Ed Husic (Chifley, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Sixteen per cent of the Doonside population are over the age of 60 and nearly a thousand Doonside residents report needing assistance in their day-to-day lives because of a disability. Yet, if they turn up to their local railway station, they literally see evidence that they are being blocked from using public transport, with a station that still maintains long ramps that prevent the access and use of public transport. It's not only that it's preventing their access; if they do use it, they're finding it dangerous, with one Doonside resident, Benjamin Punzalan, spending over a week in hospital because while travelling down the station ramps he was thrown out of his mobility scooter and struck the ramp's metal barriers.

For years we have been asking for lifts to be installed at that station to ensure that the elderly and those with a disability can use their local station, and they've been denied this by the Liberal government in New South Wales. Earlier this year, I wrote to the New South Wales transport minister saying this needed to be fixed, and in response he flicked it to his parliamentary secretary, who boasted that over 90 per cent of customer journeys are accessible to all—except if you live in Doonside. I have now also raised this with the Australian Human Rights Commission, saying that people are being prevented from accessing public transport. These lifts should be built, and the elderly and disabled should not be prevented from using public transport.