An animal does not need to be registered as an assistance animal under the Companion Animals Act 1998 to be allowed access to a public place or public transport.
Staff in charge of access to public places and transport can request reasonable proof that your animal is a genuine assistance animal. They may be guided by their organisation’s own policy to help them to decide this. Their policies may be publicly available.
Registration as an assistance animal on the NSW Pet Registry is not proof of training and does not prove that you are allowed to take the assistance animal into a public place or on public transport.
Entering public places with an assistance animal
A person with disability is entitled to have an assistance animal with them in public places and on public transport while they are genuinely using the animal for help. Entry cannot be refused without reasonable cause.
It’s unlawful to charge a person to enter a place that is open to, or used by the public, only because they have an assistance animal with them, unless:
- the charge is reasonable and necessary to supply more accommodation for the animal
- the owner or person in charge of the place faces added expenses because the animal is present. The charge must be reasonable in the circumstances and compensate for the expense.
Using public transport with an assistance animal
A person with disability can have an assistance animal with them on public transport. Management and staff must not, without reasonable cause, deny a person with disability access to any public transport.
The person in charge or control of the building, place, or public transport must decide if the use of an assistance animal meets the provisions (legal conditions) of the Disability Discrimination Act 1992 (Cth).
If you'd like your assistance animal to travel with you on public transport, you must have an accepted type of current accreditation. This allows your animal to ride with you, free of charge on all NSW metro, train, bus, ferry, light rail, taxi, private bus and private ferry services.
The accepted types of accreditation are:
- an Assistance Animal Permit issued by Transport for NSW
- accreditation from organisations endorsed by Transport for NSW
- interstate accreditation recognised by Transport for NSW.
You may be refused access to public transport if you cannot produce your valid accreditation when requested.