’Absolute disaster’: Big change to buses planned in NSW if Labor wins election

A big change to bus services has been flagged in one state after the next election because of what’s been described as an “absolute disaster”.

NSW Labor will seek to put bus operations back in public hands if it wins the March state election, the party announced after a review found privatisation of the services led to worse outcomes for commuters.

Labor MP Marjorie O‘Neill said if Labor formed a government, it would establish a taskforce to consider wresting back control of private bus services once current contracts expired.

“When those contracts wind out, what we would do is establish a taskforce to consult with unions and the bus operators to see where we go moving forward,” the Coogee MP said.

The comments come after an upper house committee delivered a report into bus privatisationm which found the move had led to worse services and higher costs for commuters while failing to deliver “any real market competition”.

The report said privatisation had led to worse outcomes. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Gaye Gerard

The report also said privatisation had created incentives for operators to “sacrifice the needs of more vulnerable people in order to cut costs” and led to pay inequality between drivers doing similar work.

“Privatisation has been an absolute disaster in this state,” Greens MP and committee chair Abigail Boyd said.

“And as always, it’s the most vulnerable cohorts of the community who are hit hardest.”

The report recommended that the government consider reverting the bus services in four recently privatised areas of Sydney, and in Newcastle, to being publicly owned.

However, a dissenting statement, attached to the report and issued by the committee‘s three government MPs, indicated the government had no intention of doing so.

“This report is a political document. It will be used by the opposition for their baseless political and media strategy to attack the government in the lead-up to the election,” two Liberals and a Nationals MP wrote.

“The government members of this committee would expect this kind of nationalisation from the Greens, but such socialism and sovereign risk is hardly befitting of an alternate government.

“The opposition also need to justify and explain their long history of privatisation when they were last in government.”

Treasurer Matt Kean was asked about the report at a Tuesday press conference but said he hadn’t heard of it.

Asked if he regretted the privatisation of buses, given the report’s findings, Mr Kean did give a direct answer.

“What I would say is, what the government is always about is focusing on delivering the best products,” he said.

“The government is always going to be focused on delivering the highest quality services at the lowest possible prices.”