Alex Hawke (Mitchell, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

Job losses are inevitable unless we have massive government subsidy. It is much better for this business to work out things through voluntary arrangements and natural attrition than have to retire people through forced redundancies. That is a much better system. Given that none of us are sending the mail volumes that we did in the past, including members of parliament—the member for Bendigo won't be sending so many letters through the mail—there has been a societal change; it is something to be expected, something we can anticipate, something we can manage. Just like the blacksmiths of 100 years ago: times change, things change and we must change with them, we must propose solutions for them. We cannot provide a blacksmith subsidy scheme for the 21st century.

Debate adjourned.

Proceedings suspended from 13:22 to 16:00

See this speech in context