Peter Garrett (Kingsford Smith, Australian Labor Party, Minister for School Education, Early Childhood and Youth) Share this | Hansard source

I take very seriously the interests of members of the public, particularly when it comes to the provision of essential services. One of those essential services is access to a post office. Recently, Australia Post identified the Kensington Post Office as an underperforming post office. Whilst no decision was made to close the facility, I thought it was particularly important that residents had an opportunity to show the level of support they have for that local post office.

We invited representatives from Australia Post to attend a public meeting that I convened at Kensington Post Office and I was pleased that senior officers from Australia Post were able to attend. I made clear to them at that time that this post office was one which was very important to the citizens of Kensington. I have 6,001 enrolled residents of Kensington and about 1,600 of them are aged 60 and over. I have a particular concern that, if this post office were to be closed, these elderly residents and residents that might have difficulty getting to an adjoining suburb such as Kingsford or Randwick, where the post offices are highly patronised, would experience significant additional inconvenience.

Added to this, approval of a development application by Randwick Council in Anzac Parade, Kensington will allow a building of up to seven storeys with 59 residential units and ground floor retail spaces, basement parking and the like. This is a suburb which is likely to see increasing numbers of people moving there, particularly as developments like this are considered by the local council.

It is very important that our elderly residents have the kind of service that is provided by an Australia Post office within walking distance and accessible in their suburb. In the case of Kensington, I am absolutely determined to see that this service remains open, and I know that the local newspaper, the Southern Courier, and local residents have been very active and vocal on this issue. I want to thank residents for getting involved in this campaign. I seek leave to present a petition asking the House to take whatever steps are required to ensure that the Kensington Post Office remains open and that its postal services remain available to the community. I have this petition here and I seek leave to table it.

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