Anika Wells (Lilley, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Just like childcare workers, aviation workers, retail workers and healthcare workers in Brisbane's northside, Australia Post workers like Chris from Stafford Heights have been on the front line during COVID-19 and are now being hung out to dry by this Morrison government. On behalf of the 6,000 constituents in my electorate of Lilley who have lost their jobs because of this pandemic and on behalf of the hundreds of locals who have written to me in the past week about the Morrison government pursuing a long-term industrial agenda to cut Australia Post jobs, I say that we should be using the projected online shopping boom as an opportunity to preserve and grow our postal jobs, not to cut them.

The Morrison government's new Australia Post regulations completely ignore the needs of local small business owners who rely on Australia Post to run their businesses. They disregard people like Wayne from Nundah, who recently sent his mother in Perth a gift for Mother's Day via express post five days out from Mother's Day, and she didn't receive it until the day after—a seven-day wait. They hurt people like Chris from Stafford Heights who has worked across many of the northside Australia Post depots in his time and told me that they are chronically understaffed and struggle to make delivery deadlines at the best of times. The Morrison government's changes to Australia Post regulations are a cheap shot at working Australians and a breach of faith with our community who rely on the excellent work of Australia Post every single day.