"Hands off Aussie Post": the closing of the Geelong Mail centre and privatisation of Australia Post

Vanguard March 2014 p. 8
Alex M. and Alice M.

 

The wind whipped the Eureka and unions flags outside the Geelong Mail Centre in North Geelong on Monday 3 February. A group of concerned citizens, unionists, postal workers and others gathered to protest at Australia Post’s imminent cuts to jobs and postal services in Geelong and the looming privatisation of the last few remaining public assets in Australia.

 

In the past few years the people of Geelong and the region have been at the pointy end of a devastating loss of local industries and the disappearance of thousands of jobs. Local people and communities don’t want even more job losses and cuts to community services.

The cuts to postal jobs and services are part of the government cost-cutting and preparations to sell off Australia Post’s parcels operations – the most profitable section of the business.

In the last financial year Australia Post made a healthy net profit of $312 million, and paid $244 million dividend to the government on top. The CEO of Australia Post and ex-chief of the NAB, Ahmed Fahour, paid himself $4.75 million for his services to big business.

Profits in the parcels part of the business are growing because of large increase in volumes while the wages of postal workers remain low. The retail and letter deliveries are also making smaller profits, but are not running at a loss.

Local and big business demands government puts Australia Post up for sale so they can get their hands on the profitable parcels business. At the same time, government and big business want to slash spending on the less profitable community retail and household mail delivery services.

Imperialism drives privatisation

The push to privatise Australia Post is not something Abbott or even the Business Council of Australia dreamed up.

The push for privatisation of national postal services, slashing jobs and community services, is on the march globally. International monopoly capital and multinational corporations are scouring every corner of the world for new profitable investments and markets, demanding privatisation of lucrative public services and the shifting more of public funds to them.

It is in this context that the Commonwealth government has appointed a Commission of Audit with a clear agenda to slash public expenditure, cut services to the public, lay-off Public Servants, privatise state owned enterprises, but of course not cutting MP’s or CEO’s wages and perks or increasing taxes on the multinational corporations and big business.

At the Geelong rally, Ged Kearney the ACTU President addressed the crowd, as did Joan Doyle the Victorian Branch Secretary of the Communications Workers Union (Postal and Telecommunication Division).

They condemned the plans to slash services, cut jobs and privatise publically owned assets. Ged Kearney spoke about the importance of Australia Post to community and small business. She said the profit motive should not be the sole determinant of what services are provided to the public:

“It's all built on the [misconception] that an organisation like Australia Post has to run at a profit, it doesn't. Mail delivery is one of those things that keeps communities connected; it’s something that every civil society should have. Not only that, it provides good decent public service jobs that are the heart and soul of communities like Geelong.”

Kearney said the Commission of Audit was set up to pave the way for harsh cuts to public and community services and privatisation.

“No one seriously expects the Commission of Audit (headed by Tony Shepherd, President of the Business Council) will recommend anything other than privatisation, outsourcing and cuts to public services and jobs.

“We are likely to see recommendations to broaden the scope and raise the Goods and Services tax, including extending it to food… Another favourite of big business agenda is to outsource more public services to the private sector.”

An alternative – a government bank

The union and postal workers have a different, practical agenda to the big business’ demands for the privatisation of Australia Post. They are arguing that the government should utilise the present nation-wide Australia Post infrastructure to establish a government bank and other financial services run by the federal government.

In his first term, former Prime Minister Rudd meekly raised this proposal. However, the four major banks and their international money-bags killed off the idea before it was even heard by the public.

Pity Rudd didn’t go to the people, instead of begging for approval from global financial oligarchies.

It was a similar story with the super profits mining tax. If Rudd had gone to the people, defying threats from the mining monopolies and big banks, he would have unleashed unstoppable public support. And that’s why he didn’t!

The Geelong rally is part of a wider, national ongoing campaign to resist moves to privatise Australia Post under the slogan ‘Hands off Aussie Post’. Let’s get behind this campaign!

The struggle to stop the privatisation of Australia Post and advocating for a government bank operated through publicly-owned Australia Post is part of the movement to free Australia from imperialism, and building a vision for an independent and socialist Australia.

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Further reading:

Canadians are facing a similar fight to keep their postal services.

See http://www.cpcml.ca/Tmld2014/D44010.htm#2 (scroll down to second article)