Amanda Rishworth (Kingston, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for Health) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise today to share the deep concern of many of my constituents and small businesses about the recent announcement that Australia Post will close its Lonsdale Business Centre in the southern suburbs of Adelaide. This will have a big impact on many residents and businesses that have relied on this important centre to do business. It is incredibly impractical for local businesses to have to travel to the city, over 25 kilometres away, where the nearest business centre is located. This will have a huge impact on the productivity and competitiveness of many small and larger businesses in the southern suburbs of Adelaide.

Australia Post has stated that local businesses and residents can use other local post offices nearby. However, businesses and residents dispute this. They have told me that post offices nearby do not have the capacity to deal with the large volume of bulk letter deliveries and parcels that the Lonsdale Business Centre accepts daily. Of course, at many of these post offices there is not the capacity to park trucks and large vehicles so that the parcels can be loaded and unloaded safely. Indeed, I am a regular user of the Lonsdale Business Centre, which ensures that my newsletter is distributed. This will be a big blow to so many other people who use it. It is important to recognise that this will affect not only traders with large volumes of mail, but also small business operators who send large parcels through Lonsdale.

I am also very concerned about the potential job losses at the Lonsdale Business Centre and the impact this is having on staff. There was not a lot of notice given to staff. There were rumours around the place that it was going to close, and they have just recently found out that it will close. I have written to the Minister for Communications, Malcolm Turnbull, and to the general manager of Australia Post imploring them to seriously reconsider this ill-founded move because it will affect people in the southern suburbs. We have a great diversity of business in the southern suburbs. We, like the northern suburbs, are struggling with the closure of the car industry and the manufacturing that goes along with it, and with the uncertainty caused by the delay of the announcement of the Future Submarine Project. And, indeed, we are of course concerned that the deal has already been done by the government to send that work offshore.

Mr Williams interjecting—

I hear the member for Hindmarsh say, 'What about the frigates?' You made the election promise: 12 submarines to be built in Adelaide, and you should keep it. But we will get back to Australia Post and say that this Lonsdale business centre must stay open for the businesses and residents of the southern suburbs, and I call on the minister to act.