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

I move:

That so much of the standing orders be suspended as would prevent the Member for Grayndler's private Members' business notice relating to the disallowance of the Australian Postal Corporation (Performance Standards) Amendment (2020 Measures No. 1) Regulations 2020, and presented to the House on 10 June 2020, being called on immediately.

The reason that I moved this motion is that the member for Grayndler put a motion on the Notice Paper calling for the disallowance of Australia Post regulations made by me as minister which temporarily varied what Australia Post is required to do in delivering letters to enable it to better respond to COVID-19 and to keep delivering parcels and letters. This was part of a baseless scare campaign in the lead-up to the Eden-Monaro by-election.

A similar disallowance motion has been moved and defeated in the other place, and it is now urgent that the member for Grayndler's disallowance motion in this House be debated. It is urgent for several reasons—first because, if not debated, after a period of 15 sitting days the motion takes effect, so it is urgent that it be voted on. Second, it is also urgent because it's important that Australians understand just how misleading the claims made by Labor on this issue have been. The claims made by Labor are untrue in multiple respects. It's been claimed by the Labor Party that Australia Post will cut jobs and remove one in four posties. This is not true. Australia Post has said there will be no forced redundancies or plans to cut posties' take-home pay due to the new temporary arrangements. Many posties will continue delivering letters on bikes, and others will be retrained to deliver parcels in vans, putting them where the work is, securing their jobs with Australia Post and better meeting the increasing needs of Australians for parcel deliveries.

It's been claimed, falsely, by Labor and by the unions that Australia Post want to cut delivery services in half. Again, this is not true. Australia Post is permitted to adjust its delivery frequency, in metropolitan areas only, from every business day to every second business day. Delivery frequency in rural, regional and remote areas will not change.

It's been claimed that waiting times for letters will more than double, from three to seven days. This not true. Mail speed standards for regular interstate letters—that's to say, mail travelling around the country—have not changed. Whether measured in business days or in actual days, the speed of delivery for intrastate mail has changed by only one or two days for regular intrastate letters, not by four days as suggested. It has been claimed by Labor and the unions that regional Australians and small businesses will be disadvantaged compared to metropolitan areas. This is not true. While the delivery frequency of regular mail has been adjusted in metropolitan areas, the delivery frequency for regular mail for rural, regional and remote areas was protected and remains unchanged.

Licensed post offices, which, together with community postal agencies, represent around 2,300 small businesses in regional and rural communities, have come out in support of the temporary regulatory changes. It's quite instructive to read what it is that the licensed post offices association, LPOGroup, has had to say. It said:

LPOG does not support the current media campaign by the CEPU that can be broadly described as an attempt to protect an inefficient letter delivery service from the winds of change that have been blowing for many years.

…   …   …

The massive ongoing decline in both business and social mail is understood all around the world and it is also that Australia Post as a postal service must also change to meet the changed customer preferences.

Those are the words of the licensed post office group, and it does know, I would suggest to you, a little bit about the postal service and how it operates. This measure will deliver benefits to community postal agencies representing around 2,300 small businesses in regional and remote communities, and that's why they've come out in active support of the changes that our government has introduced through the making of this regulatory relief.

It's also been falsely claimed by Labor and by the unions that vulnerable Australians will be most impacted by the changes. Indeed, who can forget the memorable claim from the Leader of the Opposition that this was about isolated and vulnerable Australians? It was about one isolated and vulnerable Australian, the Leader of the Opposition himself. The claim that vulnerable Australians will be most impacted by the changes is simply not true. These temporary regulatory changes give Australia Post flexibility to provide additional services that better support vulnerable Australians, such as delivering medicines and grocery boxes to those in need, those who may not be able to leave their homes because of isolation.

It has been claimed falsely that these changes are permanent. Again, this is not true. It is one of a wide range of claims made by Labor and the unions in relation to this temporary regulatory change which are not true. Let's be clear: on the face of the regulations as drafted, these regulations are written such that the changes will automatically end on 30 June 2021. That is how they are drafted. That is how they operate. I make the further point that the government has made it clear that we will assess the effect of these temporary changes before the end of the year and decide if they are to stay in place for the full period expected. Any extension of the temporary relief measures will be informed by appropriate consultations. Our position on this, therefore, is clear.

We had the go-to claim from the opposition when trying to rev up a scare campaign, the same kind of scare campaign we've seen them use, for example, in the 2016 election when they made the ludicrous claim that this government had plans to privatise Medicare. Remember that ludicrous, false claim?

Of course, we saw another ludicrous, false claim from Labor in the context of the 2020 Eden-Monaro by-election. We had the claim that the government wanted to privatise Australia Post. This is the one they go to that's in the bottom drawer when they've run out of all other scares that they can mount. We had this claim from Labor that the government apparently wanted to privatise Australia Post. Let us be absolutely clear on that and let me repeat the government's position: the Morrison government is fully committed to Australia Post remaining in government ownership. There will be no change to Australia Post ownership; it will remain government owned.

This was but one of the rich array of falsehoods and misleading claims made by the opposition and by others in the context of this debate. That's why it is important that standing orders be suspended to allow this matter to be brought on for debate now. For all of these reasons, this matter is urgent and standing orders must be suspended.

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