Latest / 360 with Katie Woolf / Transport Workers Union NT Branch Secretary Ian Smith welcomes reforms for harsher penalties for anyone assaulting transport workers, bringing greater protection for bus drivers

Transcript

Transport Workers Union NT Branch Secretary Ian Smith welcomes reforms for harsher penalties for anyone assaulting transport workers, bringing greater protection for bus drivers · 360 with Katie Woolf

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: But as we know last week, if you were listening
• 0:02
  Speaker 1: to the show, you would have heard the Minister for Transport,
• 0:05
  Speaker 1: Infrastructure Logistics, Evil Lawless.
• 0:07
  Speaker 2: She joined us on the.
• 0:08
  Speaker 1: Show and talked us through these amendments that were made
• 0:11
  Speaker 1: in Parliament last week that she said would make our road,
• 0:14
  Speaker 1: bus and rail networks, as well as our waterways safer
• 0:17
  Speaker 1: for territorians. Now included the strengthening of legislation to allow
• 0:22
  Speaker 1: transit safety officers to ban people from entering buses and
• 0:26
  Speaker 1: bus stations when they behaved in an offensive, threatening, violent
• 0:31
  Speaker 1: or disorderly manner.
• 0:33
  Speaker 2: Now joining me on the line to tell us a
• 0:34
  Speaker 2: little bit.
• 0:35
  Speaker 1: More about how they felt about these changes and whether
• 0:38
  Speaker 1: it's going to make any difference. The Transport Workers Union
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  Speaker 1: branch secretary Ian Smith, Good morning to you, Ian.
• 0:47
  Speaker 3: Good morning Cody.
• 0:48
  Speaker 2: Ian. Yeah, not too bad.
• 0:49
  Speaker 1: Obviously these changes went through Parliament last week.
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  Speaker 2: What was the union's reaction.
• 0:56
  Speaker 3: Well, it's a good step. Anything that's going to strengthen
• 1:02
  Speaker 3: and make people consequence for people's action has to there's
• 1:07
  Speaker 3: some assistance that it's on the ground that we're going
• 1:10
  Speaker 3: to need to see some change. Now. The bottom line
• 1:14
  Speaker 3: is that's great news and the governments are for afordances.
• 1:20
  Speaker 3: We're on the rights back where we're starting our three
• 1:23
  Speaker 3: point pan. There was and we need some consequences to
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  Speaker 3: people behaving badly. Now this is a start, but we
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  Speaker 3: certainly need more tsos on the ground so there's more
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  Speaker 3: people out there that can actually police it be compress.
• 1:37
  Speaker 1: Yeah, So I had wondered that because I thought to myself,
• 1:41
  Speaker 1: it's good that obviously the transit officers can now or
• 1:44
  Speaker 1: they'll now be able to ban people from entering those
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  Speaker 1: buses and bus stations. But I had wondered that do
• 1:49
  Speaker 1: we have enough transit officers.
• 1:53
  Speaker 3: Our position will we know and certainly the drivers so
• 1:56
  Speaker 3: that's the case, but by giving them more powers, certainly
• 2:00
  Speaker 3: that's going to assist. So you know, we're not going
• 2:03
  Speaker 3: to We're going to continue to keep pushing for the
• 2:06
  Speaker 3: three point plan. You know, we need you know, it
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  Speaker 3: is one thing is about giving a consequence, but we
• 2:12
  Speaker 3: need to make the drivers safe in the first place,
• 2:15
  Speaker 3: so a full driver protection system in place needs to
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  Speaker 3: go in. So we've done a fair bit of work
• 2:20
  Speaker 3: on coming up with some recommendations which we will be
• 2:23
  Speaker 3: putting to the government. We're just trying to organize a
• 2:27
  Speaker 3: meeting with them at the moment, which with natural costings.
• 2:32
  Speaker 3: You know, we're our understanding on the current bus network
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  Speaker 3: systems I have for around about twelve hundred dollars per bus.
• 2:40
  Speaker 3: I know it's a big expense. There's a full proper
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  Speaker 3: protection screen that goes across It will protect the driver
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  Speaker 3: fully and well and fixes a lot of the visibility
• 2:51
  Speaker 3: issues that the screen causes.
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  Speaker 2: And ian you want that.
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  Speaker 1: You guys want that on every bus. That's that twelve
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  Speaker 1: hundred dollars full protection screen. You want that on every
• 3:00
  Speaker 1: bus within the network.
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  Speaker 3: Absolutely that number one keeps the driver safe and that's
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  Speaker 3: what we must do in the first instance, so then
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  Speaker 3: there's no incidentive for these people have behaved poorly. That
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  Speaker 3: stops that. So that will help certainly. The legislative change
• 3:18
  Speaker 3: that the government's putting through we apport. But once again,
• 3:22
  Speaker 3: more people on the ground's important, absolutely important. And then
• 3:26
  Speaker 3: the education piece, which we've done already and we continue
• 3:29
  Speaker 3: to push. We have to change people's habits. We have
• 3:33
  Speaker 3: to change what occurs in the network because it's not
• 3:35
  Speaker 3: good enough. Because of we need an effective, safe public
• 3:40
  Speaker 3: transport system in the territory and got that at the moment.
• 3:44
  Speaker 1: How have things been going on our bus network over
• 3:47
  Speaker 1: the last couple of weeks since we last spoke.
• 3:50
  Speaker 3: Well, drivers are getting pretty frustrated, as you'd understand. And look,
• 3:56
  Speaker 3: I think everybody's seen under a hell of a lot
• 3:58
  Speaker 3: of pressure through this pandemic and through the times it's causing.
• 4:01
  Speaker 3: So the frustration there's from everybody. But you know, we
• 4:07
  Speaker 3: need to keep working extremely hard to make change and
• 4:10
  Speaker 3: this union will never start until we get something in
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  Speaker 3: place that does that. And you know, I think there's
• 4:18
  Speaker 3: an appetite, Well, there needs to be an appetite to
• 4:21
  Speaker 3: address this because it's the benefit of all territorium.
• 4:24
  Speaker 1: Yeah, well that's right, the bus drivers and absolutely everybody
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  Speaker 1: that is on those those buses each and every day.
• 4:30
  Speaker 1: I know that it is the form of transport for
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  Speaker 1: a lot of Territorians.
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  Speaker 3: Absolutely well, so we're going to keep working hard, and
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  Speaker 3: as I said, in the near future, we'll be sitting
• 4:41
  Speaker 3: down and want to meet the senior people in the government,
• 4:43
  Speaker 3: and then I believe that in the next couple of
• 4:45
  Speaker 3: weeks there's another that the Network Committee gets back together
• 4:49
  Speaker 3: again through its normal quarterly meetings, So once again we'll
• 4:53
  Speaker 3: be pushing that argument and we'll continue to push that argument.
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  Speaker 3: We need change and we are going to make sure
• 5:01
  Speaker 3: that change occurs.
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  Speaker 1: Hegan, just on those the full protection, the twelve hundred
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  Speaker 1: dollars on each of those buses.
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  Speaker 2: How many buses are we talking, ah.
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  Speaker 3: Now that'd be a good question. I think us think
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  Speaker 3: may Bad have a couple at least a couple one hundred,
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  Speaker 3: and there's probably about fifty between two fifteenth round the buses.
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  Speaker 3: So it's considerable outcome for the companies which own the
• 5:22
  Speaker 3: buses and for the government owns them as well. But
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  Speaker 3: I think the cost of work, cover claims, have damage
• 5:30
  Speaker 3: to vehicles, to the cost of security office, everything there
• 5:36
  Speaker 3: goes on top. So if we can reduce the anti
• 5:39
  Speaker 3: social behavior that occurs in the system, there's major cost
• 5:43
  Speaker 3: so things there, So it's probably cost effective to these
• 5:46
  Speaker 3: sort of things. Understandingly, we all understand that all governments
• 5:51
  Speaker 3: around the pretty severe pressure with finances and everything because
• 5:54
  Speaker 3: of the pandemic. But people deserve the right to go
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  Speaker 3: about their business in a safe manner. Bus drivers in
• 6:03
  Speaker 3: the system deserve to be able to go to work
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  Speaker 3: and go home safely every night.
• 6:07
  Speaker 1: Well Ian Smith, the Transport Workers Union branch secretary, we
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  Speaker 1: always appreciate your time.
• 6:12
  Speaker 2: Thank you for having a chat with us today.
• 6:15
  Speaker 3: Nice Thanks Hellien, thank you, afternoon, all the.
• 6:17
  Speaker 1: Morning, thank you and yeah, just chatting there obviously if
• 6:21
  Speaker 1: you've just joined us with Ian Smith from the Transport
• 6:23
  Speaker 1: Workers Union about those changes that came into play last week,
• 6:27
  Speaker 1: the government making those amendments in Parliament that they say
• 6:30
  Speaker 1: are going to make people safer and allow those transport
• 6:34
  Speaker 1: safety officers to ban people from entering buses and other
• 6:38
  Speaker 1: base bus stations when they've behaved in an offensive, threatening, violent.
• 6:42
  Speaker 2: Or disorderly manner.
• 6:44
  Speaker 1: And it will mean that those bus networks were with
• 6:47
  Speaker 1: the transit safety of offices, they're going to have more powers,
• 6:50
  Speaker 1: so they'll be able to ban people from entering the
• 6:52
  Speaker 1: buses and bus stations, like I said, when they've behaved
• 6:55
  Speaker 1: in those ways. But these amendments included giving them the
• 6:58
  Speaker 1: power to deal with a person who assault someone or
• 7:01
  Speaker 1: damages property within the bus network or a bus station
• 7:04
  Speaker 1: when the offender is outside a bus station and making
• 7:08
  Speaker 1: it or making an assault on a transit officer an
• 7:12
  Speaker 1: arrestable offense. So they were the changes that came into
• 7:16
  Speaker 1: play last week. As you've heard there from Ian Smith,
• 7:19
  Speaker 1: Yes it is a good step, it's a good thing.
• 7:22
  Speaker 1: But what they are calling for is these full protection
• 7:26
  Speaker 1: for all of those drivers. So those sort of cases,
• 7:29
  Speaker 1: I guess you'd say that are around the bus drivers
• 7:32
  Speaker 1: around twelve hundred dollars each for those full protection screens
• 7:37
  Speaker 1: on all of those buses to keep them safe.