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

My question is to the Prime Minister. Why have the Prime Minister and his government used the cover of a pandemic to increase Australia Post delivery times and put the jobs of postal workers at risk?

Paul Fletcher (Bradfield, Liberal Party, Minister for Communications, Cyber Safety and the Arts) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I do thank the member for Chifley, a former union official, for that question, because the facts are that, when Australia Post came to the government and made the point—

Tony Smith (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The minister will resume his seat. The Leader of the Opposition, on a point of order.

Mr Fletcher interjecting—

The minister needs to resume his seat. The Leader of the Opposition, on a point of order.

Anthony Albanese (Grayndler, Australian Labor Party, Leader of the Opposition) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Yes, on a point of order: I thought there was a love-in now between unions and business!

Tony Smith (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The Leader of the House?

Christian Porter (Pearce, Liberal Party, Attorney-General) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

It was clearly a term of endearment!

Tony Smith (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The minister has the call.

Paul Fletcher (Bradfield, Liberal Party, Minister for Communications, Cyber Safety and the Arts) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Thank you, Mr Speaker, and I do thank the member for his question. When Australia Post came to the government and made the point that, during the pandemic, they were seeing a sharp reduction in the number of letters being delivered—a continuation of an existing trend—and an explosion in the number of parcels as Australians enthusiastically ordered all kinds of goods to be delivered to their homes, and it was very important that Australia Post be able to respond to that demand and meet the community need for parcels to be delivered. The regulatory change that we introduced has allowed posties to be redeployed from delivering letters to delivering parcels—in other words, redeployed from the part of the business which is seeing a decline to the area where there is growth. Already, some 2,000 posties have been retrained to be able to work on the delivery of parcels. So, notwithstanding the claims made by the union and made by the opposition, this is about supporting Australia Post to best meet the needs of the community and to make sure that posties have secure and continuing employment.

I make one other very important point, which you will find nowhere in the materials distributed by the relevant union for postal workers or by the opposition. It's not in the claims that have been made by them, but it's a very important point. The regulatory change that has been made is time limited. It goes to 30 June next year. The changes to the delivery schedules in metropolitan areas are time limited. There is no change that the government has made beyond that point.