Ian Macdonald (Queensland, Liberal Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for Northern and Remote Australia) Share this | Hansard source

Not Mr Squiggly—that was sort of legitimate—but Mr Mike Kaiser, who for many years was an apparatchik in Queensland. I think he was in the Queensland parliament for a little while—until he was forced to resign through unsavoury allegations against him. Lo and behold, he turns up as a very well remunerated—above $400,000 per annum—government relations man in NBN Co. How did he get there? We found out at estimates that Senator Conroy just suggested to Mr Quigley that, if he happened to be looking for a communications expert, Mike Kaiser might be a good person to appoint. Lo and behold, Mr Quigley appointed Mike Kaiser. There were no advertisements, no calling for applications, no competitive process for getting the job—but Mr Kaiser ended up there.

I have diverted myself from the Australia Post report. I really wanted to talk about a couple of things of importance to me—some of the things I raised at estimates. One of those things is the enormous loss of packages that happens within the city of Townsville, where my office is, in North Queensland. A bloke who runs a mail-order operation has an enormous loss of packages that are sent from one suburb in Townsville to another. He has recorded a litany of delays of over two weeks to get from one side of Townsville to the other. I know Townsville is growing—it is a great city—but it should not take two weeks to get from one side of town to the other.

I also want to mention the disgraceful situation in Rockhampton, where Australia Post is causing untold difficulties to residents in Elphinstone Street because of the manner of its operation. I repeat that, if Australia Post were not a government business enterprise, the council would have shut down that facility long ago. I call on Minister Conroy to do something about that. I seek leave to continue my remarks later.

Leave granted; debate adjourned.