The NSW Government released a discussion paper on establishing an authorisation system for community transport drivers last week.

While all the drivers who volunteer at Kalianna have the required licences for the service they provide there is only one driver who is fully authorised for commercial drives.

Full authorisation is not currently mandatory and Mrs McInnis said that because almost all the drivers are volunteers they are not willing to complete the two weeks of training that is needed to achieve this authorisation.

“In one way it is good to improve the regulations, but we have so much trouble trying to get drivers anyway that a longer list of things to do might make it more difficult,” she said.

“We already have systems in place and comply with regulations. If we don’t we lose our funding. We also have our own controls on top of the regulations.

“It is necessary to put changes in place but then you would need more funding to pay the drivers,” Mrs McInnis added.

Currently drivers are required to have the correct class of licence, pass a police check and complete two weeks of on the job training. Under the recommendations in the discussion paper, drivers would additionally be required to pass a medical examination, be fully authorised and there would be greater legislative governance.

The discussion paper has come about after figures for the percentage of the population aged 65 and over predicted to drastically increase over the next 20 years were released.

“The forecast increase in the proportion of older people in NSW means there will be a greater demand for community transport in the future,” Gladys Berejiklian, NSW Transport Minister said.