Paul Fletcher (Bradfield, Liberal Party, Minister for Communications, Cyber Safety and the Arts) Share this | Hansard source

I thank the Leader of the Opposition for his question. You know that there's a by-election on when Labor turns to the old scare campaign, and the scare campaign they're going on about this time is Australia Post and delivery times. The facts are very clear that Australia Post has seen a sharp increase in the percentage of parcels that are being delivered and a sharp decrease in the number of letters that are being delivered. That is why we have provided temporary fixed-term regulatory relief to Australia Post so that it is able to redeploy posties from the area of the business where activity is going down to the area of the business where there is growth so as to secure the employment of posties and to provide Australians with the service that they expect. During the COVID-19 pandemic, what we have seen is a dramatic increase in the number of parcels being delivered because Australians are ordering more and more using e-commerce. Australia Post is far and away the market leader in delivering parcels. To be able to meet the needs of Australians to have parcels delivered, Australia Post has come to the government and proposed this short-term regulatory relief, and that is what we've agreed to.

Mr Albanese interjecting—

I hear the Leader of the Opposition say that they couldn't employ more people. Actually, they are employing more—600 more for parcels. This is really another case of a typical Labor by-election scare campaign. The facts are not substantiated by their claims. We have a Leader of the Opposition who's under pressure. He's under pressure from the member for Rankin; Chalmers plays the long game.

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