From red street posting boxes to after-hours parcel collection, a federal inquiry chaired by Macquarie MP Susan Templeman is asking what residents and small businesses need from their postal service.
Hawkesbury residents, small businesses and local post office operators have until 5 pm on Monday, 7 December to tell a federal parliamentary inquiry what works about their postal service and where it falls short.
The House of Representatives inquiry will examine how Australia Post can remain accessible and financially sustainable as Australians send fewer letters, order more parcels and use a growing range of delivery companies. It will also look at what other services post offices could offer and how changes could affect postal workers.
Templeman said her interest in local post offices went back to the 1970s, when she grew up in a newsagency that doubled as an Australia Post outlet. She later ran a business for 25 years, much of it from home, and relied on being able to drop something in a street posting box and know it would arrive on time.
“I really want people to tell us what they want Australia Post to do,” she said at the inquiry’s launch on 30 October.
Templeman said she expected the availability of red posting boxes to come up in submissions. She pointed to after-hours parcel collection as a service that could make a difference for some customers, and said the committee wanted to hear what else local post offices could offer alongside services such as banking.
For Hawkesbury readers, a submission could explain how far they travel to reach a post office, whether opening hours make it difficult to collect parcels, or what reliable delivery means for a home-based business. The committee is also inviting submissions from postal workers, licensed post office operators and private couriers.
Submissions close at 5 pm on Monday, 7 December 2026. The committee plans to report between April and June 2027. Inquiry details and how to make a submission.
