Ged Kearney (Cooper, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Assistant Minister for Skills) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The pandemic shone a spotlight on essential workers who are too often overlooked and I would like to shout out to our beloved posties. Like so many workers who got us through the pandemic, they've been given a raw deal by the Morrison government and Australia Post. They've been forced to do two full postal runs in a single day, otherwise known as the alternate day model, and at the same time have had one in four postie jobs cut thanks to legislation passed by this awful government. You know what? The posties are angry. The Communication Workers Union of Australia conducted a survey of Melbourne postal workers which found nearly three-quarters of posties couldn't take their meal breaks. Two-thirds of posties reported to have had to speed on footpaths because they were under pressure to complete their rounds. Rather than acknowledging these concerns, the acting CEO of Australia Post dismissed them as unrepresentative, claiming the alternate day model is 'going very well' and that they're 'getting very positive feedback'. Really? This is hubris. What did the workers do? They stood up and fought back—1,400 posties, 85 per cent of the postie work force in my electorate and across Melbourne signed a petition to the contrary. The petition states the cuts are an abject failure that has led to a great deal of stress and anxiety amongst the posties as well as severely damaged morale and a range of health and safety issues. Our posties deserve better. The Morrison government doesn't care about them. An Albanese Labor government would have their backs.