Focus on disability parking
By Stuart Norman, CEO Parking Australia
At the recent Parking Australia networking event held in Sydney, discussion turned to the issue of disability parking. In July last year, the Federal Government launched their Australian Disability Parking Scheme and since then the Queensland, Victorian and West Australian Governments, have all made changes to their disability parking schemes as well.
The Queensland State Government has been the only government in the country to engage Parking Australia and seek input prior to launching their amended scheme. It’s extremely disappointing that none of the other governments saw it fit to speak with Parking Australia and obtain our feedback to make their schemes better.
I believe that I speak for the whole industry when I say that we want those who need to access a disability parking space to be able to do so, whether that be on public or private land. The fact that governments have had detailed discussions about disability parking on private land is, in my view, extremely short sighted.
As the parking industry is well aware, it is vital that disability parking is enforced correctly so that those who need spaces can access them. It is equally important that the policy settings are not only fair but also achievable. The recent WA review into disability parking highlighted the need for more ACROD parking bays, while some of these will be able to be provided by councils, the government will need cooperation from private parking operators.
Parking Australia has already written to the WA government offering our assistance, which we hope will be accepted.
In response, Parking Australia will be holding a session and panel discussion at PACE on disability parking and how the industry sees the current policy setting and how it could be improved.
