Khamis -v- Director General, Department of Transport [1999] NSWADT 103

CITATION: Khamis -v- Director General, Department of Transport [1999] NSWADT 103

DIVISION: General

APPLICANT: Michael Khamis

RESPONDENT: Director General, Department of Transport

FILE NUMBER: 993069

HEARING DATES: 07/05/1999; 08/16/1999

SUBMISSIONS CLOSED: 08/16/1999

DATE OF DECISION: 27 October 1999

N Hennessy - Deputy President BEFORE:

PRIMARY LEGISLATION: Passenger Transport Act 1989

APPLICATION: Review of decision to cancel taxi-cab authority -

MATTER FOR DECISION: Principal matter

Applicant: In person REPRESENTATION: Respondent: P Culbert, solicitor, Department of Transport on 05/07/99 A Wozniak, solicitor, Smythe & Mallam on 16/08/99

ORDERS: 1. The decision of the Director General of the Department of Transport to refuse the applicant's application for a taxi-cab authority is affirmed.

Background 1 During the time that the applicant, Mr Khamis, has been a taxi driver he has come to the attention of taxi networks and the Department of Transport ("the Department") on numerous occasions. Overall, twenty-three passengers have complained about his conduct. Their allegations range from incivility to assault. Mr Khamis denies all except one of the allegations stating that the Department accepted the complainant's version rather than his. 2 The applicant's taxi-cab authority was cancelled in 1994. Two years later the Department agreed to re-issue the authority, however complaints against him continued and the authority was cancelled again at the end of 1997. This hearing concerns Mr Khamis' most recent application for a taxi-cab authority made on 11 February 1999. 3 On 19 April 1999, a delegate of the Director General refused Mr Khamis' application. The result of an internal review of this decision was that the original decision was affirmed. Mr Khamis applied to the Tribunal for a review of this decision. 4 Oral evidence was given by Francis Malone, operations manager in the Department and by Mr Khamis. The Department did not call any of the complainants or network employees to give evidence, but relied instead on letters and statements contained in the file. The Department tendered their entire file which contains details of the complaints made against Mr Khamis, details of the Department's investigation of those complaints, correspondence from various networks about complaints and investigations, the applicant's criminal record and his traffic record. Evidence in relation to the Department's procedures 5 Mr Francis Malone, operations manager, Department of Transport, outlined the Department's processes for dealing with complaints. He said that the Department receives complaints against taxi drivers and owners. Some complaints, involving the taxi itself and minor overcharging, are dealt with by the taxi network concerned. The Department deals with complaints involving the behaviour of drivers including physical abuse or intimidation, verbal abuse or rudeness, sexual harassment and racist, homophobic or other discriminatory language. Other areas of complaint are lack of geographical knowledge and insufficient knowledge of English. 6 The officer handling the complaint registers it and then decides whether there is a possible breach of the Passenger Transport Act 1989 or regulations. If so, further details are obtained from the complainant. If the complaint reveals that a criminal offence may have been committed, the complainant is encouraged to contact the police. If the police subsequently charge the driver or owner, their authority is suspended pending the outcome of criminal proceedings. The kinds of action that the Department can take after investigation of the complaint are: * no action; (if the complaint is not justified) * requiring the driver to undergo retraining in relation to customer care, geography or English language skills; * giving a verbal warning; * giving a written warning; * issuing a "show cause" letter; or * suspending or cancelling the licence or authority.