Kim Carr (Victoria, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I rise to take note of the answer to the question on postal services. It's not the first time we have seen that this pandemic has provided this government with an opportunity to use the threat of this plague to pursue a covert and insidious policy agenda. And, in this case, we see that the government has used this crisis to allow it to close many of our postal outlets, cut essential services and put more Australians out of work. We have to remember that the service that Australia Post provides is not just about delivering parcels from the latest purchases on the internet; it's about the provision of essential services, like the carriage of medicines. These changes have been made without consultation with the relevant stakeholders—staff or customers. They were introduced with exemptions provided by the Prime Minister on 18 March under the regulations, where a complete regulatory impact statement was not needed and was not provided. It was not delivered to the union. It was provided by the management as a basis for full implementation—not on the basis of temporary operation, but on the basis of permanent operation.

Subsequent amendments to these regulations will effectively allow for the closure of post office outlets throughout regional Australia. At present, Australia Post is required to maintain at least 4,000 retail outlets. At least 50 per cent of those outlets and no fewer than 2,500 outlets have to be provided in rural areas. In the metropolitan areas, they must be located so that at least 90 per cent of the population is within 2½ kilometres of such an outlet. In non-metropolitan areas, 85 per cent of residents must be within 7½ kilometres of an outlet. These regulations change that formula, because, under these circumstances, if the management so determines, they have the discretion to close post offices. What's the evidence for that? It's in the explanatory memorandum. Read the explanatory memorandum!

The explanatory memorandum says that on these staffing applications the new regulations state that, in all talks of retail outlets, workers of retail outlets are to be interpreted broadly. This was the concern that we adopted through the scrutiny of delegated legislation committee, a bipartisan committee where we saw both opposition and government senators write to the minister asking for an explanation for why these discrepancies have occurred and why it is that there should be a deterioration in service provision for the Australian people of an essential service like Australia Post. What we looked to was the explanatory memorandum for evidence of what the government's doing, and I urge senators to actually read these documents. Before you cast judgement, read the actual documents that Australia Post itself has put out on behalf of the government. These changes will reduce letter delivery standards while priority mail services are to be suspended, the maximum delivery time for mail within one state is to increase to the day of posting plus five business days and delivery frequency in metropolitan areas will be decreased from daily delivery to alternate business day delivery.

The government, of course, has provided no attempt to consult with the union about the job losses that will inevitably flow from this. We know that the sale of assets has already begun. We know that up to 2½ thousand job losses are predicted, and this does not include the job losses in mail rooms that support Australia Post. The government pretends it's about defending rural interests. Of course, it doesn't go anywhere near the consequences of the reduction of services to rural communities like those provided by Australia Post. Australia Post remains a trusted and valued public institution. We cannot afford to allow it to be fattened up for privatisation, as this government has done in so many other areas. We have to be careful of the consequences of the loss of public trust in valuable institutions like Australia Post. What we know is that the revenue of Australia Post for its parcel service delivery is actually growing dramatically. I don't want to see Amazon or any other organisation of that type take over what should be the proper function of an essential public institution like Australia Post. (Time expired)