Australia Post CEO Ahmed Fahour dismissed rumours that the national carrier is planning to close Adelaide’s Bulk Mail Centre but says it may be shifted to a new location.
During yesterday’s Senate Estimates hearing, Senator Eric Abetz – who’d been briefed by the PIAA - asked Fahour whether the Adelaide Bulk Mail Centre was to be shut down.
It took several minutes for the soon-to-retire CEO to confirm that while Australia Post was looking to move Adelaide’s centre to more suitable premises, there was no plan to close it.
“We have been looking at a different property because the building we’re in is not a great building…it’s so antiquated," said Fahour.
Printing Industries CEO Andrew Macaulay welcomed the news that the mail centre was not being closed down. “Printing Industries had a win yesterday for a key group of members who print, pre-sort and lodge bulk mail with Australia Post.”
The rumours about the future of Adelaide’s Bulk Mail Centre arose following Australia Post’s announcement that it planned to upgrade and install new automatic mail sorting machines in every capital city other than Adelaide. Australia Post said this was because the ceiling in the Adelaide premises was too low to accommodate the upgraded or new machinery.
If the closure happened, SA’s business mail customers would have to deliver pre-sorted bulk mail to an Australia Post centre interstate – presumably Melbourne.
“This would have cost extra time and extra money, meaning that these members would likely lose jobs, including to overseas competitors,” says Macaulay. “We briefed Senator Abetz about our members’ concerns and armed him with the facts. Even although it was Fahour’s last Senate Estimates, his word is on the parliamentary record as to Australia’s Post’s intention as of today. This is a huge relief to our South Australian members who do bulk mail and gives them a degree of certainty.
“The Federal Government is promoting international trade. To have any Australian business competing in the international services sector is noteworthy in itself. For a Government monopoly to make an arbitrary decision threatening that international participation and its related employment, would be extraordinary, and we are pleased by the reassurance that it is not so.”
(l-r) Andrew Macaulay, CEO PIAA; Senator Eric Abetz; Mary Jo Fisher, director, government relations, PIAA.
Here's a link to the Senate hearing: https://drive.google.com/