Senate questions ‘lack of consultation’ before Australia Post changes are delivered

Changes would mean cuts to daily deliveries and time extensions, but who was consulted?

The concerns place the government under further pressure ahead of The Greens disallowance motion, which is scheduled to be read in the Senate as early as Friday. Picture: AAP

EXCLUSIVE

A Senate committee, chaired by a former Turnbull government minister, has raised concerns the Morrison government granted Australia Post regulatory relief from its community service obligations with little consultation or scrutiny.

The changes — which are subject to two disallowance motions from Labor and The Greens — allowed Australia Post to deliver mail every second business day in metropolitan areas and extend delivery times on some routes to combat the COVID-19 pandemic.

The Senate Standing Committee for the Scrutiny of Delegated Legislation, the members of which are evenly split between the government and the opposition, says it is concerned the government didn’t consult relevant stakeholders — including posties and customers — before granting the temporary regulatory relief, which applies until June 30 next year.

The concerns place the government under further pressure ahead of Greens disallowance motion, which is scheduled to be read in the Senate as early as Friday, and following the Communications, Electrical and Plumbing Union warning the changes will threaten the jobs of more than 2000 posties.

Australia Post chief executive Christine Holgate said there would be no forced redundancies as a result of the regulatory changes, which she said were needed following a decline in letters and a boom in parcel deliveries. An Australia Post spokeswoman said it “will assess the requirement for voluntary redundancies as we work through the implementation process”.

In a letter to Communications Minister Paul Fletcher, the Senate committee’s chair Senator Concetta Fierravanti-Wells — who served as Minister for International Development and the Pacific in the Turnbull government — raised concerns about the regulatory consultation process, which is required under delegated legislation.

“The committee has identified scrutiny concerns in relation to the above instrument,” Senator Fierravanti-Wells said.

“The explanatory statement to the instrument notes that Australia Post was consulted.

“However, the committee is concerned that the explanatory statement does not indicate whether consultation was also undertaken with other persons and entities likely to be affected by the measures, including employees of Australia Post and their representatives, and persons and entities that regularly utilise postal services.”

Senator Fierravanti-Wells asked Mr Fletcher for details about what consultation took place and if there was no consultation, why.

If the committee doesn’t receive a response within 15 sitting days, it may submit its own disallowance motion, she said.

“The committee's expectation is to receive a response in time for it to consider and report on the instrument while it is still subject to disallowance.

“If the committee has not concluded its consideration of an instrument before the expiry of the 15th sitting day after the instrument has been tabled in the Senate, the committee may give notice of a motion to disallow the instrument as a precautionary measure to allow additional time for the committee to consider information received.”

A spokesman for Mr Fletcher said: “the minister has received the letter and will respond in due course.”

Labor is also seeking an inquiry into Australia Post to ensure the regulatory changes have appropriate scrutiny, particularly given the COVID-19 lockdown had also delivered Australia Post an online shopping bonanza, with parcel deliveries at similar levels to the peak Christmas rush.

“Our posties are essential workers. They are people we want to see every day, not twice a week. They are people who are relied upon. They are people who are respected. They are people who are trusted,” opposition leader Anthony Albanese said.

“Yes, more people are using parcel delivery or ordering online now. That should not be used as an excuse to cut back on Australia Post's essential services.”

Ms Holgate said: “there has been a range of false claims made about the temporary changes to our regulations”.

“We are not forcing 2000 of our valued posties into redundancies,” she said.

“The temporary changes to letter delivery will only happen in metro areas and allow us to redeploy some of our posties to where their help is needed most – in parcel processing and delivery. We will still require posties to deliver letters.”

Ms Holgate said letter volumes had declined 36 per cent in May compared to the same month last year, with “the average Australian household receiving the equivalent of one letter every second day”.

But May 2019 was an abnormal month, given it included a spike in letter volumes from the federal election.

Letter volumes fell 28 per cent in April compared to the same month last year, which also experienced an election bump, while volumes in March and February — which were outside the election campaign — fell 11 and 10 per cent respectively.