Residents of Sebastopol remain in limbo without a post office and no indication of whether one might return.
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In a week where AusPost has again been in the limelight, campaigners have said they remained determined to keep up the fight for a branch. Joan Brown, who gathered 1,000 signatures for a petition campaigning for a branch to stay in the neighbourhood, said she was finding its absence a challenge.
The 88 year-old Sebastopol resident and Labor supporter, who does not have her own transport, said: "It's so damned inconvenient. It's not only me. Everyone I speak to is devastated. How can we walk to Mount Clear? This is an ageing community. There are 10,000 people here. It's just not on."
The previous branch had been on Albert Street since the 1970s, but closed after the franchise owners decided to move to a new location in Delacombe Town Centre.
The branch also offered banking services, but these have gone since its closure. The Sebastopol branch of the Commonwealth Bank closed indefinitely at the start of the pandemic. A spokesperson for the bank on Thursday said there remained no date to reopen the branch.
In an indication of the shift of services to the growth areas, the National Australian Bank has also recently opened a branch in the Delacombe Town Centre after announcing they would close a Sturt Street branch last November.
Ms Brown told The Courier she is currently travelling into the CBD every fortnight by public transport to collect her pension as there are no local options available to her.
A campaign against the branch closure was organised once news emerged that the franchise owners planned to move to Delacombe Town Centre, where there is increasing demand for services due to sharp rise in the area's population.
The federal member for Ballarat Catherine King presented the petition orchestrated by Joan Brown to parliament in February.
Ms King said she had not given up the campaign and had met with Australia Post representatives to put forward the community's views since lodging the petition.
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"After this meeting, Australia Post's representatives undertook to have another look at the underlying financial figures behind the business," she said in a statement. "I hope they see sense and bring back the Sebas Post Office. This campaign isn't going away."
Paul Fletcher, the minister for communications, urban infrastructure, cities and the arts, has 90 days to formally respond to the petition.
Another Ballarat connection to AusPost is former federal Liberal MP for Ballarat and senator Michael Ronaldson, who now sits as an non-executive director on the organisation's board.
He did not wish to comment on the campaign for a replacement Sebastopol post office, apart from to say it was an operational matter and that the branch closure was a commercial decision.
SENATE INQUIRY
Mr Ronaldson also did not wish to discuss the awarding of Cartier watches to senior executives in 2018, apart from to reference a report conducted by Maddocks Lawyers. That document, published in January, said the board at the time - which included Mr Ronaldson - did not have sight of the decision to offer the Cartier watch bonuses to four executives.
The bonuses were for a successful deal with three of the big four banks - WestPac, NAB and the Commonwealth Bank, who reportedly agreed to pay a fee of $22 million each for post offices to carry out financial services on their behalf. The resulting 'Bank@Post' agreement was in place at the Sebastopol branch, as well as other branches in Ballarat.
Ms King was highly critical of the Cartier watch bonus in December at the launch of the campaign to save the Sebastopol post office.
This week, the former Australia Post CEO Christine Holgate, whose decision it was to award the watch bonuses, gave evidence at a Senate inquiry saying she had done nothing wrong.
She said Australia Post chair Lucio di Bartolomeo had lied about her agreeing to leave and denies ever agreeing to step down.
She also accused Prime Minister Scott Morrison, who called for her to step down in Parliament in October, of bullying her out of her job.
On Thursday, Ms King reiterated her criticism of the bonus, saying the decision to gift Cartier watches was a bad one.
"That doesn't justify the actions of the Prime Minister," she said. "The Prime Minister treated Ms Holgate with disrespect, sacking her from the floor of Parliament without any due process."
At the inquiry, Ms Holgate also summed up her understanding of a confidential review of Australia Post services by Boston Consulting Group. She said they suggested divesting Australia Post of its expanding parcel business.
In a statement published on the inquiry website she said the recommended reforms included reducing letter services, price increases and further Post Office Closures with the potential for thousands of job losses.
She said she had resisted the review's recommendations.
At the inquiry, Mr di Bartolomeo denied there are plans to privatise any AusPost services.
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