Jamie Chaffey (Parkes, National Party, Shadow Assistant Minister for Agriculture) | Hansard source

These days we can let someone on the other side of the world know what we're thinking almost before we've thought it. But, sadly, it has become harder and harder to send a simple letter. Many people in my electorate prefer to do their banking, post parcels and letters to their loved ones, and pay bills face to face rather than online. But the services of Australia Post are not only costing more; they're becoming fewer and fewer. These services, some of the very few available to quite a number of my communities, are being whittled away.

I have had phone calls from no fewer than six licensed post offices across the Parkes electorate speaking up against the slow undermining of regional post offices. Between them, these people have served their communities for decades. They have listened to life stories, have helped elderly people with their complicated paperwork, have been the only break in the day for busy farmers, have signed important papers as justices of the peace, and have assisted people to pay their bills. As one licensee said: 'This is not just a commercial concern. When a small community loses its post office it loses much more than a place to send parcels; it loses its last point of banking, government services, JP functions and human contact with essential services. These networks that exist today took generations to build and cannot easily be replaced.'

Another licensee said: 'The post office is not one option of many. It is the infrastructure that holds communities together. If these services go, people in communities like White Cliffs, Condobolin, Peak Hill, Bogan Gate and Eumungerie will be forced to drive for 60 minutes—

A division having been called in the House of Representatives—

Sitting suspended from 10:17 to 10:31

People will be forced to drive 60 minutes, 80 minutes, two hours or up to six hours to the nearest town with a post office. Regional people once again are treated like second-class citizens. People are paying more and more, but less and less is being delivered. I look forward to the spotlight being shone on Australia Post at the Senate inquiry that will look at this government owned business's leaked plans to close up to 36 metropolitan post offices and change the licensing agreements to regional and rural post offices. The leaked business case, Post Office Network & Licensed Post Office Reimagined, dated June this year, envisages widespread changes to regional and rural post offices that could see them become nothing more than a parcel locker. I know that's the same for my colleagues in the room the member for Dawson and the member for Cowper. It's happening right across regional Australia, and enough is enough. Australia Post needs to take note. Regional people need essential services too.

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