East Hills MP Wendy Lindsay lobbies for bus route detour to kids’ school
A new government MP personally lobbied Transport Minister Andrew Constance and two government agencies to re-route a bus service so that it would stop directly outside her daughters’ school.
NSW
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A new government MP personally lobbied Transport Minister Andrew Constance and two government agencies to re-route a bus service so that it stopped immediately outside her children’s school.
East Hills MP Wendy Lindsay, who won the state’s most marginal seat in March, was a key figure in convincing Transport NSW and bus operator Transdev to change a key bus route to suit the needs of Menai High School.
The school is outside Ms Lindsay’s electorate and is attended by her daughters.
When asked directly yesterday if she had declared a conflict of interest in her representations to Mr Constance’s office or the department, Ms Lindsay did not answer the question, but said she had been asked by the school’s P&C to speak to NSW government ministers after her election.
The Daily Telegraph understands she did not make the declaration to the government in her lobbying activities.
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Ms Lindsay raised the school’s desire to have a bus stop at its doorstep last year via ministerial correspondence to Transport Minister Andrew Constance.
She also attended subsequent meetings between the school, Transport for NSW and Transdev before the new bus stop was added for the start of this school year.
The change means the M92 bus service will now stop immediately outside Menai High School, meaning students no longer need to walk to Old Illawarra Rd.
The diversion, which is only one service each weekday afternoon, adds five minutes to the route. It is estimated about 100 students catch the service.
The change is essentially a safety mechanism for the school to prevent the dangers of students crossing the road to an unsupervised bus stop.
In 2014 one student suffered a broken leg when hit trying to cross the road.
In a statement, Ms Lindsay said parents from Menai High and federal and state MPs had been advocating for a safer bus solution since 2017.
“After my election, the P&C President of Menai High formally asked me to make representations to ministers in the NSW government to work on a safer solution for students,” she said.
In a statement, Transport for NSW said “feedback from stakeholders is one of the factors that Transport for NSW considers when looking at ways to improve services for our customers”.
Federal MP Craig Kelly’s chief of staff Frank Zumbo said he also assisted Menai High School from March last year, after a request from the principal. The school is in Mr Kelly’s federal electorate.
Mr Zumbo said he wrote to bus services provider Transdev to “add weight” to representations made by the P&C.
He said Ms Lindsay came in “fairly late in the piece” in the “longstanding issue”.
In a school newsletter, P&C president Lyn Allsop-Guest thanked Ms Lindsay.
“I would like to acknowledge and thank Wendy Lindsay, State Member for East Hills and Frank Zumbo, chief of staff for Craig Kelly, Federal Member for Hughes, for their ongoing support of the P&C and school in getting to this point and achieving a solution amenable to all parties.”
Originally published as East Hills MP Wendy Lindsay lobbies for bus route detour to kids’ school