Selwyn M.P. tips rural mail cuts

Press, 19 October 1987, Page 4

Selwyn M.P. tips rural mail cuts

The curtailment of rural mail services is now inevitable, according to the Opposition member of Parliament for Selwyn, Miss Ruth Richardson. More than a dozen post offices in Miss Richardson’s electorate will close because of the removal of the Government’s subsidy on uneconomic offices. A “considerable subsidy” still applied on rural mail deliveries, she said. If the decision not to pay subsidies was followed through, rural deliveries would be curtailed “as night follows day.” “If you’re looking at a pattern of hostility of the Government towards the rural community, it’s inevitable,” said Miss Richardson. At a Parliamentary select committee hearing last week, a New Zealand Post official had told Miss Richardson that the policy on rural deliveries had yet to be decided. But from her questioning of the official, she said that it was clear that the future of rural deliveries was now a matter of policy advice between 'X

New Zealand Post and the Minister for State-Owned Enterprises, Mr Prebble. Some areas would lose deliveries altogether, and some would be curtailed from five days a week to two or three days a week, she predicted. “It’s inevitable, given this pattern of decisionmaking.” Miss Richardson identified a number of contributing factors to the closings already announced. New Zealand Post’s statement of corporate intent revealed that the board intended to pay up to 40 per cent of net profit as dividend. That amounted to “extortionate commercial practice,” she said. Miss Richardson said that many of the “socalled costs of running” post offices were direct consequences of the corporatisation of the Post Office as three separate organisations. That led to -the creation of artificial book charges, such as New Zealand Post having to pay Telecom for the hire of a telephone. Another inconsistency was the case of the Horo-

rata Post Office, which was said to cost $lll,OOO to run. Most of that was directly attributable to a decision to improve the office less than a year ago, said Miss Richardson. Reaction to the closings among constituents she had spoken to was one of “unprecedented anger." "They want to know how to give vent to that anger, and get even with the Government.” The Opposition member for Rangiora, Mr Jim Gerard, said that the Post Office was the focus of many rural towns, and the closings would end some communities. “The role of Government in those areas is to provide a service, not necessarily to make money,” he said. Seven offices will close in his electorate, and another three will be downgraded to agencies. Mr Gerard said, that he believed the Government had a closed mind but constituents should not take the closings “lying down.” If they organised petitions, he would be happy to parent them.