottet-Toole Government pushed ahead with their taxi reforms without any regard to wheelchair accessible taxis, putting regional communities at serious risk of losing these essential services.

Since Milton Ulladulla made its recent announcement, Gosford has also announced they are cutting back on wheelchair accessible taxi services.  

Jenny Aitchison, NSW Shadow Minister for Regional Transport and Roads, said:

“It is disgraceful that the Government was sitting on its hands while regional taxi operators were closing their accessible services.

“Why is it that over five years after the program to incentivise the take up of wheel chair accessible taxis, the Government is sitting with $2.3 million in government coffers that hasn’t been allocated to regional communities to get wheelchair accessible taxis on the road?

“They’ve had years to ensure more wheelchair accessible taxis were available to regional communities but they haven’t done anything despite over 200 applications for the WAT Loan.

“People with mobility issues in this state rely on a functioning taxi industry. The Government needs to fund that.”