“These bus drivers are council employees, and as the leader of this council, the LNP lord mayor [Adrian Schrinner] is responsible for their safety at work,” he said.
“Yet he refuses to take action.”
Cr Cassidy repeated the opposition’s calls for full driver barriers to protect bus drivers at work.
“Labor has repeatedly called for full driver barriers and more security on buses and at interchanges, but Cr Schrinner has ignored all of those calls,” he said.
“Adrian Schrinner spends $6.5 million on advertising himself and $2.6 million on a new bonsai tree house without batting an eyelid, yet refuses to invest in the safety of Brisbane workers.”
Council Opposition leader Jared Cassidy questioned the administration’s response after more than 650 Brisbane bus drivers were verbally or physically assaulted in 2020.Credit:Facebook
Cr Cassidy said the 2020 figures were worrying because the number of people on the buses declined by 85 per cent during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Cr Schrinner told the council chamber that any assault on a bus driver was “totally uncalled for” and was dealt with seriously by the council.
2020 Brisbane City Council bus driver assaults
- 508 assaults were verbal, where drivers received derogatory comments or obscene gestures.
- 87 events were extreme verbal assaults with “continued screaming”.
- 20 times, a Brisbane bus driver was spat on.
- 13 times, a Brisbane bus driver was physically struck.
- 13 times, something was stolen from a Brisbane bus driver.
- Three times, an object was thrown at a Brisbane City Council bus driver.
Cr Schrinner said the new Brisbane Metro vehicles would have complete bus driver enclosures.
Public transport chairman Ryan Murphy said the vast majority of Brisbane residents treated bus drivers with “the utmost respect and courtesy.”
Cr Murphy said closer examinations of the figures showed incidents happened on “0.0008 per cent of trips taken”. Brisbane buses carried about 78 million passengers in 2018-19.
“So we need to keep this in perspective,” Cr Murphy said.
“In 2019 ,there were 52 physical and spitting incidents across the whole city. This decreased to 43 in 2020, which is a 17 per cent reduction.
“While the chances of abuse are extremely remote, there is a 100 per cent chance our hard-working bus drivers will be thanked by commuters on every shift.”
Cr Murphy said more than $3 million had been spent on improving Brisbane bus driver security.
Brisbane City councillor Ryan Murphy deplored attacks on bus drivers, but said $3 million had been spent on measures to protect bus drivers.Credit:Tammy Law
“We’ve installed CCTV and emergency buttons, anti-shatter windows and bus driver safety barriers on every single bus as well as an extensive training program to assist drivers in dealing with difficult situations,” he said.
“We also employ 25 NightLink bus guards, five NightLink interchange and bus stop guards and seven rapid response vehicles.”
Cr Murphy said the council supported the Queensland Law Reform Commission’s recommendations to make it a higher offence to assault a bus driver.
Tony Moore is a senior reporter at the Brisbane Times
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