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.