Labor claims a move to remove many bus stops in Region 6 was “a ploy” by the government to make the services more attractive to private operators.
Roads and Maritime Services released plans in February to axe dozens of bus stops in the region, which is now to be privatised.
They include 24 stops in Earlwood, Kingsgrove, Arncliffe, Rockdale and Kogarah.
Final decisions on which stops will go have yet to be announced following a community consultation process.
Region 6 extends from the inner-west to Sydney Olympic Park and Strathfield, and south through Earlwood, Kingsgrove and Bexley to Rockdale, Brighton-Le-Sands and Sans Souci.
Transport Minister Andrew Constance was asked in Parliament last week whether the removal of the bus stops was “not just a ploy to make bus services more attractive to private operators?”
Mr Constance’s did not answer the question.
He responded to this and other Opposition questions by saying Region 6 passengers were receiving poor service and previous Labor ministers had strongly supported the use of private bus operators.
Labor MP for Summer Hill, Jo Haylen, said it was clear the stops were being removed to make the network more attractive to potential buyers.
“The Government needs to come clean,” she said.
“They’ve had their eyes on the inner west bus service for quite some time.”
Canterbury MP Sophie Cotsis accused the government of “working to privatise the bus system by stealth”.
“This government should have been upfront with the community; they didn’t ask because they knew what answer they’d get,” she said.
“People are fed up with the privatisation of public services and are drawing a line at losing our buses.”
Mr Constance told Parliament the government had made it “crystal clear that we are not selling buses or depots”.
“We are guaranteeing transport workers' jobs in the same way we did in Newcastle, where we saw five-year job guarantees,” he said.
“We are going to see better and improved services.
“We are not going to accept 42,000 customer complaints from that region in the last four years.”
Mr Constance said a 2004 report prepared for the Labor government by former Premier Barrie Unsworth “recommended the wholesale franchising of metropolitan bus contracts”.
The report had found contracts in metropolitan NSW should be let through competitive tendering.