Lisa Chesters (Bendigo, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise to inform the House that in my electorate on Saturday a group of Australia Post workers gathered together to protest and sign a petition calling on this government to change its plans for Australia Post and calling on the community to speak out with them and say, 'Hands off our Aussie Post.' These workers and community members are very concerned about what the impact of this government's plans will be for mail delivery services in our region.

The government talks about a two-speed mail delivery service, which concerns a lot of us because our post is already delayed when we get to central Victoria. Businesses report to me regularly that they are waiting for up to a week for regular postal services and a week for letters to get from A to B. One of the people who has also raised an issue is Jody Hardiman, who is the co-founder of Thank You Fireys, which is a national day dedicated to acknowledging the work of our fireys. This organisation sent balloons out to people a week before the day so that they could hang them in front of their businesses and tie them to their homes to thank their the local CFA fireys. The balloons did not arrive in time.

We already have slow postal services in the bush and these reforms will only make it harder. I join these workers in calling on the government to guarantee that there will be no job losses and to guarantee that speeds in the bush will not be slower for receiving mail as a result of these changes. (Time expired)