Uproar in State Parliament over buses 'disaster' in St George and the Shire

There were heated exchanges in State Parliament today over children being left on the side of the road during ongoing bus service problems in St George and Sutherland Shire.

In one case reported to the Leader, a seven-year-old pupil at Tharawal Public School, Illawong, had to walk two kilometres to school when a bus did not arrive.

In the afternoon, the school bus took the wrong route, which meant the pupil had to cross busy Old Illawarra Road.

"This reckless behavior is nothing short of a breach of duty of care," her mother said.

"We are now into the third week of this chaos and despite public promises to rectify the issues, U-Go Mobility continues to fail. These repeated incidents of unreliability and unsafe practices are unacceptable."

There have been many other cases of children being left stranded by buses not showing up, or taking wrong routes.

During Question Time in Parliament on Wednesday, Transport Minister Jo Haylen claimed the Region 10 "disaster" was the fault of the previous Liberal government.

Ms Haylen said the previous government "awarded contracts based on the lowest price without any apparent concern for the service the community needs, and a reliable service people depend on".

"They put price above passengers every single time," she said.

"They didn't consider the value of long term operators who know the community, like Punchbowl Bus Company for example, who have served the community for decades.

"They didn't them ask whether those contractors had experience operating a bus contract in Sydney.

"Let's look at the results, and where better to look than Region 10.

"That's where we have seen the result of the complete incompetence of those opposite."

There was uproar when Miranda MP Eleni Petinos interjected, "You've left kids on the side of the road".

Ms Haylen replied, "No, you did. It resulted in a 92-year-old woman left on the side of the road. It has resulted in schoolchildren being left on the side of the road."

Ms Petinos was warned by the Speaker.

Ms Haylen said, "Those opposite did not ask any operators whether they had experience operating a bus contract in Sydney, for example".

"I would love to know whether the Member for Miranda objected to these contracts being signed? She was part of the government."

Opposition Leader Mark Speakman used a point of order to blame Ms Haylen.

"It is this minister who had her eye off the ball and has done nothing for three months," he said.

Oatley MP Mark Coure welcomed Transport for NSW stepping in to help manage services.

"Our community had some of the most reliable services in all of Sydney, and it has been appalling what everyone has endured over the past few weeks," Mr Coure said before the exchange in parliament.

"TfNSW and U-Go Mobility had months to prepare to take over the contract and knew well in advance the required services they would need to manage.

"The Minister has failed our local community as this happened under her watch and they had months to follow this up to ensure an easy transition."

U-Go Mobility blames the problems on "a chronic and unprecedented bus driver shortage which has impacted our ability to provide timetabled services".

"We have worked with Transport for NSW to implement a temporary timetable to give passengers more predictability, prioritising dedicated school services and aiming to minimise the impact on other passengers," the company said.