CONSTITUENCY STATEMENTS
Dr WEBSTER (Mallee) (16:56): Quambatook is a small, you might say teeny-tiny, town in Mallee. Two hundred people live there. It's known as 'Quamby' to the locals and deserves special treatment after the horrific and tragic death of Merril Kelly, a pillar of that community last January 2025.
I was disturbed recently to learn that the Quamby local post office has temporarily closed as the recent and current licensee is unable to continue. You might say, why is that even connected? Well, it is connected.
For those who were paying attention in Senate estimates, Australia Post gave responses to Senator Henderson regarding the future of licensed post offices, and they have since discovered a secret document—a leaked document—that says that the future might not be exactly what the CEO said in the Senate estimates. Why is this important? Because licensed Post Offices in small towns like Quambatook matter.
Chelle Espagne, who is a community minded person like they all are there, was the previous LPO manager, and she said today that when she was running the LPO two people's lives were saved. You see, Quamby doesn't have letterboxes and roadside delivery; only the post office boxes at her Quamby general store. Residents tell the LPO when they'll be out of town, and so Chelle knew when two people hadn't come to collect their post that maybe something was wrong.
Owing to Chelle's care, she went around to check in on them and that is the reason they are alive today. It's not a small thing. As Chelle says, LPOs are more than just a banking and mail service—they can be kind of a safety net, and we need safety nets in regional Australia.
Quamby's nearest Australia Post outlet is in Kerang, which happens to be an 85-kilometre round-trip away. That means local residents have to drive with significant inconvenience and expense on dangerous roads just to pick up their mail. That is not a solution.
They have been let down by the current system, and Chelle is doing that round-trip at present off her own back without remuneration, just to keep the mail coming to her general store. I respect that Australia Post has processes to follow, and I've reached out to them for a very swift resolution of the— (Time expired)