Bus provider Kinetic apologises for incidents on Townsville school routes
Kinetic is a state government-contracted bus service that operates in and around Townsville.
Last week a driver was stood down after students reported inappropriate behaviour.
"They exited and boarded another Kinetic service, making the second driver aware of the incident," a Townsville Catholic Education spokesperson said.
"The safety and wellbeing of our students is our highest priority and we commend the students on acting in a responsible way."
Kinetic said the driver exhibited "unprofessional behaviour".
The company has committed to undertaking a thorough investigation into the May 15 incident.
Kinetic relies received more than $16 million worth of state funding in the 2023-24 financial year to deliver its Townsville services, but parents are concerned for their children's safety.
Amanda Wright's daughter was on board a Kinetic bus in April when the driver attempted a risky turn in a 110-kilometre-per-hour zone.
Footage taken by the schoolgirl showed Flinders Highway traffic at a standstill as the driver attempted a U-turn.
"The driver made the turn on a crest, crossing double white lines, blocking the highway in both directions in our first fog of the season," Ms Wright said.
Ms Wright said the driver involved also missed a stop that day.
Kinetic confirmed that a stop was missed and said the company had a policy to never leave a child behind.
But Ms Wright said Kinetic regularly left children behind, including her own.
"All the parents out here know Kinetic's number by heart," Ms Wright said.
"So we can call and say, 'Hey you have left our children on the side of the Flinders Highway, can you please go get them before they get stolen?'"
Kinetic told the ABC that the actions seen on the video did not meet company standards.
It said it conducted a prompt investigation and reinforced training.
A mother whose children were abandoned by Kinetic at a flooded bridge said she feared the company was not improving.
The woman, who cannot be identified for legal reasons, has two children who use the service.
She said in March a Kinetic driver told one of her children to disembark and remove a road-closed sign so the bus could cross the flooded bridge.
"As locals we know you don't go through that — it is fast-moving," the mother said.
She raised concerns with Kinetic and submitted a formal complaint, but a week later her children and other school passengers were told to get off the bus at the same flooded bridge.
"We are worried about retaliation if we report something on the bus," the woman said.
The driver involved in the incidents raised by the mother was stood down.
Kinetic said an investigation into the incident had been completed, but would not comment on whether the driver would return to work.
Kinetic general manager Martin Hall said the company took full responsibility for the incidents.
"None of the occurrences were to the standard we hold ourselves to," he said.
"The trust families place in us to transport their children safely is something we deeply value.
"We apologise unreservedly to the students and families affected."
Mr Hall said Kinetic drivers in Townsville worked through difficult circumstances over the last few months.
"Our drivers have worked tirelessly to deliver services across Townsville despite recent challenges that have impacted the entire community, including weather events and labour shortages," he said.
"Our bus drivers come to work each day committed to providing safe transportation for the communities they serve, often navigating difficult road conditions and making decisions in real time."
Translink, a division of the state transport department, refused to comment on recent Kinetic incidents.
"Delivery partner staff are employed by the operators," a Translink spokesperson said.
"We work with operators to ensure an investigation in relation to significant service delivery complaints has been undertaken.
"We do not comment on delivery partner decisions on their staff."
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
ABC News
4 hours ago
- ABC News
NSW Labor government unsuccesful in condemnation of independent MP Mark Latham
Mark Latham has escaped parliamentary condemnation after the former federal Labor leader was accused of sharing secret government information. The NSW Labor Party put forward a condemnation motion against Mr Latham after accusing him of "disclosing authorised information" under parliamentary privilege about a fellow MP. But the motion was adjourned after being blocked by the opposition until October 13. The condemnation was defeated 22 to 16 after a fiery debate. It is alleged Mr Latham referenced confidential information from a psychologist's report prepared for the NSW Civil and Administrative Tribunal (NCAT) in proceedings brought by independent MP Alex Greenwich, a claim Mr Latham denied. On Tuesday night, he told the chamber that the remarks were based on publicly available information, including several affidavits signed by Mr Greenwich. "This is not a state secret," he said of the information. He said when he viewed the information, it was only under a non-publication order, not formally under parliamentary privilege. During the debate, Mr Latham went on to further criticise Mr Greenwich and journalists present at the NCAT hearing. He said if he had the chance, he would share the information again. Penny Sharpe, leader of the government in the upper house, moved the motion to condemn the independent MP. Ms Sharpe said that revealing deeply personal medical records about a fellow member meant the house should take a stand over Mr Latham's use of parliamentary privilege. "If you don't draw this line, I don't know what line you are going to draw," Ms Sharpe said, calling on her parliamentary colleagues to support the condemnation. However, Mr Latham again insisted he had not broken standing orders in parliament. Despite the failure of the condemnation motion, Mr Latham was later successfully referred to the Privileges Committee over the alleged sharing of information in a privileged report by the NSW Police Force in a separate incident. On the prospects of a parliamentary committee investigation into his actions on that matter, which relates to former police commissioner Karen Webb, Mr Latham said: "Bring it on." "I'm happy for these things to go to privilege … I wouldn't mind if this matter went to the High Court," Mr Latham said. Last month, it was revealed Mr Latham's former partner, Nathalie Matthews, had sought an apprehended violence order against him in a NSW court, with media reports that she accused him of a "sustained pattern" of abuse and pressuring her into "degrading" sex acts. The independent MP has vowed to defend himself in court, and labelled Ms Matthews's claims as "comically false and ridiculous". Police are not investigating the matter. In the wake of the application being made public, it also emerged that Mr Latham had sent disparaging photos and comments about some female MPs to Ms Matthews, which he said was part of an "in-joke" taken out of context. He has apologised to the MPs at the centre of the photos, describing them as "ill-advised". Mr Latham released a lengthy public statement last month, addressing allegations of inappropriate behaviour in state parliament.
ABC News
4 hours ago
- ABC News
Former WA Police officer Gary Edward Fitzgerald has charges of improper sexual relationship dropped
A former WA Police officer accused of having an improper relationship with a 16-year-old girl has had the case against him dropped during his trial. Gary Edward Fitzgerald was a serving officer when he started a sexual relationship with the girl about 25 years ago, after meeting her during his policing duties. The prosecution alleged the girl, who was over 16, could not give consent to sex because she was under his authority. Mr Fitzgerald was charged with five counts of sexual penetration of a child over 16, under their care, supervision, or authority. But the prosecution has been discontinued in the District Court. Prosecutor Danya Borkowski said there had been legal discussions regarding the element of "care, supervision, or authority". "We concluded that we were unable to establish that element to the standard of beyond a reasonable doubt," she told the court. Judge Michael Bowden told the jury the discontinuance had been accepted by the court. "This is a court of law, not of morality," he told the jurors. He said it would only have been an offence if the sexual relationship was with a girl aged over 16 who was under care, supervision, or authority. The court heard from the complainant on Monday, who had described sexual encounters in detail, including threesomes, and sex in the interview room of Fremantle Police Station. The defence lawyer had put it to her that the sex in the police station did not happen, to which she responded: "That's completely incorrect." She told the court the sex they had was consensual and there was a "mutual attraction" from the time they first met, which led to flirtatious phone messages, including sexual innuendo. The pair first met when Mr Fitzgerald attended the teenager's home on duty, when her housemate was reported to have run away. The complainant said the sexual relationship stopped when she was about 17, and "definitely" was not continuing when she was 18. But she admitted that Mr Fitzgerald never presented himself as her "personal on-call police officer", and the sex had nothing to do with any ongoing investigation.
The Australian
4 hours ago
- The Australian
Roxanne Tickle says Sall Grover must pay damages for misgendering her in 50 media interviews
Giggle app founder Sall Grover should have to pay hefty damages to trans woman Roxanne Tickle because she 'misgendered her' in media interviews, Ms Tickle's legal team has pleaded in a bombshell submission to the Federal Court. In a submission which, if accepted, would have far-reaching implications for free speech, Ms Tickle's lawyers argued that Ms Grover's description of Ms Tickle as a man in at least 50 interviews should make her liable for 'significant' aggravated damages. Ms Grover is appealing a decision by judge Robert Bromwich that she indirectly discriminated against Ms Tickle by rejecting her from the Giggle for Girls female-only networking app because she appeared to be a man. Justice Bromwich had awarded $10,000 damages because Ms Grover had laughed in court at a satirical piece of merchandise – a scented candle – which appeared to mock Ms Tickle. Ms Tickle is also appealing parts of Justice Bromwich's decision, asking for a finding of direct rather than indirect discrimination and that the damages be increased to at least $40,000. Ms Tickle had sought $200,000 in damages at the previous trial. The Giggle v Tickle appeal has gained global attention, with author and prominent women's rights activist J.K. Rowling expressing support for Ms Grover in an overnight post on social media platform X. Rowling retweeted a post by Ms Grover of The Australian's story revealing a submission by the Sex Discrimination Commissioner that trans women 'should have legal protections available to pregnant or potentially women'. Ms Grover had captioned the post: 'This is how insane gender ideology is.' Rowling also sent her support to Ms Grover. 'Good luck, Sall. May the best woman (haha) win x,' she wrote in a post on X. On Tuesday, counsel for Ms Tickle, Briana Goding, said the $10,000 damages award was insufficient, in part because the beliefs Ms Grover held privately were also being made publicly and expressed in dozens of media interviews. 'There was evidence that Ms Grover had participated in some 50 interviews in relation to this case, and in each of those she used the male pronouns for Ms Tickle, and that on at least 10 occasions she referred to being scared or threatened or harassed by Ms Tickle,' Ms Goding said. Ms Grover's conduct 'has at the very least been seriously aggravating and has caused Ms Tickle injured feelings', Ms Goding said. 'The aggravation and injured feelings have mounted up, blow by blow.' Ms Goding said Justice Bromwich had found the satirical candle to be so offensive that he didn't repeat the content in his written judgment. 'However, it's our submission that His Honour ought to have gone beyond that single act of laughing in court and awarded aggravated damages for much broader conduct in the proceedings. Those matters included the statement that Ms Tickle was a man, but should also include the fact that in her opening submissions Ms Grover and Giggle stated they 'do not know, and cannot admit, whether the applicant is a natural person capable of being sued in the name of Roxanne Tickle'. 'This is not just a delegitimising of gender, but a delegitimising of humanity,' Ms Goding said. 'There's further, the overall conduct of crowd funding for the case using the demeaning material, the promoting of others to purchase material from the Etsy store as well as the laughing in court,' Ms Goding said. Ms Grover has previously stated that she did not have any role in producing or selling the candle merchandise. Ms Goding asked the appeal court to reject Justice Bromwich's finding that Ms Grover's views were genuinely held and bona fide because of the 'continued public misgendering and denial of gender identity of Ms Tickle'. 'This is not a case of asking anyone to change their opinions, it is not policing the opinions that someone can hold,' Ms Goding argued. Given the purpose of the Sex Discrimination Act in eliminating gender identity discrimination, the 'continued misgendering of Ms Tickle' could not be considered bona fide, proper or justifiable, she said. Earlier in the hearing, Ms Tickle's legal team had contested Ms Grover's claim that her rejection of Ms Tickle from the app was on the basis of her perceived sex – that she appeared to be a man – not because she was transgender. 'It was proved that not only did Giggle have a policy of excluding transgender women, they did exclude transgender women, and not only Ms Tickle,' said Georgina Costello KC, also appearing for Ms Tickle. 'Ms Grover has a policy that is not a secret. In fact, it's spoken about with some confidence and pride,' she said. 'Ms Tickle provided a selfie to the Giggle app in which she had a low-cut T-shirt on and a female haircut. She used the name Roxy, and that's important because they now say that they didn't know she was a transgender woman. We say that you shouldn't accept that evidence. 'The fact that (Ms Grover and Giggle) deny that they knew that Ms Tickle was a transgender woman when they excluded her from the app is not a defence to direct discrimination.' Counsel for Ms Grover, Noel Hutley SC, noted in relation to the demand for additional damages that the trial judge had found that although the denial of her gender identity had upset Ms Tickle, he was unable to attribute responsibility to Ms Grover for her 'finding this exhausting and draining'. 'Ms Tickle's evidence as to loss or damage is slight, if not minimal, and does not rise higher than a modest degree of hurt,' Justice Bromwich found. Politics Treasurer's marathon consultation with Australia's business elite faces being relegated to a talkfest as government backs away from major economic reforms. Politics Jim Chalmers has abandoned major tax reform for his economic roundtable, instead focusing on deregulation and housing productivity amid rising business sector anxiety.
