Eric Hutchinson (Lyons, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

It is a beautiful part of the world. That income level is completely unsustainable. Many family post offices absolutely need to see partners go out into the workforce because the business simply cannot sustain two people. The licensed post offices in my electorate of Lyons are valued and are important. Evandale LPO proprietors Carol and Jim Brown argue these reforms will not come soon enough and her customers are not upset at all about the prospect of paying $1 for stamps. These sentiments will be shared by post offices providing a service in remote places across my electorate, from Nubeena on the Tasman Peninsula—if you have not been there, member for McMillan, I suggest you go; it is another beautiful part of my electorate—to Ouse in the Central Highlands, to Mathinna in the north-east of the state. So I welcome the measured approach that Australia Post has taken to try and claw back a major decline in its core business of providing services around the country.

Sixty per cent of LPOs nationally are located in regional Australia. These reforms are essential to ensure that they remain open in country communities. It demonstrates quite clearly how our government is looking to support small businesses. After the previous government had, I think, six ministers responsible for small business, we have, I suggest, the best small business minister this nation has ever had, in the form of Minister Billson. The work he has done around franchisees, allowing franchisees to have a more equal relationship with franchisors, is welcomed. More recently, the Food and Grocery Industry Code of Conduct to support suppliers, particularly those supplying the big supermarkets in this country, is another signal that this government values small businesses. They are the lifeblood of regional Australia in particular, and we will continue to find ways to make sure that these important businesses—drivers of prosperity and employers of local people in local communities—are supported.

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