AUSTRALIA POST has announced agreements with the Commonwealth Bank of Australia (CBA) and NAB to offer banking services in Post Offices nationally for the next decade.

The landmark 10-year in-principle agreements with the two major banks allows Australia Post to support ongoing investment in the Bank@Post service in order to provide safe, reliable banking services for all Australians, particularly those in regional areas and small businesses.

The agreements also support the long-term sustainability of thousands of Licensed Post Offices and their owners, many of whom are small businesses and families who play an essential role in servicing their local communities. 

Australia Post executive general manager for community and consumer, Nicole Sheffield said today’s announcement highlighted the importance of Bank@Post which provides banking services at more than 3,500 local Post Offices.

“We know how important the local Post Office is for so many communities and small businesses – particularly in regional areas. The support of CBA and NAB will ensure access to banking services for those communities can be maintained, and additional related services introduced, to better support the needs of banking customers for the next decade,” Ms Sheffield said.

“The agreements will also allow us to invest further in our Post Office network, recognising the valuable role our people play in supporting communities across the country. Our Post Offices also play a critical role during natural disasters, emergencies and more recently through the COVID-19 pandemic with access to products and services through lockdowns and travel restrictions. 

“Australia Post looks forward to working closely with CBA, NAB and our other banking partners to continue to provide essential banking services to their customers across our national network of Post Offices.”

CBA group executive retail banking services, Angus Sullivan, said, “Millions of Australians rely on CBA to do their banking, and I’m proud that this renewed partnership gives our customers more choice with how and where they bank with us over the next decade. We know that some customers want face to face banking services and this partnership with Australia Post supports our commitment to ensuring our customers in regional Australia have ongoing access to these services at the more than 3,500 Bank@Post outlets across the country.  

“We have a strong relationship with Australia Post and investing multi millions of dollars each year for a decade in the capability, technology and security of Bank@Post outlets builds on our priority to reimagine services and ensure our customers can continue to bank easily, safely and securely whenever they visit a participating Australia Post outlet.” 

NAB group executive personal panking, Rachel Slade said, “We want to ensure we are serving our customers well no matter how they choose to bank with us. 

“Together with our branch network, this partnership means our customers have more than 4000 locations they can bank with us. It provides extra support, particularly for those remote and rural customers, to be able to access face-to-face banking services.”

Westpac’s contract with Australia Post has been extended for a further 12 months. Westpac and Australia Post have commenced negotiations around a possible new longer agreement. 

www.auspost.com.au

THE Accommodation Association today congratulated the NSW Government on its rapid provision of lockdown financial support for business but called for urgent assistance for Sydney hotels struggling to survive.

Accommodation Association CEO Dean Long said, "There’s not a hotel in Sydney that hasn’t been hard hit over the past 15 months of COVID travel bans and restrictions.

"These hotels are now sub 2 percent occupancy and facing at least 50 percent cancellation rates all the way through to August. They urgently need government support to offset this impact, to keep the doors open and to keep paying staff.
 
“The NSW Government’s support package is obviously welcome news for hotels outside metropolitan Sydney who will now be hit with school holiday cancellations, but it’s the Sydney hotels, including the larger ones, who most need help and need it now.
 
“We’ll continue to engage with government to ensure our sector and members emerge on the other side of COVID," Mr Long said.

 About the Accommodation Association

The Accommodation Association represents over 80 percent of all known accommodation providers from small regional parks, caravan parks, serviced apartments and resorts through to the largest hotel groups in the world including Accor, Hilton, Wyndham Destinations and IHG.

ends

THE Carbon Market Institute (CMI) has welcomed the release of a suite of carbon farming video case studies showing farmers benefiting from 'carbon money' under the Federal Government’s Emissions Reduction Fund.

The videos were produced in collaboration with the Clean Energy Regulator and tell the story of five different carbon farming methods: soil carbon, vegetation, revegetation, plantation forestry and human-induced regeneration.

John Connor, CEO of the CMI said, “These case studies highlight the significant employment and environmental benefits that come from carbon farming projects, as well as the climate benefits that flow from sequestering carbon through agricultural activities and land management.

“There’s been a decade of successful carbon farming in Australia and these stories are just the tip of the iceberg.”

The case studies, drawn from projects in New South Wales and Victoria, demonstrate that carbon farming works successfully with traditional farming practices, increases productivity and drought tolerance while reducing farm input costs, and provides farmers with new income streams. 

“The government’s Emission Reduction Fund has thrown a lifeline to the Carbon Farming Initiative that first began in 2011,” Mr Connor said. “Almost 1000 projects have been developed so far and thousands more can be delivered that will bring real benefits to regional Australia and the global climate.”

The CMI’s 2017 Carbon Farming Industry Roadmap highlights that with the right policies and ambition, carbon farming can support the development of over 20,000 jobs by 2030, and over $20 billion in carbon project revenue, mostly flowing to regional Australia.

Meanwhile, the CMI’s world-first Carbon Industry Code of Conduct, which defines industry best practice for carbon project developers, becomes fully operational on July 1, 2021.

“With the right policies, and a laser-like focus on integrity, our carbon farming industry can become a major exporter of carbon reduction credits and expertise to a world increasingly demanding them,” Mr Connor said.

The five projects highlighted in the videos are:

• soil carbon – Olsen’s;
• human induced regeneration – Brindingabba Station; 
• revegetation – Ploughshare;
• plantation forestry - WeAct;
• vegetation – avoided deforestation – Bulgoo Station. 

“It was a pleasure to visit these carbon farming sites firsthand to see the benefits being delivered and I’d encourage others to do so,” Mr Connor said. “I’d like to thank the farmers, their staff and local businesses we spoke to for their enthusiastic participation.”

About the CMI

The Carbon Market Institute is the industry association for business leading the transition to net-zero emissions and has over 100 corporate members including primary producers, carbon project developers, emission intensive companies and legal, banking and advisory service providers.

ends

ON TUESDAY June 29, the Northern Australia Committee will be hearing from stakeholders in South Australia and Queensland – the Global Water Institute, the Queensland Government, the Nuga Nuga Aboriginal Corporation, David Noonan, the Arabana Aboriginal Corporation and Andrew and Robert Starkey.

Northern Australia Committee chair Warren Entsch, who is the Federal Member for Leichardt, noted that the evidence gathering phase of the inquiry is drawing to a close.

"Tomorrow we will hear from stakeholders in South Australia about the unique problems they face in protecting heritage across the vast plains of that State’s north. With that, we will have spoken to people in every jurisdiction across Australia," Mr Entsch said.

"The mound springs which are of great significance to the Arabana people are at serious risk. The Arabana Aboriginal Corporation is concerned that the springs are disappearing due to the water use at BHP’s Roxby Downs Mine, which relies on the same water source as the springs."

Andrew and Robert Starkey, of the Kokatha people, have experienced significant destruction of heritage due to a Hill to Hill Transmission Line Easement which passed through a series of culturally significant sites. They are keen to share with the committee what has happened to their country.

Nuga Nuga Aboriginal Corporation has experienced significant issues with the ‘Last Claim Standing’ of the Queensland Act due to its impact on their ability to speak for country. Despite a judicial decision in their favour the Queensland Government decided to formerly legislate the provision; to the corporation’s dismay.

A program for the public hearing is available on the committee’s website.

Public hearing details

Date: Tuesday, 29 June 2021
Time: 10am to 4pm AEST
Location: by video/teleconference

The hearings will be broadcast live at aph.gov.au/live.

Further details of the inquiry, including terms of reference, can be found on the Committee’s website.

ends

AFTER THREE YEARS of negotiations, the Maritime Union of Australia (MUA) has reached a ground-breaking workplace agreement with the world’s largest stevedoring company, setting a new industry standard at container terminals in Sydney and Brisbane.

Workers will receive five 2.5 percent wage increases over the four year agreement once certified by the Fair Work Commission.

The agreement with Hutchison Ports Australia will see the introduction of 20 days paid domestic violence leave, the creation of permanent rosters, and the addition of a clause that gives the workforce the ability to find alternatives to redundancies in the event of an economic downturn.

MUA deputy national secretary Warren Smith said the negotiations had been among the hardest seen in the industry.

“This agreement will see job security strengthened at the terminals, with protection against job losses due to the implementation of automation, technology and contractors, along with a move to address insecure work with a cap on casual employees and an emphasis on rostered permanents and guarantee workers,” Mr Smith said.

“This agreement not only brings to an end three years of hard-fought negotiations, it sets new industry standards, not only for Australia, but around the world.

“The introduction of 20 days paid domestic violence leave is a significant victory that will reduce the financial hardship suffered by people dealing with the challenges of violence in the home.

“Nothing in this agreement was handed to us. It took three years of unwavering determination and united action from members at the Sydney and Brisbane terminals to achieve this victory," Mr smith said.

“These negotiations were among the hardest ever seen in our industry, with new claims from management threatening to derail discussions right until the end, but despite all these obstacles we have managed to achieve a ground-breaking agreement.

“We could not have achieved this outcome without the sacrifices of MUA members who were united in exercising their lawful right to undertake industrial action in defence of a fair agreement.

“Nothing was given to us for free, and while negotiators spent countless hours working towards this outcome it was made possible by the efforts of every rank and file member at Hutchison.”

ends

MARITIME workers will tomorrow protest against a decision by Australia’s largest towage operator, Svitzer Australia, to replace local tug crews at the Port of Geelong with fly-in fly-out labour hire workers.

Geelong workers who were made redundant by Svitzer in December last year will be joined by supporters from the Maritime Union of Australia (MUA) to demand that local workers be given their jobs back rather than be replaced by a labour hire contractor.

The 18 workers who lost their jobs were shocked to discover that just six months after Svitzer told them it was departing the Port of Geelong, the company has contracted Strategic Workforce Solutions to use fly-in fly-out workers to restart marine towage services at the port.

MUA Deputy Victorian Branch secretary David Ball said it was outrageous that the largest operator of towage services in Australia, with a fleet of more than 100 tugs at 28 ports, was stripping jobs out of the Geelong community.

“Svitzer Australia tossed 18 local workers on the scrap heap just before Christmas, telling them they were abandoning the Port of Geelong,” Mr Ball said.

“Just six months later, we discovered that the company plans to restart operations using fly-in fly-out labour hire workers rather than providing jobs to the local community.

“It appears Svitzer never really intended to leave Geelong, they just manufactured this arrangement where they could terminate their entire local workforce and use a sham contracting arrangement with a labour hire company that has no experience in maritime towage to slash costs.

“Geelong is being robbed by this multinational company who wants to profit from providing towage services at our port, but not provide any jobs or economic benefits to our local community.

“The union has repeatedly attempted to negotiate with Svitzer to find a way to allow their viable reentry into Geelong, but the company refuses to work with the union.

“Svitzer has also refused to reinstate the workers they made redundant, despite these former tug crews being the most experienced people for the job, with exceptional knowledge of how to safely and efficiently undertake tug operations at the Port of Geelong.”

ends

RAIL WORKERS today called on new Infrastructure, Transport and Regional Development Minister Barnaby Joyce to block moves to shift the transport of domestic containerised freight from Australian trains onto foreign flagged ships.

Rail, Tram and Bus Union (RTBU) national secretary Mark Diamond said thousands of jobs in regional areas were at risk from a departmental proposal to further deregulate coastal trading laws, which would allow overseas-based ships to compete directly for domestic freight work.

“Barnaby Joyce has been returned to leadership of the National Party with a mandate to stand up for jobs in regional Australia.  As Minister for Transport, the jobs of regional rail workers are his responsibility," Mr Diamond said.

“The proposals put forward by his new department will make it easier for foreign-flagged vessels to operate in the Australian domestic freight market and compete directly with local rail operators.

“But it will be far from a level playing field: overseas shippers don’t have to pay Australian wages or meet Australian workplace standards.

“We are concerned these reforms, if adopted, could see the end trains carrying containerised freight in Australia.

“That means the National Party’s flagship infrastructure project, Inland Rail, is at risk of becoming a massive white elephant before it’s even built.”

Mr Diamond said Mr Joyce should start by ruling out any changes to coastal shipping that undermine the rail industry.

“Looking forward, rail workers want to see a level playing for the transport of containerised freight in Australia, and an industry plan to support growth in this sector into the future.”

ends

A GROWING NUMBER of small to medium-sized businesses that service the resources sector are having significant problems securing finance and insurance because of recent climate change-related policy changes by banks and insurers, the Queensland Resources Council (QRC) said today.

QRC chief executive Ian Macfarlane said Queensland businesses which support the state’s $82.6 billion resources sector, particularly the all-important Mining, Engineering and Technology Services (METS) sector, are being disadvantaged.

“Insurers and banks are increasingly trying to appease activist shareholders by reducing or cutting ties with operators connected to resources,” Mr Macfarlane said.

“In some cases, insurance premiums are tripling, and the cost of credit is skyrocketing simply because a business is supplying goods or services to the resources sector. 

“The irony is that by restricting the ability of METS businesses to renew their insurance policies and access finance, these lenders and insurers are threatening the viability on the very sector that will play a leading role in Queensland’s transition to a low-emissions future.” 

In a presentation to the Joint Standing Committee on Trade and Investment Growth Inquiry today, Mr Macfarlane said if resources-related businesses can’t get finance or insurance at a reasonable rate, jobs in the industry will be lost.

"Through our submission, the QRC is giving a voice to service companies, many of which are based in regional areas, to send a message that jobs will be lost because of increasingly unfair banking and insurance practices,” he said. ]

A recent survey of  QRC supply chain members, representing a combined workforce of 7,600, found:

• 75 percent said accessing banking or lending services has become much more difficult in the past two years; 
• 44 percent said that if these banking costs stayed at these levels for the next five years, they would be unlikely to continue operating; 
• 90 percent said they had experienced a major change in insurance as a result of working in the resources sector.

Mr Macfarlane said the QRC supports the Paris Agreement and emissions’ reductions targets, and that Australia’s well-regulated and environmentally sustainable resources sector can continue to thrive while meeting these targets. 

“Queensland is abundant in resources and has the potential to become a global renewable and low-emissions’ energy superpower, but resources companies need a viable METS sector to provide technical expertise and innovation to support our operations,” he said. 

“The QRC hopes this inquiry will encourage the banking and insurance sectors to work with their regional clients to implement practical reforms that will lower emissions and help keep exports rolling.”