00:01This offer of an extra staff member to One Nation MP David Farley from the Prime Minister
00:07has sparked claims from the minor party of dirty political games.
00:12This all relates to a letter that Mr Farley, the One Nation MP for Farrow, received from
00:18the Prime Minister last week in which Anthony Albanese authorised him to hire an additional
00:23staff member on a salary package of $200,000 a year.
00:28One Nation says that this was an unsolicited offer and that Mr Farley has rejected it.
00:34And it's also prompted claims, as you say, from One Nation leader Pauline Hanson that
00:39this is an attempt to exert political influence over her party and split her MPs.
00:45Now, the way this all works is that every parliamentarian is entitled to five electorate offices or five
00:52staff members, but the Prime Minister has the power to allocate extra staff members if he
00:58would like to.
00:59Now, One Nation and other crossbench MPs have actually been calling four extra staff members
01:04for some time now, but One Nation is very much not happy with how this situation has unfolded.
01:12For its part, Labor has denied that the Prime Minister offered this extra position to David
01:17Farley in a bid to lure him over to the Labor Party.
01:21And they also claim that the Prime Minister offered fellow One Nation MP Barnaby Joyce an extra
01:27staff member.
01:28And they say that's something that he accepted.
01:31Here's a little more of how this has unfolded this morning.
01:33Quite frankly, I think Pauline is jumping at shadows.
01:37If she's already having trouble keeping her party together, well, that says something about
01:43her.
01:44Just to be clear, lower house members wouldn't be doing their job if they were not meeting
01:50with ministers and meeting with the Prime Minister.
01:53It's pretty disgraceful to see the Prime Minister continue to use his power over staffing to
01:58attempt to divide, manipulate and play games.
02:02Now, Jack, on to another issue.
02:04The Albanese government is setting up a parliamentary probe to look into Australia Post.
02:09Why is that?
02:10Yeah, well, that's right.
02:11Obviously, the way Australians have communicated have changed in recent times, and that's led
02:16to some challenges for Australia Post.
02:19The government has pointed out there's declining foot traffic at some post offices, and there's
02:24also less mail being sent within the Australia Post service.
02:28Indeed, last financial year, there were about 1.4 billion letters sent through Australia Post,
02:35but that was down 14.7% from the year before.
02:39Instead, more Australians are turning up to post offices now to use parcel services.
02:45About 64% of visits to post offices last year, in fact, did relate to those parcel services.
02:50So, it's in this shifting environment for Australia Post that the government has referred the institution,
02:57the Postal Service, to a parliamentary probe to look at ways to ensure the long-term sustainability
03:03and viability of Australia Post.
03:05Indeed, the Communications Minister, Annika Wells, has acknowledged that the changing commercial
03:10conditions and also consumer behaviour is posing a real risk to the viability of Australia
03:18Post into the long term.
03:20So, this probe will look at ways to boost the sustainability of Australia Post and also
03:25look at ways, the government says, to diversify the services available through Australia Post.
03:30Now, the Postal Service has responded to this announcement.
03:33They have welcomed it.
03:34And they've also acknowledged that they intend to respond constructively to this inquiry.
03:41They've also added in this statement that, for several years, we've highlighted the growing
03:46challenges facing Australia Post, which are shared by postal organisations around the world.
03:52So, and they also say, we welcome the government's action to address these challenges and support
03:57our long-term sustainability.
03:59So, this will now be open to a parliamentary inquiry.
04:02Members of the community will be allowed to put forward submissions.
04:05So, too, will businesses.
04:07And the inquiry is due to hand back its report by the middle of next year.
