Joel Fitzgibbon (Hunter, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Agriculture) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Booragul, Marmong Point, Teralba, Blackalls Park and Woodrising are all wonderful townships and communities in my electorate. They are all around the western side of Lake Macquarie. What else do they have in common, Mr Deputy Speaker? They are all losing their local post offices. Their post offices either are already closed or are about to close, and I know that this is a common occurrence right across our great nation.

Australia Post will say that they cannot secure people to run these licensed post offices any longer, and at first blush that seems a not unreasonable response to what is quite a crisis for many in our local communities. But I ask the question today: how hard are Australia Post really trying? And since when does every aspect of every government business enterprise have to turn a profit? I won't take up time now, but we could all think of tens, if not thousands, of examples where governments subsidise basic community services at the federal, state and local government level.

I know Australia Post will also say that it is already heavily subsidising the work of our licensed post offices, but I also pose the question: how much is an appropriate level of investment to keep such basic services going in our community? We all know that letter services are falling dramatically, we all know that email and other forms of electronic communications are now taking over very rapidly the use of the traditional letter services, but we also know that there are many older people in our communities who haven't had the same opportunity or indeed the will or the knowledge to take up those new forms of communications, and we should think of them. Those same people know that Australia Post made a profit of $146 million last financial year. They remember the CEO of Australia Post being paid $5 million annually, and it is very hard for them to understand and accept that it is necessary to shut down their local licensed post office. If people aren't taking up the business opportunity to run these post offices, obviously they don't see it as being economically viable for them—but Australia Post does have the means to make it a more attractive proposition and it should do so and do so quickly.