"Anyone who would refuse a trip on the grounds of race shouldn't be driving taxis in this state," Mr Andrews told 'The Point' after Uncle Jack Charles, Aboriginal Elder and 2015 Senior Australian of the Year in Victoria, said he was refused a taxi on Wednesday.
"This is the sort of discrimination Indigenous Victorians still face,” says Mr Andrews. “It's just wrong."
At 73 years of age, Uncle Jack Charles is one of Australia's highest profile actors and passionate advocate for his people. But this morning he told 'The Point' he's seething with anger.
"I get a bit downtrodden after incidents like this, the seething, the angers still there," he says.
What's made Uncle Jack angry is the deep disrespect at being rejected again by a Melbourne taxi just as he was about to step into the back seat of the car on Flinders Street, he says.
It's not the first time that he's been refused a taxi. It happened once in Sydney and twice in Melbourne in the past twelve months.
One of those times came after he was handed the 2015 Senior Australian of the Year Award in Melbourne in October. He had been speaking with Mr Andrews at the awards event, according to his manager Patrice Capo-Greco, but on his way home he was refused a taxi.
"The last time it happened in Melbourne we got a phone call from the Victorian Premier's office," Ms Capo-Greco says.
"They wanted to express their support for Uncle Jack, and that they were sorry to hear about what happened, especially after he'd received the award as 2015 Senior Australian."
When the taxi company in question was contacted by 'The Point' it said it had not received a formal complaint and they could not comment.
UNCLE JACK CHARLES SAYS HE HAS BEEN REFUSED TAXIS MULTIPLE TIMES
Jack Charles 'seething with anger' after again being refused a taxi in Melbourne
