2025-05-02
Transport Minister Chris Steel has faced the Legislative Assembly’s inquiry into MyWay+ again this week, struggling to answer Greens questions about why the government is still failing to meet its legal obligations under anti-discrimination laws.
“Now we’ve found out that Labor knew within days of launch that MyWay+ breached anti-discrimination laws. They were given the chance to test accessibility before the launch and chose not to. They say accessibility won't be fixed until September, a full 10 months after launch,” said Greens Transport spokesperson Andrew Braddock MLA, who questioned the Minister in the inquiry hearing on Thursday afternoon.
“That means many Canberrans will continue to have a hard time using our public transport network because of MyWay+ for many more months.
“Transport Minister Chris Steel chose to launch a system that discriminates against Canberrans with accessibility needs and will continue to fail them every day until September at the earliest.
“If a system doesn’t work for everyone, it doesn’t work. The Minister had the power to wait until MyWay+ was actually ready to use, and he chose to put Canberrans through this public transport nightmare. When are we going to wake up?”
Advocacy groups for people with disabilities and seniors told the Inquiry that their feedback to the government was met with silence.
Jenny Mobbs, CEO of the Council on the Ageing (COTA) ACT, told the hearing that “not one” of her extensive recommendations were implemented before the system launched.
COTA has also received over 6,000 calls from people seeking assistance with MyWay+ since the system’s launch.
The report from the MyWay+ inquiry is due to be tabled in the Legislative Assembly in June.