From today, Newcastle is being hit by the largest reduction to postal services in history, with deliveries reducing from five days a week to once every two business days.
Federal Member for Newcastle Sharon Claydon slammed the changes and accused the Government and Australia Post of “using the cover of the global pandemic and dodgy figures to slash services”.
“In March, the Government and Australia Post said the situation was dire, with letter volume dropping drastically during COVID. Since then, we’ve learnt has revealed that not only is this not true, but that on the day the request for the cuts was made, letter volumes were actually four per cent above trend.
“How on earth can Australians trust the Morrison Government with our postal services when they can’t even be trusted to tell the truth about their own figures?”
Ms Claydon said Federal Labor had tried to overturn the service cuts in the Federal Parliament.
“Labor has been gravely concerned that these cuts to services would slash jobs and slow down business activity at a time when our economy is already on its knees,” Ms Claydon said.
“Labor put up a number of disallowance motions to get the cuts overturned but every time the Morrison Government used their numbers to ram them through.
“Since then, the Government has capitulated to Labor’s demands to save postie’s jobs, but these damaging cuts to local services still stand.”
Ms Claydon said she was particularly concerned about older and vulnerable Novocastrians.
“We know that older people and those on lower incomes disproportionately rely on postal services,” Ms Claydon said.
“These changes rip services away from the people who need them most.”
Ms Claydon was also highly sceptical about the Government’s claim that the changes would be ‘temporary’.
“The Morrison Government is shielding its internal Australia Post review from Freedom of Information requests and refusing to release it to the Federal Parliament,” Ms Claydon said.
“The Federal Government has demonstrated just how determined it is to dodge scrutiny about what it’s really doing. Why should we trust a word they say when they try to pretend these cuts are only temporary?”
