‘Abject failure’: Parliament committee wants to roll back Sydney bus privatisation

The NSW government should consider returning privately operated bus networks into public hands, according to a new parliamentary report, linking the privatisation of public transport with a stark decline in service quality and higher costs for commuters.

The NSW Legislative Council report, released on Tuesday, found privatisation of Sydney’s bus network had incentivised cost-cutting, which unfairly impacted vulnerable people.

Privatisation of Sydney’s bus network has led to a decline in service, a parliamentary report has found.Credit: James Alcock

The report recommended that the government consider winding back the privatisation of bus contracts in the inner west, the eastern suburbs and northern beaches once they expire.

A dissenting statement also was lodged in the report by the three government members involved in the upper house committee, who labelled the report “a political document”.

They warned that the recommendation to hand back private contracts to the public could create “significant risk” to the government’s reputation.

In response to the report, Labor member for Coogee Marjorie O’Neill said the recent privatisation of the eastern suburbs bus network had been an “abject failure”, and she was open to winding the process back once the contracts ended.

“I think this is completely something that we should be considering which should not be taken off the table,” she said.

NSW Coogee Labor MP, Marjorie O’Neill, says the privatisation of the eastern suburbs bus network had been an “abject failure”.Credit: Janie Barrett

The state government was swamped with thousands of responses to its proposed cuts to bus routes in Sydney’s eastern suburbs last year, as part of its restructuring of the region ahead of its privatisation.

Public transport has developed into a key election issue in the east, including the marginal seat of Coogee, which Labor holds by just 1.6 per cent.

O’Neill said if Labor won the March 2023 election, it would investigate whether government-owned bus operator STA could compete in future tendering processes.

“If Labor forms government next year, we will initiate a task force that will not only address all the concerns of this inquiry but will also explore the STA’s ability to compete in the tender process,” she said.

The report also recommended the government partner with unions and private bus operators to introduce an industry-wide enterprise agreement.

Greens MP and committee chair Abigail Boyd said the state government’s move to privatise the city’s patchwork of bus networks had led to a degradation of services.

“The fact is this government doesn’t see their role as providing basic services for the people of this state. For a short-term sugar hit to the budget, they sold the public out, and they’ve trapped us into restrictive contracts that will take years for future governments to unpick,” she said.

The report recommended the government change current private contracts to ensure key performance indicators included the quality of service “to avoid rationalisation and reduction in services to meet patronage and on-time running targets”.

Opposition transport spokeswoman Jo Haylen said if Labor was elected next year, it would establish an industry taskforce to assess the report’s findings.

“Labor in government will of course honour existing contracts, but this report clearly shows that the NSW government is the economic employer and that it has options when it comes to improving routes, services and employment standards, and they need to work with the whole industry to do better,” Haylen said.

NSW Transport Minister David Elliott said the criticism of the government’s transport privatisation was based in partisan politics, but added the government would consider the findings and recommendations and respond within three months.

“The Greens-led committee was nothing but a partisan attack on the private sector’s involvement in public transport, 100 years after it first started,” Elliott said.

NSW Rail, Tram and Bus division secretary David Babineau said he wasn’t surprised by the report’s findings.

“We didn’t need an inquiry to tell us that bus privatisation has been a disaster, but it’s fantastic to see it there in black and white for our government ministers to see,” he said.

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