Michael Keenan (Stirling, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

On the Saturday before parliament resumed its sitting I spent a couple of hours at Innaloo shopping centre in my electorate. I spoke to a constituent, whose name I will not use because I have not sought her permission to do so. My constituent lives in Yokine. She contracted polio as a child and, as a result, needs to travel by means of an ultralight scooter.

She asked me for help with a matter. She is travelling from Sydney to Canberra on a CountryLink train service and was charged double to travel with her scooter, which I think is an extraordinarily mean-spirited policy. I contacted CountryLink about this and they said their policy is that, if somebody buys a ticket for themselves and then has to travel with a scooter or a wheelchair, they are charged for the extra seat. I think that is extraordinary and I will be contacting the New South Wales Minister for Transport, John Watkins, to ask that he reconsider such a mean-spirited policy. I do acknowledge that, in this instance, CountryLink did say they would refund the ticket to my constituent.

But I am concerned that this policy continues to exist, and I will be lobbying very hard for it to be changed. I think it is an extraordinarily mean-spirited policy that could not save CountryLink more than a couple of thousand dollars a year. I call upon the New South Wales government to change it.