![\"Virgin](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/35d0c8d21f5b105e85a35ab8e092a285.jpeg\")
<\/p>\nA Sydney family has launched legal action against Virgin Australia and the federal government, claiming their twins were denied bathroom access on a flight.<\/p>\n
The family, who are representing themselves in a Federal Court lawsuit against Virgin Australia, allege the disabled twins were refused access to a plane bathroom and stranded in Bali.<\/p>\n
The children, who have not been named, required wheelchair assistance on a flight from Brisbane to Denpasar in Bali in July 2025.<\/p>\n
They were allegedly discriminated against due to a condition affecting their mobility, balance and endurance, reports Australian Associated Press.<\/p>\n
Cabin crew allegedly denied both children access to the toilets at the front of the aircraft.<\/p>\n
“The [twins] were instead directed to traverse the full length of the aircraft cabin without assistance, notwithstanding [Virgin Australia’s] prior knowledge of their reduced mobility,” court documents seen by AAP on Tuesday say.<\/p>\n
The parents claimed no reasonable adjustments were offered for their twins, who, as a result, experienced significant psychological distress and functional regression.<\/p>\n
After the family became stranded in Bali in August 2025, the parents sued the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade over alleged failures to provide assistance.<\/p>\n
It’s alleged the government failed to offer accurate information to assist the family.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Virgin’s parent company Bain Capital allegedly failed to prevent further discrimination by intervening when the family was stranded in Bali.<\/p>\n
“[This] conduct disrupted the family’s support arrangements, including reliance on extended family carers, and caused ongoing anxiety and loss of confidence in accessing public and transport services,” the parents wrote.<\/p>\n
Initially, the case went before the Australian Human Rights Commission.<\/p>\n
Delegate Rachel Holt found the discrimination claims against Virgin were reasonably arguable but could not be settled through private negotiations and a decision was made to terminate the complaint in December 2025.<\/p>\n
The family’s claims against Bain and DFAT were said to have lacked substance.<\/p>\n
In its submissions to the Human Rights Commission, DFAT denied breaching discrimination law, arguing that the family had failed to show how they were treated less favourably than a person without a disability.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A Sydney family has launched legal action against Virgin Australia and the federal government, claiming their twins were…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":787587,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[64,63,13146,651,99,502,7110,10934,7033,12807],"class_list":["post-787586","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-business","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-bali","tag-brisbane","tag-business","tag-children","tag-disability","tag-discrimination","tag-virgin","tag-virgin-australia"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/787586","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=787586"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/787586\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/787587"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=787586"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=787586"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=787586"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}