When I lived for a short time in the US I used to visit the post offices there just to soak in the atmosphere. Great cavernous halls, lined with tables on which one could write easily on envelopes, or place stamps, or wrap pretty ribbons around lumpy packages. Customers were respectful, the air serious, the noise muted – as though acknowledging the nature of the business at hand. In fact, so enjoyable was the experience, I would often write letters to myself, just to have the chance to go there.

When I returned to Australia I found the post offices to be nothing more than an amalgamation of toy store and newsagency, a place where the business of correspondence took second place to cheap China-made commerce. Where the number of staff had been reduced to a paltry few, forcing impatient customers to queue, serpent-like, around stands of greeting cards, kids’ games and books and glossy postcards. Where envelopes and padded bags and boxes – those things one actually comes to the post office to get - were cleverly displayed out of reach. Where writing and packaging benches had been reduced to the size of a school desk, and customers were made to elbow each other angrily as they fought for space. Add to that all the stupid, time-consuming ‘security’ forms one has to fill out just to send a present to an overseas relative, and it’s easy to identify the reasons behind the $91m shortfall.

It is not just the success of the internet and its associated communication tools that spells the demise of Australia Post. Nor is it the fact that it is government-run. It is because some beauracrat, at some point in our illustrious history, decided that Australia Post needed to ‘branch out’.

If AP wants to cut its losses, then it needs to cut back on trying to flog to an already pissed-off customer base, useless and cheap gimmicky goods that no-one goes in there to buy.

There is no doubt that privatizing AP would only lead to more of the same.

...How could we the consumer ever miss the function of a post office. The chance arrival of a personal letter is infinitesimal; the avalanche of invoices through my letterbox is more indicative of a “lost joy” when the postman was a welcome caller, a Santa clause on two wheels almost. Now the angry bark of the dog at his arrival, seems much more applicable than ever it was!

... Privatise?...Get on with it! Find a way to make it pay “Henry Ford”!

Privatise and the cost of using the postal service will go up and up,and quality of the postal service will go down and down for shareholder profit and managements high salaries; as did all the other utility and public services that have been privatised.

cost of using the postal service will go up and up,and quality of the postal service will go down and down
Kipp,
Will ? It already does. Yesterday I sent an envelope with a small booklet to our next town via surface mail, $10.40. It should arrive in ten days I was told.

There is a vast difference between "efficiency" and "effectiveness", especially when it comes to providing a public service.

The privatisations of entities such as Telstra, the Commonwealth Bank, Sydney Airport and various State energy and rail suppliers have not resulted in better service for the public, just increased costs.

Privatisation is little more than the theft of a public asset built up over generations in order to enhance the private wealth of a few and for short term political gain.

If there is a problem that could be solved simply by changing some business model then why can't it be done while still a public company?
How could just changing ownership make some sort of unique difference?

I sent a parcel home to Australia while in Italy several years ago by surface mail. It weighed about 3 kilos and it cost me about 80 euros.

Agree with Kip and rache.
All we've ever gained from privatisation has been increased costs!
Then we wonder why the global economy is in so much trouble.
We were once the third most prosperous nation on the planet, and a creditor one at that.
We the people owned most if not all the cash cow essential service.
This also suited most business operators, many who have since off-shored their operations to somehow defray the costs imposed by debt laden private operators?
Who not only now need to carry thousands of entirely unproductive share holders, but parasitical blood sucking foreign bankers as well?
And guess who is expected to carry the can for all these privatisation outcomes?
US mail is going broke, while Australia Post is moving with the times and Internet sales, by building a nice money earning parcel delivery service.
Our post offices are very nearly all private businesses, operated by franchisees.
All mail delivery is now carried out by self employed contractors. What could privatisation add, except say increased charges?
We need another big bank and one owned by the people!
The Post Office is uniquely positioned to provide banking services in almost every town.
And there is no other choice for it, but to diversify!
Moreover, it already is a branch office for Australia's biggest bank.
The business of posting letters is being continually eroded by Emails and text messages!
Lack of volume is what is driving up the cost of some mail deliveries.
None more glaringly obviously over priced, than mail delivery to PO boxes in the same town as the letter is posted!
That said, who in their right mind would want to buy a loss making letter delivering postal service?
Rhrosty.

Australia Post needs a good clean-out starting with its top management.

It has been plagued by a series of managements who under weasel slogans such as “do better” have done Australia Post over big time.

In early 2011 it was decreed from above –without consultation –that it would implement a late fee for all of its credit account customers.It sent out ONE poorly written flier to all customers telling them of this intention.Of course most customers claimed either, never have seen the flier, or, not to have understood it.And after months of having its phones clogged with customer complaints and a huge loss of goodwill, it backpedaled and waived the fee.
( I haven’t heard what happen with the thousands of compliant customers who paid the fee – it is likely they were never advised that they paid a fee that later most were exempted from ).Heads should have rolled at high levels thick and fast over that shemozzle.

Similarly, in early 2011 AP found itself in a position –due to the failure of recent management *initiatives* – where it could not even *ask* its Licensed Post Offices to pay their bills. The bills sat uncollected for months --how much revenue was lost during that debacle no one knows.

And recently, it centralized much of it finance operations into Melbourne. As a result a large number of NSW positions were lost.
It offered redundancies –and many of the best left.Those who didn’t were guaranteed the same pay and gradings for doing half their previous work. The former NSW finance positions that were transferred to Melbourne are now largely held by contractors from the subcontinent (So much for putting Australia/Australians first!)

It would be better for all if Aust Post was privatized . Leastways then its top management roles might be filled on the basis of ability and not, as seems all too often the case, on the basis who the contenders know in parliament.

All we've ever gained from privatisation has been increased costs!
Rhrosty,
Yes, but looking at the other side of the coin whenever services are left to the public service they end up utterly inefficient AND expensive. You see the problem is not so much some greedy individuals but even more so are the employees who demand better & better conditions for a worsening service in return. Look at those security videos of postal workers damaging or stealing. It's boiling down to a mentality issue. No care no sense no nothing & here we are. I believe this mentality has evolved purely to our utterly unfair tax systems. People who perform get persecuted & those who don't give a hoot get the rewards. Just look at how Australia Post & Telstra have evolved from efficient & cost effective service providers to inefficient & expensive money machines.

I don't believe that Australia Post needs to be sold. The thing is,
when it comes to parcels, they already have competition in the
marketplace, which keeps them honest and competitive. They have
some issues, but so does every organisation of their size, where not
always the most intelligent employees hang out.

If people want lower costs for AP, so perhaps its time to review
their community service obligation. I know of contractors who
do very well out of the system, by driving around the countryside
delivering mail to people who already go to town to do their shopping.

So there is an easy fix. Give everyone a free PO Box at their
nearest Post Office, they can pick up their mail when picking up
the milk and bread. Provide the community service obligation only
to those who have no other means to pick up their mail. That would
be a far more efficient and cost effective way of doing things, then
the system which we have now.

The present system is in fact a crazy one. I have to pay to hire
a PO box, which results in reduced costs for AP. Why? So that they
have money to pay for their community service obligation, which
involves driving around the countryside to deliver mail which people
can easily pick up themselves, when they go shopping.

The IPA of which Julie Novack is a member is funded by private corporates.They can be just as indolent,wasteful and voracious as Govt bureaucracies.With computers and couriers Aust post may become obsolete but we should never have sold of the Commonwealth Bank which created some of our money from nothing debt free for infrastructure that are now private tolled roads etc.

When our productivty and inflation gets expressed as debt by private banks,debt slavery is a certainty.We all now know that Quantative Easing is a euphemism for money printing.Our total debt to foreign private banks is 85% of our GDP or $ 100,000 for every working person.This is why our economy stagnates.We have to flog off our resouces cheaply to pay for the contrived debt and still we are losing the battle.Time to wake up Australia.