Topics: Australia Post threatened closures, ABC impartiality
Kieran Gilbert: The Shadow Communications Minister, Sarah Henderson, is with me. Sarah, thanks for your time. I know in Senate Estimates you hit up Australia Post. It’s a big issue for many of our viewers, not just in the cities but very much in the regions. The footprint of our post offices and licensed post offices, whether it’d be small businesses being run around the place. Now, you asked the chief executive about any plans to have closures. Now, we read in The Australian that what you were told at Senate Estimates might not be the case. What’s happening here?
Senator Henderson: Well we’re very disappointed to learn that the evidence given by the managing director and CEO of Australia Post, Paul Graham, I would say was very deceptive because he said there was no active closure plan in place. And then, of course, we discover this secret document reveals that two weeks before he gave evidence, the board approved a high-level plan to target buybacks in the metro regions.
Kieran Gilbert: A buyback is basically where they buy back the license of a small business person, and then shut it down?
Senator Henderson: Buy it back, shut it down, and then they’re also targeting more than 1500 post offices in the regions. Now, we don’t know how many they want to either shut down, consolidate, or downgrade, but this document is a bombshell revelation. And I would say to the minister, Anika Wells, what is she doing? Has this been approved by the minister and the Albanese government?
Kieran Gilbert: How many are they talking about buying back or subsequently closing down?
Senator Henderson: In the regions, it’s unclear. They talk about format conversions, which is really, they’re not building a Taj Mahal, Kieran. They’re looking to downgrade or consolidate these post offices, maybe in conjunction with a local pharmacy or a local milk bar. We also learned there’s meant to be 2,500 licensed post offices in the regions but this document reveals there’s just over 1,500. So I don’t think Australia Post is complying.
Kieran Gilbert: So what do you want? Clarity?
Senator Henderson: We want truth, we want transparency.
Kieran Gilbert: From the executives?
Senator Henderson: And from the minister. There are two shareholder ministers, Katy Gallagher and Anika Wells. What do they know? How many jobs will be lost? How many post offices will be closed down? How can these communities have the confidence to have those vital services like paying their bills, doing their banking, often in towns where there is no local bank?
Kieran Gilbert: Yeah, okay and let’s stay in touch on this because this is interesting,
Senator Henderson: It’s so outrageous and we are hoping to push through with the Senate inquiry because this is not good enough, and every Coalition member and senator is determined to stand up for local communities on the vital role that post offices play right across the country.
Kieran Gilbert: As you say, it’s not just about the closures, it’s the downgrading of the services as well, so we’ll stay in touch on that one. On another story we’ve covered before, and this is Sall Grover from the Giggle v Tickle case. It’s been again reported, The Australian reporting at length on this one, in relation to an opinion piece that she had sought to get published by the ABC but was blocked. What is happening here and are you comfortable with what the ABC has said in response?
Senator Henderson: No and this emanates from a question that I asked in Senate Estimates. There was an opinion piece written by Professor Paula Gerber and she said that the outcome in that case was good for women’s rights and trans rights. Now, this is a highly contested debate. We vehemently disagree with that. This decision has expunged the rights of women and girls, particularly the rights to their safety and privacy and dignity in women-only spaces or same-sex only spaces. And so, when I said to the ABC, could Sall Grover or anyone else submit an op-ed? They said, of course. And now we see the most egregious breach of editorial standards. Such shocking ideological fervour in the ABC where they ran this Paula Gerber op-ed, and Sall Grover, despite many attempts, rewrites, her attempts to tell her story in a highly contested legal case has been shut down. And it is another example, Kieran, where the ABC is fundamentally failing Australians.
Kieran Gilbert: Okay, yeah, it’s another story that we’ve spoken to Sall on this program about.
Senator Henderson: Well that’s right because she has, as we do, we have a very strong view that biological sex matters.
Kieran Gilbert: And she’s obviously entitled to make her case. I’m surprised, so they tried to find a form of words that they could publish but that was not achievable. How come it was blocked in the end?
Senator Henderson: Well they said it didn’t meet editorial standards. They said that she made mistakes including by saying that it was a biological fact that a man cannot be a woman, so they’re disputing the very basis that she’s taken this case forward. And as we know the Sex Discrimination Act has fundamentally expunged the rights of women and girls, and the protection, particularly in certain circumstances, whether it be domestic violence refuges, whether it be jails or other changing rooms or bathrooms. Women and girls have fundamental rights that have been stripped away by this Full Federal Court decision. This is now being challenged in the High Court. We are determined to change the law to make sure that the law is clear and to ensure that biological sex is protected. But as for the ABC, this is a shocking, appalling example of their ideological activism in breach of their editorial standards.
Kieran Gilbert: Thank you for your time. We’ll see you soon. That’s Sarah Henderson, the Shadow Communications Minister.