Australia news live: hundreds of Brisbane trains to be cancelled amid industrial action; families of Bondi shooting victims to take the stand

Hundreds of weekday train services in Brisbane will be cut back this week as workers at Queensland Rail take industrial action after negotiations on a new enterprise agreement stalled.

Queensland Rail said 300 fewer services would operate on the state’s southeast network in and around Brisbane from Tuesday, with the new timetable to be similar to a Saturday.

Branch Secretary of the Queensland Rail, Tram and Bus Union (RTBU), Peter Allen, spoke to ABC News this morning, saying the industrial action was not a strike, but limited partial work bans that “we have provided quite a lot of notice for”, and asked commuters not to take out any anger on station staff.

Allen said:

double quotation markWe’ve got some really serious claims. Now, of course, we would like to see a wage increase that kept pace with inflation. Currently we are being offered below that, and in fact we would like to see Queensland Rail, through the Government, remove the claims that they have which would see our people go backwards.

They want to increase the hours for some people, they want to reduce penalty rates for some, but we would also like them to consider our serious claims about safety at work when it comes to people who are experiencing trauma, the way that we can provide dignity for nursing mums, the way that we can make sure that people who work shift-work are treated fairly and have got at least some access to see their kids on their birthday from time to time, maybe experience the occasional Christmas. These aren’t unreasonable things, and so far we’ve been just getting a flat “no”.

Queensland Rail chief executive Kat Stapleton told reporters on the weekend that she understood commuter frustration because she was “frustrated too”:

double quotation markWe want the unions to come back to the table and seriously consider the fair and reasonable and enhanced offer that we have presented.