Sarah Henderson (Victoria, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Education) Share this | Hansard source

The opposition won't be supporting this amendment. We have long held concerns about, and been strong advocates for, postal services in regional communities. We recognise the importance of local post offices, which are so often at the heart of local communities, particularly in the regions.

I'm literally just reading this amendment now, so I do want to say that, while I believe that there are some appropriate and important issues raised by Senator Thorpe, there has not been the appropriate amount of time to consider what Senator Thorpe has put forward. What I will say is that the coalition has long raised serious concerns about the availability of postal services in the regions. We have long advocated for local post offices, because, as I say, they are at the heart of every single community, but we do not support this particular amendment in its current form. Certainly I think that if Senator Thorpe wants to raise these issues in a more considered way then she is absolutely at liberty to do so.

At first blush—I'm literally reading it as I'm on my feet—in relation to issues about the availability of cash and the like, there is clearly no basis upon which we could possibly support this amendment as it currently stands, but, as an opposition, we remain open to doing anything and everything that we can to ensure that Australians have the best postal services in this country. As I say, not only have we been strong defenders of postal services; we have raised ongoing and serious concerns, including in the most recent estimates hearings, in relation to Australia Post's obligations to provide services, as embedded in legislation, by way of local post offices, particularly in rural and regional Australia.