Tanya Plibersek (Sydney, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Human Services) Share this | Hansard source

Thank you. I will take the opportunity of tabling it as a document. Australia Post decided that the community’s energy and passion for this service was a storm to be weathered rather than a force to be harnessed. I also share residents’ anger at the model of corporate governance bound by the letter of legislated community service obligations but blind to the spirit of community service itself.

This post office serves a poor and disadvantaged community. Most of the work done at this post office is to do with people paying bills with cash because a lot of residents do not have the money to have cheque accounts. That is not of high value to Australia Post, so they took this opportunity of closing this post office instead of keeping it open and meeting the spirit of their community service obligation not just the bland letter of it. This is a genuine example of community service and a lifeline to local residents the loss of which will be deeply felt in coming years.

I finally want to acknowledge the enormous work of the residents of Glebe. They fought hard to keep this post office open. They are used to fighting. They fought to keep the Glebe as it is, protecting it from developers. Unfortunately, this recent fight was lost.

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