Brisbane taxi industry uncovered
An report on the Brisbane taxi industry investigated from the inside out and the findings might shock you.
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- Drivers waiting for their next fare in Fortitude Valley
Taxi Council condemns discrimination
The safety of taxi passengers has been a theme in the mainstream media in recent years, but little acknowledgment has gone to the safety risks taxi drivers face on a daily basis.
Blair Davies, chief executive of the Taxi Council of Queensland and the Australian Taxi Industry Association said that discrimination, particularly towards Indian drivers, had been a problem the Taxi Council has had to combat.
“Five or six years ago the folk driving cabs, particularly in Brisbane, were probably Australian born or born in the UK or New Zealand. Over the last few years we’ve seen people born overseas enter the market … what we have seen is a surprising intolerance from a small group of customers, which has been very very disappointing,” he said.
Indian taxi driver Aman said that he had encountered racism regularly in the three years he had been on the job.
“One time I was picking up some people from the Royal Brisbane Hospital and the man looked in the car and said, “where are you from?” so I said “I’m from India” and then he said, “I don’t want to go with you, I want an Aussie driver”.
Mr Davies said that the volume of Indian students arriving in Australia to study increased dramatically in 2008 at the time of the Global Financial Crisis, which saw many of them entering the taxi industry as drivers.
In 2009 the Queensland taxi industry was under fire from the media, who had claims that Indian taxi drivers were driving in Australia illegally and their training was inadequate.
“There were some suspicions that [Indian taxi drivers] were doing so illegally and consequently [a portion of customers] felt that when they hired a cab they didn’t have to pay … Those reports were unfounded … and the people who were evading fares were simply stealing from those cab drivers,” he said.
From June 2008 to June 2009 Indian student enrollments in Australia increased by 19,132, making them the highest contributor to international enrollments for that year.
Changes in legislation concerning student visas in 2010 and the rise of the Australian dollar were factors that have increasingly deterred Indian students coming to Australia over the last few years.
In 2011, Indian student enrollments in Australia have dropped by 22,000, an eleven per cent decrease from 2010.
Mr Davies said organisations that would normally condemn discrimination in society had shown a lack of support for Indian taxi drivers.
“The Taxi Council came out very strongly in the media and said this is not the Australian way … we were very disappointed that groups like the Anti-Discrimination Commission didn’t come out more strongly to defend the right of, particularly the Indian drivers, to drive cabs,” he said.
Story by Kirsty Weir