Parliament has gone to the dogs.

A pack of seeing eye dogs took to Australia’s political capital on Monday as part of Vision Australia’s call to create a national standard for assistance animals.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese received a kiss from a golden labrador puppy named Yohan, while Attorney-General Mark Dreyfus offered belly rubs to other canines in-training.

NDIS Minister Bill Shorten – who once famously said “if you want a friend in politics, get a dog” – was spotted offering treats to a black labrador in the Parliament courtyard.

Seeing eye dogs are trained to an extremely high standard, but other assistance animals do not always meet that bar, Vision Australia manager Chris Edwards said.

This variance is often used as justification to refuse dog handlers from accessing public spaces or services they are legally entitled to.

A week earlier, for example, Mr Edwards was refused entry to a taxi because he was accompanied by his seeing eye dog Eva.

“I do a lot of things in life and often forget about my disability,” he told AAP.

“But when you’re refused like that, it really does make an impact on you – to think that just because you use an assistance animal, you don’t have the same rights as everybody else.”

Eva, a black labrador, had received two years of training on how to behave on public transport and navigate other spaces such as restaurants and hotels.

Mr Edwards said if the government introduced a national approach to assistant animal accreditation, it would ensure all creatures were held to the same high standard.

He said the move would also ensure the community would understand the dogs were trained do the right thing across a variety of environments.

 

Kat Wong
(Australian Associated Press)