A post office win for Coleambally

I've got great news for Coleambally.

Australia Post has finally opened the search for a new operator to run a full Licensed Post Office in our town again. They've called for expressions of interest, it closes at 5pm on Friday 19 June, and any local business that wants to take it on can register by emailing EOINSWACT@auspost.com.au.

Back in February they shut our Licensed Post Office without warning and dropped us down to a community postal agency run out of the pharmacy, where we lost our PO boxes, our banking, our bill payments and our parcel tracking all in one hit.

The doors aren't open yet and there's still a way to go, but this is a massive step, and it only happened because this town refused to take it lying down. More than 200 of you turned up in the main street at 8 in the morning before work and school, you filled in the survey, you made the case, and I took it all the way to Australia Post's chief executive Paul Graham and had it out with him face to face in Parliament until he agreed to act.

That is what moved them. When a town pulls together and speaks with one voice, that voice becomes too big to ignore, and Coleambally has just proved it.

If you run a business here and you could run the post office, please put your hand up before 19 June so a local gets the job. And I'll keep pushing until the worker who was sacked for speaking up gets theirs back, because that part isn't finished.

To everyone who stood up, thank you. You didn't just fight for your own town, you stood up for every country community that's ever been told it's too small to matter.