CANBERRA: Australia Post has said that it was driven by a $151 million loss in the letters business as customers stopped sending mail. Letter volumes fell by 8.2 per cent year-on-year, the largest decline recorded since volumes began to fall in 2008.
Post forecast that losses in its letters business will overwhelm the seasonally quieter parcels business in the second half of the financial year to deliver the first company-wide loss since 1982 and the first since the business was corporatised in 1989.
“If we don’t change the regulatory environment that govern letters, we will become unsustainable and a burden on the budget,” Post chief executive Ahmed Fahour told ABC radio this morning. “If we don’t get regulatory reform, either we get a $6 billion subsidy or we’re bust.” Australia Post is seeking government approval to change its regulations to allow a two-speed mail service.
Mr Fahour is also seeking to remove oversight by the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission for any price increases, so that the stamp price can be increased from 70c to meet the cost of delivering mail which averages $1 per letter. Mr Fahour argues that business and government send 97 per cent of the mail and the business should be entitled to recover its costs.
