STATEMENTS BY MEMBERS

Mr GEE (Calare) (13:30): Our country post offices are under threat, and the government needs to take immediate action to save them. The alarm bells are ringing across the Central West and regional Australia over this. Dozens and dozens of post offices have closed in recent years, and our communities are very concerned that Australia Post has a secret plan to drive even more of them out of business.

Country post offices are vital to the survival of country communities. We cannot do without them. We've seen the banks leave town, and now we could lose our post offices too.

Instead of squeezing country post offices out of business with unviable business models, Australia Post needs to be supporting them. If this doesn't happen, many of our country towns are just going to be left with parcel lockers, and that's it. The federal government cannot and will not get a free pass on this.

It doesn't get to say to our communities that it doesn't have any control over Australia Post. Both the government and Australia Post, including its CEO, need to be held to account. They need to come clean with their plans about what's happening to our post offices.

Any attempt to mess with our post offices will be met with white-hot fury across country Australia. The government needs to bring Australia Post under control and be quick about it.