Kristina Keneally (NSW, Australian Labor Party, Deputy Leader of the Opposition in the Senate) Share this | Hansard source

I move:

That the Senate take note of the answer given by Senator Colbeck to the question asked by Senator Kitching.

The question was asked of the Minister for Aged Care and Senior Australians because of how many senior Australians depend on our postal service. In fact, throughout the COVID-19 pandemic all Australians have relied on posties to deliver essential items they needed. There's been a parcel boom as people have turned to online shopping and local providers. Our posties endure all types of weather, difficult terrain and, it goes out saying, swooping magpies. We rely on our posties, and they work hard for us. We often, though, just expect that the work they do will continue on, but now the Morrison government wants to rip that away.

Under the cover of the coronavirus crisis and during a recession, the Morrison government is ripping thousands of Australia Post jobs away. The regulations the Morrison government wants to impose will let Australia Post scale back services, slash jobs and cut wages. One in four jobs—gone. The livelihoods of thousands of Australians—gone. Income for their families during a recession—gone. There will be longer waits for mail and for parcels. These changes will hit regional Australia the hardest. People in regional Australia will be forced to wait even longer than they currently do for mail and for small parcels. In Queanbeyan alone, the Morrison government's regulation will slash the frequency of postie rounds by half. Mail delivery time frames will blow out from three business days to seven business days. Now is not the time to be slashing jobs in regional Australia.

Disgracefully, the government has tried to use the coronavirus pandemic as an excuse for these horrendous changes. The Minister for Aged Care and Senior Australians said the government was 'assisting Australians through the COVID-19 outbreak', but they're not, and they're certainly not assisting Australia's posties.

The regulation making these changes was made by the government with no consultation. They did not speak with employees or employee representatives. Imagine that: making a change that's going to cost one in four jobs and cut wages during a recession and not speaking to employees or to employee representatives. This is a cheap shot at the workers of Australia Post. You can't say that you're for all Australians and then cut one in four jobs at Australia Post.

The boom in parcel delivery should be an opportunity to grow jobs, not to cut them. If parcel numbers are booming then why is Australia Post talking about redundancies? Why won't the Prime Minister work with our posties to guarantee their jobs and their futures? Why do posties and staff at Australia Post storefronts, from the cities to the suburbs to the regions, still have to live with the uncertainty that their jobs might be ripped away from them during a recession? The Morrison government must guarantee the thousands of postie jobs in Australia and those that service our communities. I mean, for a Prime Minister who loves a slogan, the small parcel boom should be a 'job maker' opportunity. Instead Scott Morrison, in these cuts to Australia Post, is just showing that he's a job faker, not a job maker.

Finally, the government has given no guarantees that the changes won't be made permanent following the coronavirus crisis. As we well know, Mr Morrison says one thing yet does another. We just can't trust this Prime Minister anymore. He said that JobKeeper would last until September, and then he ripped it away from 120,000 early childcare workers. He said robodebt was lawful, and it turns out it wasn't. Yesterday he apologised—something the leader of the government in this chamber is yet to do. The Prime Minister said he'd stop the boats, and then he let in the Ruby Princessthe one boat that mattered—which led to the biggest spike in coronavirus cases in Australia and an outbreak in north-west Tasmania.

Now the Prime Minister says these changes to Australia Post are temporary. But how do we know we can trust him when he says that? How do the people of regional Australia know they can trust this Prime Minister when he says that these changes—the doubling of the wait time for mail and small parcels—are temporary? It is going to affect people in Queanbeyan, in Cooma, in Jindabyne and in Merimbula. You used to be able to trust this government to make sure that the post worked, that you'd get your mail. But you just can't trust them anymore. (Time expired)