The NSW Liberals say the release of the second Bus Industry Taskforce report is another example of transport policy by press release and that the NSW government hasn’t committed any new funding to meet the report’s recommendations.
The Taskforce’s second report, released last week, follows the release of the first report in July 2023, which the Liberals say didn’t include any additional funding for bus services.
The Liberals say that, despite the report requesting the NSW government to fund more than $5 billion worth of recurrent and capital spending in the short-term, nothing has been done so far.
“To improve transport services you actually need to invest, not pay someone to do a review and then ignore it,” NSW transport shadow minister Natalie Ward says.
“This Taskforce has been running since May last year, so far the chair is getting paid a ransom, while commuters are still waiting at the bus stop.
“It is pretty embarrassing for a government to commission a signature taskforce with obscene salaries, be delivered the report and then not allocate money to meet the recommendations.”