Michael Danby (Melbourne Ports, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary to the Leader of the Opposition) Share this | Hansard source

In deference to my friend the member for Murray, I am happy to withdraw. The majority in this government feel it should be abolished because the IPA feel that in the Bolt case he was treated harshly as a result of an interpretation by a judge of section 18C.

The member for Fairfax has vacated the chamber, but I want to turn to the issue of free market ideology taking over what is in the public's best interest with Australia Post. Australia Post delivers services that are essential to the citizens and businesses of Australia, yet we might see a reduction in these services and the closure of regional offices. Treasurer Hockey has not made any official statements regarding the possible sale yet, as far as I know, but we have seen Australia Post attempting to raise its bottom line by increasing the price of stamps from 60c to 70c, albeit with a 60c three-year freeze for government concession card holders. I think it will cost more to run that concession than to keep stamps at 60c. This rise, the second since 2010, has been approved by the ACCC and will affect Australian citizens and businesses from 31 March. Australia Post claims that this rise must be implemented because of losses incurred from digital communication and the steady decline in what it disparages as 'snail mail'. It is very strange for an organisation that is involved in communications between people, primarily the mail between businesses and people, disparaging its own product and calling it 'snail mail'.

Australia Post CEO, Ahmed Fahour, has stated that he has seen a loss of $218 million in regular mail delivery between 2012 and 2013. The use of regular mail is slowing down, but the express parcel business is fast growing. With an increase in digital communication, we have seen an increase in online shopping and other online services. Australia Post took over 100 per cent of StarTrack, a leading parcel and express freight service, by buying out its joint venture partner Qantas for $400 million—probably one of the few times Qantas has made some money recently. In just one year, between 2012 and 2013, StarTrack brought in a 29 per cent increase in earnings to $355 million. Australia Post's profit commensurately rose to $811.9 million last year.

The government will undeniably ignore the public's interest in maintaining regular mail services. Again, I am sure not all people here, including people from the country, will support that, but let us hope the agrarian socialists, led by the member for New England, do not sell us out on this one. Let us hope that they can twist the arms of what I see as the dominant Sydney libertarian bankers faction of this government and keep regular services that the Australian people expect, such as normal, regular mail. Australia Post is a profitable business by any measure, and the public are owed services and not just profits by people who would seek to be privatised, so perhaps executive salaries can be promoted at a level beyond even what they are at the moment. In my view, that would be a quick fix solution for the government and the problem with the budget. Inflating the 'crisis' in Australia Post while not talking about areas in which it is expanding is a poor attempt to veil what is clearly an ideological agenda about privatisation without a view to the public interest.

In the last minutes I have, let me turn to the Melbourne Grand Prix. Last year Victorian taxpayers were forced to pay billionaire promoter Bernie Ecclestone $30 million a year for his licence fee alone. The five-year contract between the grand prix and the Victorian government has cost taxpayers $170 million. The licence fee was $31 million in 2011. By 2015 it will be nearly $40 million. Ecclestone has received $55 million in fees from the Grand Prix Corporation this year. He has threatened, if the cash handout is cut, that Melbourne will lose the race. Attendance is at an all-time low. At the moment the $55 million accounts for $800 per person attending the Melbourne Grand Prix by my calculation. It would be better if the Premier of Victoria and Mr Ron Walker stood in the Bourke Street Mall and distributed hundred dollar bills to Melburnians—it would cost them less! Perhaps they could spend the money saved from the grand prix on the many problems that the Victorian government has said it is going to fix. It is outrageous that Victorian taxpayers are spending $800 per person to attend this unpopular race. If these are not good enough reasons to raise the chequered flag on the grand prix, I do not know what is.

Finally, I turn to the Australian Defence Force's participation in this private event, which, over the years, has been at various levels—$113,000 in 2013. The total contribution of the Air Force to this event has been $3,846,000. The RAAF did not participate in this event for a couple of years. I am a strong supporter of the ADF; however, I do not believe it is necessary to conduct low-flying operations over residential suburbs. My constituents hate it and I have asked the Air Force to consider that. Against my advice, it will proceed with it. It is a blatant waste of Air Force money. There are much better things it could be spent on. The F-35 could do with $3,846,000, rather than Mr Ecclestone's grand prix. He is an unsuitable person, in my view, to be in receipt of such government largesse—whether it is from the federal government indirectly via the Air Force or directly via the Victorian government—as he is about to be arraigned before a corruption trial in Germany for bribing a German banker. (Time expired)

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