January 2012 - Sydney Morning Herald
Mrs King, a board member of several disability organisations, took the airline to the Federal Court when it denied her access to a flight because two other wheelchair passengers were already booked.
''Try travelling by coach,'' was one comment on a website that reported her court loss, including a costs order of $20,000.
Another said: ''Some people in wheelchairs are just plain ignorant and expect us free walking people to help them.''
On Friday a judge ruled the airline had not discriminated against Mrs King. But she is to appeal against the decision to the full bench.
The vitriol was especially harsh in her home town of Hervey Bay, in Queensland, where more than once she has taken the council to court over access issues - and has chalked up some wins, including the installation of wash basins in disability toilets.
''Ms King has cost the ratepayers of this region hundreds of thousands of dollars,'' said one. Another wrote: ''… am glad this woman has lost and now has to pay the costs. It is too easy to sue people these days. We are getting just as bad as the Americans.''
Mrs King, a disability pensioner who had sought no financial compensation from the airline, said she had become used to hate mail. ''People write things like, 'Live with it; it's not our fault you're disabled','' she said.
But the decision by Justice Alan Robertson has outraged many with disabilities. The director of the Australian Centre for Disability Law, Phillip French, said it had ''disastrous'' implications for the application of
discrimination law. The interpretation of the law indicated ''that any commercial operator like Jetstar is entitled to formulate and maintain a business model that discriminates against a segment of the community''.
Jetstar argued that its tight turn-around times would be compromised by more wheelchair-bound passengers, which would increase costs.
Last week a French court fined easyJet, a low-cost airline, €70,000 ($86,682) for having refused three people in wheelchairs the right to board. The prosecutor cited ''an aggressive commercial policy of reducing operating costs … and if for that you have to have a discriminatory policy, too bad.''
Mrs King, who has polio, has fought for disability rights since the early 1990s but she became dependent on a wheelchair after she was knocked off her mobility scooter in 2008. She won an award at the 2010 International Day for People with Disabilities celebrations, and is on the aviation access working group set up by the federal government, among other bodies. She is the secretary of Australia For All, which has an accessible tourism website.
Nicolas Patrick, the chairman of the Redfern Legal Centre, said the case highlighted a huge weakness in discrimination law which did not allow an organisation to complain on behalf of a group. ''It's left to individuals to run these cases at huge personal and financial risk,'' he said.
Mrs King said: ''We've tried being nice and gentle. It didn't work. Sometimes you have to go to court.''
Read the article on the Sydney Morning Herald website.
