Parkes MP Mark Coulton has met with the boss of Australia Post to discuss the future of small, independent post offices as the organisation stands to lose billions of dollars in the coming years.
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Australia Post lost $190 million last year as letter deliveries declined by 25 per cent from five years ago and those losses look set to continue, despite the company reportedly preparing to cut more than 900 jobs in the coming day.
Mr Coulton said he is extremely worried that it could be the private post offices in small towns and villages that are going to be hardest hit by the decline in the number of letters being sent every year.
“The model Australia Post works on is under great threat because of the amount of mail that is moving online. More and more companies are sending bills and other correspondence by email and more of the post that is being delivered is parcels,” Mr Coulton said.
“The current funding model isn’t working that well and Australia Post will have to make some drastic changes to remain viable.
“I’m very concerned about the smaller licensed post offices. The ones in bigger towns or that are part of a supermarket should be fine but the stand-alone post offices in villages will be the ones that will struggle.”
On Sunday the Communications, Electrical and Plumbing Union said the rumoured 900 job cuts was a starting point that would lead to the privatisation of Australia Post.
However, Mr Coulton said he thinks it is unlikely.
“My personal opinion is that I don’t think it will be sold because I think it will would be very difficult to sell. It’s a crucial service to the community that needs to remain in some capacity.
Mr Coulton also echoed the sentiments of Deputy Prime Minister Warren Truss, who said cuts to services should come take place in the major cities before rural and regional areas.
“A lot of places in my electorate only get postal deliveries two days a week. I think there is room in Sydney to cut the post back from five or six days a week,” he said.
“There’s really not much fat to be taken out of the region. The mail is taken to Bathurst to be sorted so it really can’t be streamlined any more.”
A spokesperson for Australia Post wouldn’t comment on the proposed job cuts or future changes to services but said the organisation is already taking steps to reduce its costs.
“Australia Post has made it very clear that it is confronting dramatic change due to the impact of declining revenues in our letters service. Our Managing Director and CEO Ahmed Fahour has publicly stated that the losses in letters business have already overwhelmed the profits in parcels and without reform, the letters services will lose over $1 billion annually in a few years,” the spokesperson said.
“Australia Post is already responding and is a much leaner organisation than it was three years ago. Part of the modernisation of Australia Post involves shifting resources and investing in areas in response to customer needs, such as recent announcements around the extension of Express Post services and parcel delivery to Saturdays and extended weekend trading hours.”
