Great to see Crikey pick up my comments yesterday about Australia Post and how far they have strayed from their mission to provide Australia with a postal service.
In the rapidly merging media landscape Crikey plays an important role giving oxygen to stories which Boardroom and other relationships cause to otherwise go unreported.
it would be easier to sympathise with your tale of woe about competing with a heavily subsidised australia post were newsagents not also protected by archaic arrangements that deter competition. my local melbourne newsagent is further away than the closest one, frequently delivers papers late or not at all, manages to lose around one issue in five of the magazine i have on standing order, and is immune to complaint. yet because of a territorial carve-up, i cannot get papers delivered by the shop i prefer. to use the shop i’d like to, i’d have to sell my house & move all of one block north. farcical.
The two issues are disconnected. The government owned post office is targeting newsagents and using their government ownership to leverage an unfair advantage. Newsagencies will close as a result.
The newspaper publishers established a territorial system for the delivery of newspapers over 100 years ago knowing it was the only to cost effectively deliver product. A recent review by the publishers maintained the system but with some changes. There are more delivery only specialists and this improves service. It’s why I sold my home delivery territory – to focus on one core in the business (retail) rather than two.
The current system is controlled by publishers and the government. If you want to change it start there. Newsagents are servants of that system.
What do you think about creating a legal fund for taking the government to court?
I will contribute. This is illegal, has been and will be unless this government is held accountable.