Mr BRUCE SCOTT (7:40 PM) —I rise in this parliament to bring to the attention of this government an issue that is plaguing the people of Blackbutt and Benarkin at the eastern end of my electorate of Maranoa. In fact, Blackbutt and Benarkin are in the region of the South Burnett. The issue is their postcode. It may sound minor, but it is causing major problems, which I will outline to the House. The Blackbutt-Benarkin region is a small rural area of maybe 1,000 people, and it has been given the same postcode as the city of Ipswich, which has around 150,000 people and is about 130 kilometres south of Blackbutt. Because of the four numbers of their postcode—4306—the people of the region have serious problems getting a fair deal for their insurance, with employment arrangements and even when using the internet to find local providers or services.

A Blackbutt constituent came into my office just yesterday because this postcode issue is making it difficult for him to retain employees. He and his wife run a horticultural farming enterprise. They employ six to 10 backpackers, as well as locals, to help run their business. The backpackers are on 12-month visas and some want to stay, but to do this they must be considered to be working in a rural area. However, because Blackbutt has the same postcode as Ipswich, it is considered to be part of a metropolitan area and therefore these backpackers cannot stay. Another employer from Benarkin visited me. Because of the postcode, he was entitled only to a $1,500 apprenticeship payment, not a $4,000 payment from the federal government’s apprentice employment incentives program.

We have had numerous complaints about how the postcode has pushed up insurance premiums because Blackbutt’s perceived level of risk is associated with the much larger city of Ipswich, with which Blackbutt and Benarkin share the same postcode. Blackbutt and Benarkin locals have to use Yarraman’s postcode to get accurate data on things like Elders’ weather website or when searching the internet to find a local business. Yarraman is about a 15-minute drive from Blackbutt. Its postcode is 4614. Blackbutt’s is 4306, which is the same as that of Ipswich.

Australia Post has said that insurance companies, which base their policies on postcodes, are to blame for Blackbutt-Benarkin’s plight. It says it will only change a postcode if there is a significant benefit to the processing and delivery of mail. So, in essence, Australia Post says it is not its problem. It recommended that residents talk directly with their insurers. So, on behalf of my constituents, I wrote to the Banking and Financial Services Ombudsman. I was told that the issue was beyond the powers of the ombudsman to investigate. I then wrote to the Insurance Council of Australia. Their best advice: ask your constituents to shop around for a competitive insurance product. Not wanting to give up, I then wrote to the ACCC explaining that it was unfair that people in a small rural area should be lumped in with the people of a large city 130 kilometres away. The ACCC responded with a friendly letter that basically told me I had no chance of getting the postcode changed through their channels.

I have exhausted almost every possibility to try to get the problem rectified. I am calling on the Minister for Broadband, Communications and the Digital Economy to intervene. I will be submitting a private member’s motion. However, I wanted to bring this issue to the attention of this parliament now because I am not sure for how much longer we will be in this place before an election. I will also be writing to the minister in a last-ditch attempt to get a fairer go for the people of Blackbutt and Benarkin and the many other communities such as Bedourie and Yaraka in very remote parts of my electorate of Maranoa which are experiencing the same difficulties with their postcode. The same issues affect them as affect Blackbutt and Benarkin.