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

I thank the Speaker for the opportunity to continue to address the question that is of importance to all Australians, which is: what would we expect of Australia Post at this very challenging time? What would we expect of Australia Post's board and management at this challenging time? What we'd expect them to do is to be able to respond to a difficult set of business circumstances, where essentially overnight they've faced challenges like most of the scheduled airline services in Australia ceasing. Australia Post use scheduled airline services, in normal times, to deliver parcels and letters all around the country. So what have they done? They have chartered more than 10 aircraft, which are flying around the country to keep Australians served. They've dealt with the challenge. Because of the heavy handed lockdown in Melbourne, all of a sudden there were very intense restrictions on the number who could be employed in the sorting centres. That had an impact not only on services in Victoria but around Australia, because the core of their sorting operations is in Victoria.

These are the kinds of business and operational questions you would expect a capable board and management to deal with, and that is what they've been focused on. We've seen revenue of $7.5 billion this year. We've also seen a very sharp increase in the volume of parcels being delivered, as Australians at home, in their millions, have resorted to ecommerce. Australia Post has a very large market share when it comes to delivering parcels.

In terms of their response to the demand for parcels and the adjustments they're making so that staff can be redeployed to the areas of growth—a very sensible proposition which was put forward by the Australia Post board and management and which the government had no hesitation in supporting—I think we can say that Australia Post is dealing with a difficult set of challenges. In doing that, they have responded well to meeting the needs of Australians. All of us can ask: do we have confidence in the board and management of Australia Post? We on this side of the House say—what a radical proposition!—'Let's judge them by the quality of the services and the outcomes of their delivery.' That's what we do on this side of the House.

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