Protesters urge NSW Government to drop plans to contract out public buses on northern beaches

Placard waving protesters were noisy and angry and they want the State Government to drop its plan to privatise northern beaches buses. Here’s why.

Some of the 200 people who attended the community rally, on the Village Green at Mona Vale, opposed to the privatisation of bus services on the northern beaches. Picture: Rail, Tram and Bus Union

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About 200 community supporters staged a noisy weekend rally to protest the privatisation of NSW Government bus services on the northern beaches.

With the backing of Opposition Transport spokesman Chris Minns, Unions NSW secretary Mark Morey and the Northern Beaches Greens, the two-hour rally was held on the Village Green at Mona Vale.

Members of the northern beaches community joined the Mona Vale rally opposed to the contracting out of bus services. Picture: Rail, Tram and Bus Union

The protesters, who included State Transit workers, called on the government to drop moves to invite privately owned transport companies to bid for the right to run bus services on the peninsula.

This is the second rally against the privatisation push since the government announced the plan in late October.

Critics of the plan predict it would lead to the new contractor dropping unprofitable routes, a reduction in the number of bus stops and job losses for drivers.

Bus divisional secretary of the Rail, Tram and Bus Union NSW, David Babineau, said the local community must stand together against bus privatisation, or risk “ending up with a sub-par bus service”.

“Privatisations simply doesn’t work,” Mr Babineau said.

“We’ve seen what it’s done to services in Newcastle and Sydney’s inner west. You see routes axed, bus stops closed and commuters forced to endure longer journey times,”.

The first protest rally against privatisation of the service occurred outside the Brookvale bus depot on November 2. Picture: Mark Scott

“We can’t afford to let the NSW Government attack our public bus services in this area too.

“The community is coming together to say enough is enough. We want the NSW Government to scrap its privatisation plans and give local commuters the quality public transport service we deserve,” Mr Babineau said

But Transport Minister Andrew Constance has said that a move to take the services out of government hands would lead to more services and future “on-demand” buses.

Contracts for the government bus services will be put out to tender by early 2020.

Mr Constance said the Government would continue to regulate timetables and service priorities as well as set fares.