Bus Services

Mr McBRIDE (MacKillop) (14:30): My question is to the Minister for Infrastructure and Transport. What is the minister doing to address serious safety issues on the Murraylands LinkSA school bus service? With your leave, Mr Speaker, and the leave the house, I will explain.

Leave granted.

Mr McBRIDE: My office has been contacted by parents whose children use what is essentially a school bus service that members of the public can also use. A survey of more than 40 families has shown that children are being subjected to dangerous and threatening behaviour from adults under the influence of either drugs or alcohol. There have also been reports of children being offered gifts from adults, raising fears from the parents that their children were being groomed.

The Hon. A. KOUTSANTONIS (West Torrens—Minister for Infrastructure and Transport, Minister for Energy and Mining) (14:30): I thank the member for his question. It is a topic he has written to me about previously, except for that final assertion he has made. I would say to him that the appropriate place for those types of accusations is to South Australia Police, and I think he should make those immediately if he hasn't done so already. They are concerning accusations.

My department has advised me that LinkSA have reviewed the safety policies and procedures. I have also been advised that LinkSA were to retrain their drivers in dealing with inappropriate passenger behaviour prior to the commencement of the 2025 school year. Additionally, the department met with LinkSA and Unity College to discuss actions that may be implemented to increase safety on these services.

However, the crux of the issue, I think, is that parents want a separate bus service for their children, and this is something that is being considered as part of our regional review of public transport. I would encourage the school to make a submission to the department seeking a regulation 7 exemption if they haven't already done so. What this would do is allow the department to make an assessment on that application. My office can help facilitate with the member and the school and the department and work through this process.

I also point out to the house that the government has moved swiftly to give itself the powers to bar people from public transport who exhibit antisocial behaviour. I can't tell you how frustrating it is for me, for the government or for members of this house and members of the public when they see unruly and disruptive behaviour on public transport. Parents expect public transport to be safe for their children when they use it. They want their children to behave on public transport. They expect adults who use public transport to behave.

People who abuse this essential service should be barred. They should be prosecuted. People who graffiti on public transport should be dealt with. People who assault on public transport should face aggravated offences if they do so, and people who fare evade should also be punished to the full extent of the law. Behaviour like this on public transport, especially amongst our most vulnerable in our community, is just not tolerable under any circumstance.

The good thing about a full bus is that it is a safe bus. Full buses are a better than empty buses. The more people we get on our public transport system, the safer it is. More importantly, the more people who catch public transport the more money we all save. We save money in taxes, and we save money in unnecessary capital programs that grade separate road infrastructure where we have to spend more and more money to alleviate peak hour traffic. We are spending fortunes on grade separations to try to deal with peak hour traffic, while in the off-peak periods these roads are largely empty. Public transport saves us all money, so making it safe, clean and reliable is a priority of this government.

We will have more to say about that in the weeks and months ahead, but the first real steps in this matter are: (1) any MP who has heard of accusations like the one made by the member for MacKillop should report that immediately to South Australia Police and (2) I am happy to try to facilitate that change in regulation for his school.