Eric Hutchinson: Community Transport available fulltime

TASMANIANS will now have fulltime access to the state’s biggest not-for-profit, community transport service, thanks to new federal funding which has just started to flow.

Federal Lyons MP Eric Hutchinson said he was delighted to announce additional recurrent funding to Community Transport Services Tasmania of more than $750,000 would enable the organisation to be open for business across the state.

The first of the money from the latest federal Home and Community Care funding round started to flow to the organisation at the start of this month.

Community Transport Services Tasmania chief executive Stuart Davies said that its share of the HACC funding would mean that the group could employ its regional coordinators fulltime which would mean that more passenger pick-ups could be organised.

“We were doing more than 90,000 passenger trips with part-time coordinators,’’ Mr Davies said.
“This will enable us to lift the number of passenger trips to 120,000.’’

Community Transport Services Tasmania Inc. is unique nationally, Mr Davies said.

“We are just about the only one to provide urban, rural and regional transport across an entire state,’’ he said.

“There are other organisations that deliver transport as part of their broader services but we are the only organisation delivering specifically transport.

“We are an accredited transport operator but we are not a commercial transport service.’’

Mr Hutchinson said that government funding for Community Transport Services Tasmania was an excellent example of the very practical way that the Federal Government was supporting Australians to live independently at home for as long as possible.

He said that other organisations to receive funding from this latest HACC round were also using it to expand existing services and create new ones.

“We know that there is a real need in my electorate of Lyons for community transport and these other services such as domestic help and social support just as there is right across the state, he said. It is often residents of rural and regional communities that become isolated.

“These kinds of services are essential for older people to stay safe and well, connected to their community and in control of their own lives.

Mr Davies said that Community Transport had 10 transport coordinators responsible for organising transport, using a fleet of about 70 vehicles, comprising cars, buses and about 370 volunteer drivers in the service’s 10 districts across the entire state.

He said that advances in medical technology meant that many people were able to live at home longer but it meant that they needed reliable transport to access medical care, domestic supplies and other services to keep them living independently.

He said that a large proportion of Community Transport Services Tasmania’s business was taken up with transport for non-urgent medical appointments.

Transport could include carrying a client from Circular Head, in the far North-West to Hobart or anywhere in between for social and non-emergency medical purposes.

Mr Davies said that the additional funding gave Community Transport the capacity for the first time to advertise and grow its services.

“Prior to the funding being awarded we were not in a position to advertise due to limited capacity of coordinator hours,’’ he said.

Mr Davies said that Community Transport Services Tasmania’s state-wide service was a different operation to the state-funded community cars which were run by organisations and associations providing particular client outcomes.
Eric Hutchinson, Federal Member for Lyons