Wayne Swan (Lilley, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Treasurer) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise today to discuss Australia Post’s long-term plan to restructure their letter-processing facilities and infrastructure throughout south-east Queensland. This is an issue of importance to many hundreds of workers currently employed by Australia Post, many of whom live in the electorate of Lilley.

Northgate Mail Centre is a modern, serviceable facility that specifically contains a large letter-processing machine. Australia Post has a second facility on the south side at Underwood that separately handles parcels. Australia Post claims that both these facilities have now reached maximum capacity. Consequently, it proposes to establish a larger facility for letter processing and other services at Yatala, located over 50 kilometres to the south of the Northgate facility.

Comments from Australia Post which have suggested that the mail-processing facility will be moved entirely to the new Yatala facility have, quite understandably, caused enormous distress for employees, particularly among long-term employees who have taken out mortgages and settled their families in anticipation of a long working life at this modern Northgate facility. The Northgate Mail Centre is a stable and convenient workplace for many locals and the proposed move would be to their detriment and the detriment of their families. I want to make it very clear to Australia Post that I oppose their plans to move the letter processing in its entirety from Northgate to Yatala. The Northgate facility sits on valuable industrial land and is superbly located in the growth area of south-east Queensland. The facility is poised to take advantage of a growing market in a growing area.

I would hate to think that Australia Post has a hidden agenda for moving the letter-processing facility from Northgate to Yatala. Pursuing this course of action could inevitably force long-term employees to leave their employment with Australia Post. It is unlikely that, when faced with the prospect of a 50-kilometre drive to work, these employees of the Northgate Mail Centre will be in a position to commute. The prospect of a 100-kilometre commute with tolls and the exorbitant cost of petrol would be unappealing to full-time workers but even more unappealing to part-time workers.

I am also seriously concerned that the underlying motivation of this move is to force current employees to terminate their employment with Australia Post, consequently providing Australia Post with an opportunity at a greenfield site to take full advantage of the Howard government’s new industrial relations laws. At a new site in Yatala, Australia Post would be able to employ new workers under vastly eroded conditions of employment now available as a result of the industrial relations changes. These new employees would have nothing to look forward to except lower wages and conditions.

I wish to put Australia Post on notice that I am going to fight tooth and nail to secure the jobs and employment conditions of the letter processors and drivers at the Northgate Mail Centre. I fail to see that there is any economic statement that would justify this move or any business plan from Australia Post that would justify the removal in its entirety of letter processing from the Northgate site. This proposed move by Australia Post is short-sighted and unjustifiable, without regard to the livelihoods of hundreds of workers currently employed at the Northgate facility.