Mal Brough (Fisher, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

It is my pleasure to speak on this motion before the House today. I just draw this place's attention to a couple of the comments from the member for Ballarat. In her statement she said that Australia Post was 'planning' to cut jobs—I am sure I am quoting her accurately—and that this had resulted in reduced services. In other words, no jobs have been lost, and I have taken the time to ascertain whether jobs have been lost in Ballarat, and there have not been; there has been no cut to jobs. There is nothing wrong with any member in this House standing and being concerned about the potential loss of jobs. I support their right to do that. I have had my own issues with Australia Post in recent times, and we all have a big issue, which I will address in a moment. But it is in fact intellectually dishonest to come into this place and say that services have been reduced because of plans to cut; cuts have not occurred.

The member for Ballarat went on to say that this is the tip of the iceberg, and she is absolutely correct. For the humble piece of mail that has been delivered for over 200 years by Australian postal services, the number of letters that get put in our letterboxes every day peaked in 2008. Something else peaked in 2008, and that was the success of the Labor Party. Since then, both have been in incredible decline. In fact, Australia Post's letter volumes have gone down by 20 per cent, and I think the Labor Party would be delighted if their results had gone down by only 20 per cent, particularly in the Senate. But I leave that aside. What is occurring is just stark.

So let me take you to what is occurring. Digital interference in our daily lives is affecting something that we have all taken for granted: the 4,000-odd faces of Australia Post right around our communities, which we all respect and used to go into. I would say to those sitting in the chamber here today and those listening: when was the last time you went into an Australia Post service, and why? If you go back five or 10 years, it was probably to pay a registration bill or to pay your electricity bill. But more often than not you will be paying those online today; you will not be going there. So they have lost the foot traffic. What you will be going there to do is to pick up a parcel, and that is a fundamental shift in the business.

Australia Post is facing the same dilemma that the high street faced when we ended up with regional shopping centres and that so many other businesses are now grappling with, and that is the digital divide. We still want to be able to walk into our post office, we still want to have that daily service and we still want to have Ballarat, Bendigo, Geelong and everywhere else having mail sorted there.

But there is a cost. What I have not heard from the opposition today in putting forward this motion are solutions. Two-thirds of the income of licensed post offices comes from what they receive from the price of the stamp. We could be in here saying that we want to support Australia Post and underpin its primary objective and core business, which is, as was said here, to deliver mail. We can do that by calling on the minister to put up the price of standard delivery of a letter. Perhaps the speakers remaining in this debate would like to put their name to that and say, 'I'm calling on the minister to do that.' I am giving you that opportunity.

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