A City of Melbourne councillor urged the council to give public housing tenants a choice to receive “distressing” mail before it blocked Pauline Hanson-branded stubby holders from reaching locked-down towers.
The councillor, Philip Le Liu, has since requested a formal investigation into the council’s handling of the incident.
The Sydney Morning Herald and the Age revealed this morning that Australia Post threatened the council with legal action after it blocked stubby holders sent by Hanson from reaching the Flemington and North Melbourne public housing towers.
Earlier that week, Hanson had made inflammatory and widely-condemned remarks labelling the tenants “drug addicts” and “alcoholics”.
The council, which was managing deliveries during the hard lockdown of the estates, decided to stop the packages from reaching the residents.
Councillor Philip Le Liu applauded the decision to provide a barrier between the mail and the residents, given its potential to cause distress and traumatise the tenants.
But Le Liu said he warned the council it was wrong not to give the residents a choice over whether to receive mail.
“I personally think the council did the right thing in terms of providing a barrier between the mail and the residents,” he told the Guardian.
“But at the same time we should have said ‘we believe this is distressing content in here’, and notified them.”
“It should have been for the residents to decide, not council to decide.”
The Sydney Morning Herald and Age reported that the stubby holders pictured Hanson with the words: “I’ve got the guts to say what you’re thinking”. The items were reportedly accompanied by a note that said: “No hard feelings”.
At the time the packages were sent, the council had responsibility for “overseeing the receipt and distribution of all food and supplies to residents in the North Melbourne public housing estate”, the council said in a statement to the Guardian.
The council’s chief executive, Justin Hanney, said the council had become aware of a “a number of identical packages” delivered to a single address on Canning Street in North Melbourne.
The packages were addressed “to the householder”, he said.
“The City of Melbourne consulted with Australia Post, and also lodged a complaint with the Australian federal police to investigate whether the delivery breached the commonwealth criminal code,” Hanney said in a statement.
“The City of Melbourne ceased its responsibility for overseeing delivery at the estate and so we requested that Australia Post collect the parcels. The City of Melbourne subsequently withdrew its complaint from the Australian federal police.”
Emails published by the Age and Sydney Morning Herald show Australia Post’s general counsel, Nick Macdonald, warned Australia Post would go to the police unless the parcels were delivered immediately.
The email said the “integrity of the mail is of paramount importance” and that it was “fundamental” that mail is delivered as addressed, without interference, so long as it is safe to do so.
The revelations have prompted criticism from Labor, the union representing postal workers, and independent senator Rex Patrick.
The CEPU communications union, which represents postal workers, says the revelations raised serious questions about the relationship between Australia Post and Hanson.
The national secretary, Greg Rayner, said the community deserved to know why Hanson had received special treatment.
“Why does a pensioner in Penrith waiting for essential medicine or a letter from loved ones have to endure delays as piles of mail and parcels back up due to understaffing and second-day mail delivery, while Hanson gets special treatment for her delivery of stubby holders?” Rayner said.
The shadow communications minister, Michelle Rowland, suggested the government had done a “dodgy deal” with Hanson.
“Now, instead of focusing on better service, they’re returning seedy favours for Hanson,” she said.
Seriously, are you kidding me?
— Michelle Rowland (@MRowlandMP) September 10, 2020
The Libs and the AusPost CEO teamed up to do a dodgy voting deal with Sen Hanson to cut postal services - a move which Labor opposed from the outset.
Now, instead of focusing on better service, they're returning seedy favours for Hanson. #auspol pic.twitter.com/hqwMpO09Dn
Australia Post issued a statement on Thursday morning saying that its chief executive, Christine Holgate, did not speak with Hanson or One Nation about the delivery of the parcels.
The statement also denied Holgate threatened the council, saying she has a “valued relationship” with the City of Melbourne.
Australia Post said federal laws prohibited conduct that interfered with the mail and oblige it to “complete the delivery of Australians’ mail to the designated address”.
“Australia Post takes its obligation to deliver mail as addressed seriously, and given the unique nature of the circumstances – namely with site access being denied, due to the units being under lockdown and under the control of DHHS and City of Melbourne – met this obligation when we delivered all mail to authorised officers at the site control centre,” the statement read.
“Upon subsequently being made aware that the items did not reach their ultimate destination, we raised it with the City of Melbourne and engaged with the sender in good faith to resolve the matter.”
Hanson’s office also did not respond to requests for comment. But Australia Post’s intervention came months after the company was seeking to have regulatory changes passed through parliament to temporarily ease delivery time requirements. Those changes were passed in April, with the support of Hanson.
The packages were sent in July.
The opposition is now attempting to have those changes overturned and requires the support of four of the five crossbenchers for its disallowance motion to pass.
