Save Glenroy Post Office, and all Post Offices!

The Australian Citizens Party said today that the Albanese government is to blame for Australia Post closing Glenroy Post Office and dozens of others, because it is ignoring the solution that would fund all postal services.

Australia Post’s decision to close Glenroy Post Office has sparked outrage in Melbourne’s northern suburbs, with local political leaders posting angry objections on Facebook.

Local state MLC Evan Mulholland posted: “I’m bitterly disappointed at the decision by Australia Post to close its Glenroy Post Office. So many people in our community rely on this post office for basic services like the paying of bills. When local banks have closed (there’s been a few) they make the excuse that locals can go to their local post office. I’m calling on Australia Post to reverse their decision and for the Federal Labor Government to intervene to stop it closing.”

The local federal Labor MP Peter Khalil posted: “The decision to close the Glenroy Post Office has come as a shock to me and the residents of Glenroy, and we will advocate to reverse this decision….”

The state Labor Member for Broadmeadows Kathleen Matthews-Ward posted: “I’m so furious about Australia Post’s decision to close the Glenroy Post Office. Communities need access to services, especially communities like ours with higher than average people with a disability and people over 80 as well as lower than average internet connection, income and car ownership. It is such a bad decision, I’ll be doing everything I can to see it reversed.”

Merri-bek Mayor Angelica Panopoulos posted in a video: “Hi, we’ve just had word that the Glenroy Post Office is set to close. This is shocking news for so many of us who know the Post Office to be a vital community asset.”

Post Office People’s Bank

ACP Research Director Robert Barwick said today that there was a clear solution to the problem of maintaining essential postal services—establishing a national Post Office People’s Bank.

“Postal services and banking services are both essential services”, he said.

“The banks are closing branches all over Australia, denying communities essential banking services, and (except for ANZ) they are also telling the customers they are abandoning to go to the Post Office to do their banking.

“But with Australia Post also closing Post Offices, these communities are being hit with a double whammy.

“The solution is a dedicated public postal bank, instead of just the private banks using Bank@Post as an agency.

“Postal banks are successful all over the world: By using existing Post Office networks they provide banking services cheaply and efficiently, while the revenue from banking helps to fund postal services—there’s no need to close Post Offices.”

Barwick observed that many politicians support bringing back a public bank to operate in Post Offices, but the government won’t do it because they are subservient to the major banks.

“The Big Four banks are too powerful, and the government does their bidding”, he said. “When Christine Holgate was CEO of Australia Post, she demonstrated that expanding banking services was the key to sustaining postal services, by making the banks pay properly for using Bank@Post and exploring the idea of establishing a postal bank.

“She was so successful that the Licensed Post Office Group, which represents the interests of the licensees who run most Post Offices as small business, called her ‘the best CEO Australia Post ever had’, but she made herself an enemy of the banks and was drummed out of Australia Post.

“No sooner had they got rid of Holgate, the banks cut back what they pay to Australia Post, which is one of the reasons Australia Post is trying to cut costs by closing Post offices.

“A national Post Office people’s bank would also provide real competition to the Big Four banks—it’s the solution Australia desperately needs.”

Barwick pointed to the banking problems that have beset Australia recently:

• CBA’s severely disruptive national network outage;
• Customers denied cash by ANZ and other banks;
• The acute crisis of customers being fleeced by sophisticated online scams;
• Banks “de-banking” competitors and customers they don’t like;
• Profit-hungry banks gouging customers by immediately raising interest rates on loans but not deposits;
• Banks like NAB defying the Senate inquiry and continuing to close branches.

“A national Post Office People’s Bank is the solution to all these problems”, he said.

“It would be a face-to-face refuge from digital dangers; it would guarantee cash access and payments; it wouldn’t discriminate by de-banking any customers; and it would put service before profit.”

“Glenroy and Australia need this solution now.”