‘Deeply disturbing’: Bus driver bashed in South Brisbane

Brisbane’s lord mayor has labelled the assault of a bus driver in South Brisbane “deeply disturbing” and vowed to lobby the state government to ban repeat offenders from public transport as investigations into the attack continue.

Video footage posted to community Facebook page Brisbane Incident Alerts on Saturday shows a bus driver trying to remove a man from a bus, allegedly for refusing to pay the 50-cent fare.

The passenger responds by punching the driver repeatedly in the shoulder and arm, stopping briefly to leave the bus before returning and punching him in the head.

The incident occurred about 6pm on Friday, but was only reported to police the following afternoon.

Queensland Police confirmed on Sunday that an investigation had been launched, and urged anyone with information to come forward.

Lord Mayor Adrian Schrinner reposted footage of the assault on Instagram with a caption that read: “This kind of behaviour is deeply disturbing and has no place in our city.

“No one deserves to face violence in their workplace, especially from a single individual whose reckless actions endangered the safety of everyone on board.

“My thoughts are with the bus driver who was subjected to this appalling and completely unacceptable attack while simply doing his job.”

Schrinner continued that while council, which manages Brisbane’s bus network, has strong safety protections for drivers, “we shouldn’t need them, which is why we continue to stand up for Brisbane against crime to keep our community safe”.

Asked whether the driver had been offered counselling, Schrinner said he had, adding that all workers have access to an employee assistance program for help and counselling.

In a second post on Sunday, Schrinner called for perpetrators of violence to be banned from public transport.

“Enough is enough. If you assault a driver, you should lose the right to ride,” he wrote.

“Our bus drivers serve our community every day to help you and I get around Brisbane. Violence against our hard-working bus drivers and other frontline workers should never be tolerated.

“I will be advocating to the state government to ask them to consider ways we can ban repeat offenders from using public transport.”

The lord mayor added that he had spoken to the bus driver, who is “understandably shaken after this terrifying attack”.

In the first five months of the year, 313 incidents of bad bus behaviour were reported, including verbal abuse, spitting, physical assault, and objects being thrown.

In 2024, 824 incidents were reported in total, with 938 in 2023.

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