PIAA grills Aus Post CEO
24 Oct 2016 | April Glover | Comment now
Australia Post chief executive Ahmed Fahour fronted Federal parliament in a Senate Estimates meeting, grilled with questions about business mail costs devised by the PIAA.
During the meeting Fahour told Senator David Leyonhjelm the industry should be prepared the increased business mail prices, and frankly spoke about the mail giant’s lack of responsibility for price hikes.
According to Fahour, Australia Post continues to lose money because of business mail, therefore group will persist with its pattern of letter price rises.
When asked about the accelerating prices of ordinary mail versus business mail, Fahour responded he did not have the ‘exact mathematics’.
“There is no question that we have been trying to reduce the losses, as we have been losing money on business mail every year since 2009,” says Fahour.
“At the end of the day the people who have to pay a little bit more to cover the losses are big institutions like the banks, telcos and government itself.”
[Related: Aus Post defends ageism claims]
The Association has since criticised Fahour for his responses during the meeting, describing the Aus Post boss as ‘dodging questions’ and stating the mail giant has no accountability for its price issues.
“Business mail is an easy target for Australia Post because it has to seek approval from the ACCC to increase prices for basic mail, but not for business mail,” says the PIAA.
“Australia Post intends to continue increasing prices for business mail without transparency, without accountability and without genuine consultation. Australia Post will simply say no.”
Fahour told the Senate Australia Post’s letter business makes up 28 per cent of its revenue, with only 3 per cent of that total from social mail.
