Crikey is often a source of interesting articles. It generally takes a critical view of politics, and generally doesnt spare any party or person. It sometimes goes over the edge into gossip and hearsay, but I guess thems the breaks; theyve got to keep their subscribers interest, I suppose. However there is one area that it rivals Murdochs Australian, and thats in its slavish adherence to free market fundamentalism and dislike of the public sector. So this editorial - presumably written by resident dry, Bernard Keane - nails the Crikey colours to the mast. And pretty poor it is too, with the suggestion that the private sector could be responsible for our mail - in effect, giving the current Australia Post CEO, Ahmed Farhour, the highest paid public servant in Australia - what he wants. ------------------ Crikey says: privatise Australia Post For years, Australia Post has fought the threat of the internet to its core business creatively, making sure it was competitive in the burgeoning parcel business to take advantage of the growth in online shopping, expanding into other service delivery areas to take advantage of its large footprint across the country, and encouraging the junk mail industry, one of the few remaining growth areas in its letter delivery business. Now, its CEO Ahmed Fahour has revealed, the tipping point has been reached and the company is unlikely to continue to pay a dividend to its owners -- taxpayers -- given the extent of its losses on its highly regulated letters business. To survive as a business, Australia Post needs to be deregulated -- allowed to charge more for letter delivery, allowed to scale back its delivery services. If there are valid concerns about the need for the maintenance of delivery services, especially in regional areas, let those be the subject of an explicit service obligation and appropriate government funding. Consideration should also be given to privatising Australia Post. Indeed, Labor should have done that while in government, and then it would have been able to sell a viable business that was still generating a substantial profit. Now the government is left with having to either support an unviable regulated business, or free it up to address the dramatic change in the way Australians communicate. The time for avoiding this decision is over.
Posted on: Fri, 05 Sep 2014 04:25:29 +0000
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