In its Annual Report released to Parliament yesterday, Australia Post spin achieves new heights. The spin starts with:
The core products and services offered through our postal outlets include letter and parcel services and a wide range of agency-based services, including bill payment, agency banking, money orders, passport interviews, personal identity and verification services, travellers’ cheques and money transfers.
We also offer a variety of merchandise that complements those core products and services, including packaging and philatelic products, stationery, communications products, office and computer products, and gifts and cards.
This is nonsense. Visit any of the Government owned 857 Post Shops and you will see what they consider to be core. Stationery, gifts, imported crap from China. Postal products are the poor cousin of their retail story. Most Post Shops don’t look like letter or mail services. Indeed, if you want to use these services you have to queue for too long for mediocre service – all the while being tempted with their newsagent like merchandise.
The Annual Report has been written as it has because of the requirements of the Act under which Australia Post operates.
Australia Post is abusing the provisions of the Act to take business from independent small retailers like newsagents. That our Government is competing with us in this way makes a mockery of their small business policy.