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Allegations
of Sexual Abuse in NZ |
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Taxi passengers should
steer clear of less established companies, land transport authorities say,
following another sex attack by a taxi driver in Wellington. A 22-year-old woman
told police she was raped in the back seat of a taxi near her Johnsonville
home in daylight on Saturday morning. A Hamilton taxi driver
is being hunted after a student was raped at the end of June. Police say they are
following "good leads" in the Wellington case. Land Transport New
Zealand spokesman Andy Knackstedt said the screening system for those
applying to carry passengers was "fairly robust" – but there was
room for improvement. "Hindsight is
20/20, but one thing we encourage people to do before get into a taxi is to
see what company it is," he said today. It was generally well
known which companies were "established" in each city and which
were not, he said. "Thankfully it's rare,
but when the worst happens, then at least the person will be able to tell the
police what kind of taxi they were in. "In this case, it
doesn't appear the woman will be able to do that, which will make it much
harder to identify the driver." Under the "fit and
proper" persons test, drivers applying to operate taxis and buses must
pass a police background check into any past criminal convictions or even if
they have been charged with an offence, and if they are setting up a company,
their financial past is also scrutinised. "This is repeated
every 12 months, and in addition, if they are convicted of any traffic
offences, such as drink-driving, or serious violence offences during that 12
months, the LTNZ is automatically informed. "And in most
cases, when they are charged, we are informed." In the year to June
2004, there were 102 licenses revoked – an increase of 33 on the previous
year. Suspensions, taken as
an immediate step to protect public safety, were down six to 40. A damning report by the
Auditor-General into the taxi industry in June included a recommendation to
improve data matching and information sharing between police the licensing
authority, and that was already being implemented, Mr Knackstedt said. However, it was not
always possible to get accurate records on drivers from overseas, he said. For instance, many
refugees were fleeing countries where civil society had completely broken
down. "They may not even
have a passport when they come here and they certainly won't be able to produce
the sort of robust police checks you would normally expect," he said. "The issue is, are
we legally able to refuse entry to someone who doesn't have that information
when there's no evidence they have actually done something wrong? "There has to be reasonable
basis to deny someone entry to the system." In those cases, LTNZ
had to rely on the Immigration Service. "When a person has
been granted entry to this country, it's fair to assume that immigration has
done some checking on someone, although I'm sure Immigration would also tell
you, that in some countries, it's impossible to get hold of that information
because it just doesn't exist." While there has been
much criticism from taxi drivers of deregulation, which some say unleashed
many "cowboys" into the system, Mr Knackstedt said there were now
more safety controls. Prior to deregulation
there were limits on the number of taxi licenses that could be issued, but no
regular checking of drivers. "When the system
changed, there was a whole bunch of drivers who were booted out of the
system, who had accumulated all sorts of offences while they were taxi
drivers because they had never been checked." Following restructuring
of the authority last year, compliance monitoring had been centralised, which
should lead to more consistency across the country, he said. "But we do now
have nearly 10 times as many drivers and not 10 times as many enforcement
officers." Taxi passengers would
probably end up paying the price for beefed up security checks to identify
dodgy drivers, he said. "We have met with
Taxi Federation and tried to identify what can we do now with the resources
we've got. . . "But if more
people are needed, that will require an increase in resources, which may have
to come from increased taxi license fees for drivers. "Inevitably that
cost will be passed on to customers – if that's what the public wants, it
must pay for it." Taxi Federation
executive director Tim Reddish said the latest allegations – coming on top of
a spate of other sexual assault complaints against drivers in the past year –
was "very distressing". Such incidents were the
direct result of a lax system, which allowed undesirables into the industry,
he said. "The regulatory
system has been deficient but now at least there is the legislative framework
to make some changes," he said. Meanwhile, police are
appealing for any witnesses who may have seen a white taxi parked in Arthur
Carman Street, Johnsonville, about 8.30am Saturday morning |
