As much as it pains me to do so, I have to strongly disagree with your presentation. I must assume that you are trying to… actually, I’m not quite sure what your objective is. I presume your intention is to increase awareness of purpose and validity of assistance(service) dogs in public to ensure acceptance? I, personally, am assisted by the service of Rupert- who is an 8 year old schnoodle- and who has been trained with me(or I with him? More likely as he is exceptionally intelligent!) by one of the *recognised* Assistance Dog Trainers(this is important because there is a limited, albeit increasing exponentially, list of trainers who are nationally- and therefore Internationally- recognised) and we have passed our PAT(Public Access Test) several times after he was initial accepted to train following which we passed what is essentially the ‘L Plates’ test. Which means that we are legally accredited and recognised as so irrespective of context. And, as Victorians, he also has a Public Transport Licence. So therefore we are legally obliged to be accepted in any public spaces, shops, businesses, accomodation and, of course, transport, from taxis or Ubers to trams/bus and including flying with me. And once accepted and passed the ‘L Plates’ test an Assistance Dog can travel with you wherever you, as the handler, feel they are capable of. The only exclusion to that is international flying. (*and the only other place where he hasn’t been able to accompany me was when I was in ICU and in that context it is obviously reasonable as the access of humans is also limited!) You have communicated the message that there is no clear national guidelines very loudly but as to why that is debilitating is not clear. And, undoubtedly because we are from different states, we have a very different understanding of the training entails, and age- indeed, I find it unlikely that a rescue dog would be accepted to train for two reasons but more specifically that their training must begin between 9-18 months. Anyway, I am probably not explaining what I am trying to say very well at all(I have a brain injury and communication is a major ongoing challenge) but I am definitely NOT trying to criticise you or dismiss or undermine you more so that you have a great platform and are obviously invested on educating others and I am only trying to, as best as possible, encourage you to be more informed(nationally) and to no5 let the bar any lower than being internationally accepted because that has a far more clear balanced requirements and less impassioned? Only that not to let your emotions influence your message. I look forward to see what you have in the future.
This was a uni assignment from years ago written for a law course. The law has been correctly interpreted. You are confusing legal interpretation for best-practice. A transport card is not accepted under the DDA S9(2)(a) - you are working under S9(2)(c) by definition of the law. This presentation has been undated and is now offered by a barrister via working animals federation of australia is you require further information.
