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

Firstly, I want to raise concerns about this amendment. The Australian Postal Corporation and Other Legislation Amendment Bill 2024 is a bill to enhance the security of mail and the security of our borders. I again reiterate my concerns that this amendment, which does not really relate to the substance of the bill, has been brought forward.

The amendment essentially relates to forcing every Australia Post post office to accept payments in cash. I think this does give rise to some unintended consequences. I don't know whether Senator Thorpe has conducted any sort of consultation with Australia Post or with licensed post office holders, but it doesn't consider, of course, what would happen if a post office didn't have the capacity to do so and what would then be the penalties to that post office. So I think, in very general terms, this raises a lot of concerns, including the unintended consequences if a particular post office could not comply with this cash requirement. Again, I invite Senator Thorpe to take these issues up elsewhere with us. We would be, of course, very interested in discussing any way in which we can enhance the services of post offices across our country, including in regional and rural Australia, and I look forward to having those productive discussions with Senator Thorpe.

Question negatived.

Bill agreed to.

Bill reported without amendment; report adopted.