Member for Maroochydore Fiona Simpson today asked Transport Minister Mark Bailey to get serious about tackling fare evasion and security issues on our buses and explain why his claims about extra transport officers on Sunshine Coast buses don’t stack up.
Referring to the Minister’s response to a Question she asked him in Parliament, Ms Simpson said that the Minister claims that transport officers or Senior Network Officers (SNOs) were deployed on Sunshine Coast Sunbus services a total of 572 times in 2018, during which time they issued only 12 Penalty Infringement Notices and 215 Warnings to fare evaders.
However, Ms Simpson believes these figures are wrong, with significantly fewer SNOs reportedly deployed in previous years with the result of more penalty infringement notices being issued.
She is asking the Minister to explain why only 12 Penalty Infringement Notices (PINs) were issued in 2018 during the 572 times SNOs were allegedly deployed on the Sunshine Coast, compared to 27 PINs being issued during the 30 times SNOs were here in 2017 and 19 PINs issued during the 31 times SNOs were here in 2016.
“Clearly something is wrong and the current system is failing,” Ms Simpson said.
“Bus passengers tell me they’ve never seen a transport officer on a Sunshine Coast bus and they’re sick of people getting away with riding on the bus for free, yet the Minister claims that they were here 572 times last year.
“But during 2018 the Minister claims they only issued 12 penalty infringement notices, compared to more than double that number (27) in 2017, while only being deployed 30 times on our buses.”
Ms Simpson said she welcomed the Minister’s announcement that an additional 16 transport officers are being recruited to tackle the growing problem of fare evasion on Queensland’s public transport, but called for more SNOs to be specifically deployed on the Sunshine Coast and for stronger action to crack down on fare evasion and security issues on our buses.
“I’ve asked for more SNOs for the Sunshine Coast to tackle this culture of violence, abuse and disrespect on our public transport,” Ms Simpson said.
“We need transport officers to be deployed here on a regular basis, rather than the odd trip up the Coast from Brisbane and they should be handing out tickets for fare evasion, not warnings.
“The majority of bus users are law-abiding citizens and they want peace of mind that they can travel safely on our buses, knowing that deliberate fare evasion and thuggish behaviour won’t be tolerated.
“I want to see more SNOs travelling on Sunshine Coast buses and monitoring our bus stations to tackle this problem more effectively.”
Source: Minister’s letters
|
Year: |
No. of SNOs employed: |
No. of times deployed on Sunshine Coast: |
No. of Penalty Infringement Notices issued: |
No. of Warnings: |
|
2018 |
55 |
572 |
12 |
215 |
|
2017 |
59 |
30 |
27 |
228 |
|
2016 |
n/a |
31 |
19 |
161 |
Response to QON:
https://www.parliament.qld.gov.au/documents/tableOffice/questionsAnswers/2019/31-2019.pdf
