A Minns Labor Government will establish a bus industry taskforce to deal with the consequences of the NSW Liberal government's failed bus privatisation agenda and make bus services better for communities that have been let down by privatisation.

Labor first committed to setting up a bus industry taskforce in September 2022 after a report from the NSW Legislative Council’s Transport Committee found that the Government's privatisation of bus services across the Hunter and parts of Sydney led to a decline in the quality of transport services available to passengers.

The report also found that the NSW Liberal government's model of delivery meant that private operators had an incentive to cut costs and services at the expense of some passengers who relied on bus services the most.

The government’s private model of delivering bus services has also contributed to more limited delivery of bus services, higher costs for passengers, reduced pay and conditions for the workforce, no real increase in market competition, and changes to services, stops, frequency and routes which occurred without proper community consultation.

Labor's proposed bus industry taskforce will assess and implement the report's findings and recommendations, and work to improve bus services for passengers right across NSW. 

“Passengers in Newcastle and in Lake Macquarie have seen their bus services get cut, existing services decline and then the government claims that it's got nothing to do with them," Member for Charlestown Jodie Harrison said. 

”Privatisation has failed and we will need a change of government in NSW to begin to clean this mess up."