Past reviews of the Transport Standards

On this page

• Past Reviews
• Background information
• 2012 Review
• 2007 Review

Past Reviews

Section 31 of the Disability Discrimination Act 1992 provides that the Attorney-General may formulate standards in relation to the provision of public transport services and facilities. The Disability Standards for Accessible Public Transport 2002 (the Transport Standards) were made under Section 31, and took effect on 23 October 2002. Information on the Transport Standards is available on the Australian Government Attorney-General's Department website.

Part 34 of the Transport Standards requires the Minister for Infrastructure and Transport, in consultation with the Attorney-General, to review the efficiency and effectiveness of the Transport Standards. A review is required within five years of the Transport Standards coming into effect and every five years thereafter.

Background information

The following are links providing background information for this review. These links will take you to external websites and open in a new window.

Legislation and Standards

• The Disability Discrimination Act 1992 
• The Disability Standards for Accessible Public Transport 2002
• Disability Standards for Accessible Public Transport Guidelines 2004 (No.3) (the Guidelines)
• Current exemptions under the Act (Australian Human Rights Commission (AHRC))

Australian Government Websites

• The Attorney-General's Department website on Disability standards for accessible public transport
• The Australian Human Rights Commission

2012 Review

The 2012 review was undertaken by the Department of Infrastructure and Regional Development in consultation with the Attorney-General's Department, the Accessible Public Transport Jurisdictional Committee, the Accessible Public Transport National Advisory Committee and the Aviation Access Forum. The Department provided a final written report for consideration by the Minister for Infrastructure and Regional Development in consultation with the Attorney-General. The Transport Standards review Issues Paper was made available for download with the closing date for submissions of 31 May 2013. The draft report of the review was publicly released by the Department on 9 May 2014. The final report and Australian Government response on the second review was publicly released by the Australian Government on 10 July 2015.

• The Review’s Terms of Reference RTF: 49 KB DOC: 26 KB PDF: 81 KB
• Issues Paper RTF: 15476 KB DOC: 457 KB PDF: 516 KB
• Draft Report DOC: 6392 KB PDF: 1329 KB
• Final Report RTF: 861 KB DOC: 9560 KB PDF: 2707 KB
• Government Response RTF: 17 KB DOC: 178 KB PDF: 292 KB

Recording of the Executive Summary of the Review of the Disability Standards for Accessible Public Transport

Public Submissions to the review

Below is a link to a list of all submissions provided to the Department. Submissions marked confidential or those that were determined to contain private or confidential information have not been provided in full. All submissions provided to the Department were given consideration in the conduct of the review.

‘The submissions published on this website have been made available as part of a public consultation process. The submissions do not necessarily represent the views of the Department or indicate a commitment to a particular course of action’

Implementation of Recommendations

Following the release of the review report and Australian Government response, the Department of Infrastructure, Transport, Cities and Regional Development is implementing the review recommendations with a major focus on Recommendations 1 and 4.

Reform of the Disability Standards for Accessible Public Transport 2002 (Transport Standards)

The Australian Government recognises that 17 years after inception some parts of the Transport Standards may not be meeting the current and future needs of people with disability or provide sufficient flexibility or guidance to providers and operators in their efforts to fulfil their obligations under the Disability Discrimination Act 1992. On 2 August 2019, the Transport and Infrastructure Council endorsed a set of guiding principles for the reform process going forwards. The reform process will establish the National Accessible Transport Taskforce and the National Accessible Transport Steering Committee and learn from the previous modernisation process which was led by NAPTAC.

The Whole Journey: A guide for thinking beyond compliance to create accessible public transport journeys

Recommendation 4 of the Second Review of the Disability Standards for Accessible Public Transport proposed the development of accessibility guidelines for a whole of journey approach to public transport to act as a planning tool. The Australian Government supported this recommendation, which has resulted in the development of The Whole Journey: A guide for thinking beyond compliance to create accessible public transport journeys.

2007 Review

The Allen Consulting Groupwas engaged to undertake the 2007 review of the Transport Standards. The review's issues paper was released in May 2007 to assist stakeholders in providing submissions. A shortened issues paper was provided for people with an intellectual disability. The final report on the review, prepared by the Allen Consulting Group, was released by the Australian Government on 3 June 2011. The Allen Consulting Group also undertook further analysis on one of the key recommendations outlined in the final report. A copy of the ‘RIS analysis of Dedicated School Bus exclusions option’ is available for download. Following close consideration of the review final report and its recommendations, the Australian Government finalised a response to the review. The Government's response was released in conjunction with the final report on 3 June 2011.

• The 2007 Terms of Reference RTF: 37 KB DOC: 35 KB PDF: 79 KB
• Issue Paper RTF: 5262 KB DOC: 546 KB PDF: 546 KB
• Shortened Issue Paper RTF: 23 KB DOC: 26 KB PDF: 56 KB
• Final Report RTF: 1055 KB DOC: 5760 KB PDF: 9918 KB
• RIS analysis of Dedicated School Bus exclusions option
  RTF: 3106 KB DOC: 854 KB PDF: 696 KB
• Government Response RTF: 558 KB DOC: 115 KB PDF: 248 KB

Recording of the Executive Summary of the Review of the Disability Standards for Accessible Public Transport

Public Submissions and Hearings

Submissions were invited in response to both the 2007 issues paper and the draft review report released in January 2008. A list of the submissions received is below.

All interested organisations and individuals were invited to attend a public hearing for this review. These hearings provided an opportunity to speak directly with members of the review team, and for the review team to ask questions in response.
Hearings were conducted in the following locations and transcripts from these hearings are available for download below: