JO HAYLEN, SHADOW MINISTER FOR TRANSPORT: Jo Haylen, Shadow Minister for Transport. Bus drivers keep our city running and if you’re a bus driver, you can’t work from home. These guys have been at the frontline keeping our city running, getting us to work, getting our kids to school on time throughout this pandemic, and they have put the health of their families and their own health on the line to ensure that we have a reliable public transport system. The reality is that they have serious and legitimate concerns. No one takes industrial action lightly but the Government needs to sit down with bus drivers and the private operators and work this out. If you do the same job, you should get the same pay, that’s a reasonable expectation that the community has and right now in Sydney we have a scenario where bus drivers doing the same job, working in the same depo, driving the same buses and on the same routes are under different pay and conditions, that’s not fair. We also have a situation where some bus drivers don’t have access to toilets, to places to have a proper break. I think passengers, we have an expectation that their bus driver is able to rest so that they’re not fatigued. We need to make sure that people are safe at work, and that they have fair pay and conditions. The Government would like to come up with a range of reasons why they’re not responsible but the fact is that they hold the purse strings and they sign the contracts. They need to sit down with bus drivers and the private operators and ensure that we have fair pay and conditions, that people are safe at work and that ultimately we have a public transport system that people can rely on. In the end passengers just want to know that their bus, train, ferry is going to turn up on time so that they can get to work and get their kids to school. That’s not too much to ask.

JOURNALIST: So Labor’s policy, how are you gonna fix it?

HAYLEN: First of all, I’m not going to negotiate from Opposition. The most important thing here is that the Government sit down with bus drivers and the private operators because we need to keep our city moving. At the moment we have a transport system that people can’t rely on, every day there are more cancellations and delays. It’s not too much to ask that your train, ferry or bus turns up on time so that you can get to work, get your kids to school. The Government will come up with a whole range of reasons why they’re not responsible but the reality is people know that one of the core responsibilities of State Government is to provide a reliable public transport system and right now, Premier Perrottet and his Transport Minister David Elliot are completely failing to do that.

JOURNALIST: How long do these contracts run for with the private operators, is Labor aware?

HAYLEN: There are a number of contracts up for negotiation right now and that’s why we’re seeing bus drivers come to Government and say we have serious and legitimate concerns, we need you to sit down with us and the private operators and work this out. Because every time these contracts are up for negotiation, it’s a race to the bottom. At the moment we have a scenario where families are struggling, where workers are struggling, prices are up, wages are stagnate, but prices are up, fares are up, tolls are up, taxes are up. It’s reasonable that bus drivers want to have a conversation with the Government.

JOURNALIST: [Inaudible]

HAYLEN: We’ll see what we inherit but right now the Government needs to sit down with bus drivers and work it out because we have a situation because of the Government’s obsession with privatisation, that we have bus drivers doing exactly the same job on a different set of pay and conditions, that’s not fair. We also need to ensure that when contracts do expire that the public operator can compete in a legitimate marketplace, that it is fair and that there is a minimum set of conditions, a minimum set of pay, a minimum set of OHS standards. The Government could announce that right now, that would assist to ensure that we have a reliable transport network, that bus drivers, that transport workers can run the service that passengers rely on every day.

JOURNALIST: Will Labor commit to addressing those issues raised today, lack of infrastructure, toilets, the two tier pay system, will you commit to that ahead of the election, is that an election promise?

HAYLEN: Well we’ll make our election commitments closer to the election, but this is on the Government. At the moment we have a transport system that passengers can’t rely on. There are more cancellations and delays again across our network. No one takes industrial action lightly but these drivers have serious and legitimate concerns. And the Government should sit down with them and work it out because passengers just want to be able to get their bus, get their train and get to work on time.

Thanks everyone.