Ed Husic (Chifley, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

By the way, those advisers, if they want to send a message, should try to use post these days! It'll get there in the end!

Here's the thing: most postal workers know that their workplace is changing, and they're prepared to work with Australia Post on it. The unions are also prepared to work on it. What was telling was: Post management, backed in by the government, didn't take their workforce into their confidence, didn't let them know. What happened was that most postal workers had to find out about their futures through the media. They did not find out from Post management bringing them into their confidence and working with them; it was all dropped in the media. Then Post management and the government wanted to use the message 'Trust us.' There was no climate of trust that was built up. There was no attempt to work with the workforce. There was no attempt to bring into confidence people whose livelihoods would be affected. You would think, at a time when the economy is under such pressure, when we should save every single job, that the government would work to protect ordinary workers under their umbrella, and they refused to. We stand with every Australia Post worker and the communities that depend on them to make sure that that service is upheld and that at this time, right now, in a recession, all jobs are protected.

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