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The Transport Workers Union's Ian Smith says safety concerns on buses have reached a tipping point, with drivers demanding protection screens · 360 with Katie Woolf

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Now, as you may or may not have heard, bus
• 0:02
  Speaker 1: drivers held a rally at the weekend pushing for urgent
• 0:05
  Speaker 1: safety measures across the Darwin bus network. It is all
• 0:08
  Speaker 1: in an effort to protect drivers and passengers from anti
• 0:11
  Speaker 1: social behavior as well as verbal abuse and physical violence,
• 0:15
  Speaker 1: which we have been hearing all too much of in
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  Speaker 1: recent weeks. Now joining me on the line right now
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  Speaker 1: is Ian Smith from the Transport Workers Union to tell
• 0:24
  Speaker 1: us more. Good morning to you, Ian.
• 0:26
  Speaker 2: Good morning Cartie. How are you not too bad? Ian?
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  Speaker 1: We know that obviously this rally was held over the weekend.
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  Speaker 1: Have safety concerns reached a tipping point?
• 0:36
  Speaker 2: Oh? Look, look, I think you get quite right there, lot.
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  Speaker 2: How members are expecting some action? You are they please
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  Speaker 2: with the fact that the anti governments introduced tougher laws
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  Speaker 2: and we're looking at safety screens, and we're looking at
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  Speaker 2: getting extra TFOs, extra security guards on board. But you
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  Speaker 2: know that's all well and good, but we need to
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  Speaker 2: see some action on the ground. And in saying that,
• 1:01
  Speaker 2: where I'm on the understanding under the new laws, the
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  Speaker 2: tsos last week arrested some perpetrators for this sort of behavior.
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  Speaker 2: Now that's a bad step, but it's a great set
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  Speaker 2: there's seen. There's actually a consequence to things that are happening.
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  Speaker 2: So look, this is going to be a complete team effort.
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  Speaker 2: All players in this industry, from the government to the drivers,
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  Speaker 2: to the companies, to the passengers, to the anti social
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  Speaker 2: behavior people need to take need to take some action
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  Speaker 2: around this to stop this happening now, and it's going
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  Speaker 2: to take some time, you know, but we're going to
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  Speaker 2: continue to work extremely hard with the anti government to
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  Speaker 2: make sure things do change. And yes, drivers are at
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  Speaker 2: a tipping point. It is getting pretty unsociable to work.
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  Speaker 2: But you know, the first thing probably for us is
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  Speaker 2: protect the driver, so an advocate safety screen where they
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  Speaker 2: can actually do their job. Probably are fear of favor
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  Speaker 2: in the current bus fuite fantastic. What we need to
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  Speaker 2: do is a national position is changed the design of
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  Speaker 2: the buses so that the driver's cabin is a cabin,
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  Speaker 2: it's a compartment's completely separate to the public now so
• 2:12
  Speaker 2: they can do their job safely.
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  Speaker 1: Now, are those safety screens, as I understand it, were
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  Speaker 1: they being with some of them being trialed to die.
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  Speaker 2: We're going later on today we're going to have a
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  Speaker 2: look at some as to whether they're it's all I'm
• 2:25
  Speaker 2: not sure. Hopefully I are a couple of buses. But
• 2:29
  Speaker 2: there is some designs across the country that have been
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  Speaker 2: installed in Victoria and a lot of other states that
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  Speaker 2: are that have been solved with great success that has
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  Speaker 2: actually protected the driver, you know, and that becomes the
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  Speaker 2: first instance. If we can do that, then what happens
• 2:45
  Speaker 2: behind the driver, Yes, we need to deal with that,
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  Speaker 2: and yes, by giving the tsos, the security personnel extra powers,
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  Speaker 2: that's going to be a great thing that you know,
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  Speaker 2: let's be quite frank, intervention is the best form of
• 2:59
  Speaker 2: attack situation if we can intervene before these events occur,
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  Speaker 2: and that invites from an early age education having all
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  Speaker 2: that this is just unacceptable behavior, you know. You Darwin
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  Speaker 2: is one of the most you know, it's another sophisticated
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  Speaker 2: city in Australia and in the world. You have all
• 3:20
  Speaker 2: the same issues that we're dealing with with congestion, you know.
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  Speaker 2: So we need to have an effective public service, that
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  Speaker 2: public transport system and you do have that now, it's
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  Speaker 2: probably one of the better public transport systems in the country.
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  Speaker 2: But the problem that we have is it's not safe
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  Speaker 2: at times.
• 3:35
  Speaker 1: Yeah, well, it's a big concern for a lot of people.
• 3:38
  Speaker 1: There is no doubt about that. And I think that
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  Speaker 1: we've seen it sort of time and time again. We
• 3:41
  Speaker 1: know that even last week the Watch commander had certainly
• 3:45
  Speaker 1: told us about those transit offices that were actually assaulted
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  Speaker 1: spat on while they were going through the process of,
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  Speaker 1: you know, of trying to arrest someone with those additional
• 3:55
  Speaker 1: powers that they'd been given. I mean, you touched on
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  Speaker 1: that before. But what was your reaction there to finding
• 4:00
  Speaker 1: out that they'd been assaulted.
• 4:02
  Speaker 2: Yeah, well, well totally totally unsatisfactory. So you know, the
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  Speaker 2: bottom line is that's why we need more and this
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  Speaker 2: sort of bargain has to be stamped out. It's unacceptable
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  Speaker 2: and there's no society that accepts it, so we need
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  Speaker 2: to stamp it out and more action needs to be taken.
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  Speaker 2: And you know, look, I was it was very pleasing
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  Speaker 2: yesterday the Minister attended the rally and furthermore, she did
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  Speaker 2: do a walk for the crowd and listened to one
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  Speaker 2: on one some of the concerns that the drivers happened.
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  Speaker 2: So I have and that's a great thing.
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  Speaker 1: Was that the Minister for Transport that attended, yes yep, yes,
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  Speaker 1: and did you get a few people there.
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  Speaker 2: Well, we had account of about forty two totals. So
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  Speaker 2: for a Sunday afternoon when you've got to understand half
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  Speaker 2: the fleet's probably working, as as the drivers because they've
• 4:49
  Speaker 2: still got to run a service. Some community turned up.
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  Speaker 2: So there's some real feel out there that this needs
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  Speaker 2: to be addressed. That for the people that were at
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  Speaker 2: the rally clapped the minister when she gave her speech
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  Speaker 2: as to what they were planning. And you know, this
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  Speaker 2: first stage is just a step. Certainly, if it's not working,
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  Speaker 2: we need to go further. But as I said, the
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  Speaker 2: only way we're going to address this industry is everybody,
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  Speaker 2: all players that are involved in the public transport system
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  Speaker 2: in the territory will need to stand up and be
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  Speaker 2: counted and come up with solutions. Now we're going to
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  Speaker 2: be doing We're doing everything we can to protect the
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  Speaker 2: driver and the NT governments. It's also assisting of that
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  Speaker 2: that there's there's some responsibility from all parties to stand
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  Speaker 2: up and say this is not good enough. We need
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  Speaker 2: to make it safe. We need to make sure this
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  Speaker 2: system safe and efficient so that the people in the
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  Speaker 2: in Darlan in particular can have the choice to jump
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  Speaker 2: on the bus, get to where they're go safely and
• 5:54
  Speaker 2: get home in a reasonable time and less.
• 5:59
  Speaker 1: More con one hundred percent. So and where to from here?
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  Speaker 1: Obviously that rally was held yesterday, good news that the
• 6:05
  Speaker 1: Minister attended and that people were certainly pretty open to
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  Speaker 1: what she had to say. But where to from here?
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  Speaker 2: Well, well, first software sitting down again with the Minister
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  Speaker 2: this morning in the next hour, and then we're going
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  Speaker 2: out later this morning to inspect the new safety screen
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  Speaker 2: hopefully that's installed in the bus, but in the very
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  Speaker 2: in the very instance, the design of it or having
• 6:27
  Speaker 2: a look at one before they've installed it. But you know,
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  Speaker 2: there's been a fair amount of work done on these
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  Speaker 2: screens and the buses in the Northern Territory are not
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  Speaker 2: much different than that we have in South Australia, Victoria
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  Speaker 2: and New South Wales, so there's a well trodden path
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  Speaker 2: where there's protective screens that can be fitted into buses.
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  Speaker 2: But the bigger picture is we need to change the
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  Speaker 2: design of the buses overall, so when our governments companies
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  Speaker 2: are buying new buses, it's a proper purpose built cabin
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  Speaker 2: or safety screen is developed that this just can't occur
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  Speaker 2: if the're driving the new his job properly, that's the
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  Speaker 2: first set second step. If there's anti social behavior going
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  Speaker 2: in the back of the bus, he can call someone
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  Speaker 2: and we need quick action to have that stamp out.
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  Speaker 2: And that's the biggest aim now. And you know, we
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  Speaker 2: need to understand that this is completely unacceptable. It's not
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  Speaker 2: going to be tolerated. Perpetrators are going to be held
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  Speaker 2: to account and but furd of all, everybody who is
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  Speaker 2: understand it's unacceptable. It's the only that we don't in
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  Speaker 2: a modern world and a modern society. It's not good enough.
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  Speaker 2: And we're going to continue to work to do that.
• 7:33
  Speaker 2: And more paths to the CSOs and security. Yes, that's
• 7:37
  Speaker 2: a great thing, but we really don't want them to use.
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  Speaker 2: That's what we want is the public. The public than
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  Speaker 2: to behave in a correct manner. So we'll put in
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  Speaker 2: work with the government in other ways that we can
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  Speaker 2: come up and educate. We can work with communities to
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  Speaker 2: understand this, this isn't acceptable. And some of the stories
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  Speaker 2: I hear from some of the communities, some of the
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  Speaker 2: work they do out there in the world is fantastic
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  Speaker 2: and they and they make sure that this behavior doesn't occur.
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  Speaker 2: You know, people, the bus system's there for people when
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  Speaker 2: they've had too much to drink, so they don't get
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  Speaker 2: behind the wheel. If they had a bit of fun
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  Speaker 2: inze on, let's get on the bus to get home.
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  Speaker 1: You got to do it, so yeah, absolutely do the
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  Speaker 1: right thing. Ian Smith from the Transport Workers Union really
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  Speaker 1: appreciate your time this morning. Thanks so much for having
• 8:20
  Speaker 1: a chat with us.
• 8:21
  Speaker 2: Thanks Adie, thank you.