ACT Transport Minister Chris Steel says a bus driver strike caught the government by surprise.
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00:00Earlier this morning, Transport Canberra was informed that the Transport Workers' Union
00:06drivers across Transport Canberra were taking unprotected industrial action across our bus
00:14network. This has understandably caused a lot of disruption, frustration and anger amongst
00:23ACT public transport commuters, with no buses running across the Transport Canberra network
00:29to get people to work, to get them to school, to get them to medical appointments and other
00:33activities across the city. This morning we've been trying to get out as far as possible,
00:41communications as widely across the community as we can, noting that there has been no notice
00:48of this unprotected industrial action. So we have unfortunately had the circumstance
00:53where some people were showing up at a bus stop and no bus has turned up as per the Transport
00:58Canberra timetable, especially early in the morning when we couldn't get any communication
01:03out to those people across the city. So some people have been left stranded at bus stops
01:09across the city and I want to apologise on behalf of Transport Canberra that they've
01:14been left in that situation with no communications due to this unprotected industrial action
01:19that has been taken without any notice. I've asked Transport Canberra to look at all options
01:24to restore services as soon as possible across the Transport Canberra network, including
01:30going to the Fair Work Commission to seek an order to stop the unprotected industrial
01:35action so that we can restore bus services across the city. There will be a hearing in
01:40the Fair Work Commission at 12.30pm today where those matters will be heard and the
01:47intention of that hearing again is to seek an order to stop the unprotected industrial
01:51action so that we can restore services reliably across the Transport Canberra network.