Australia Statement Responding Tender

Australia Post continues to have ongoing and positive discussions with many banks and financial institutions in regard to supporting our Bank@Post service. We believe this is an essential service to ensure all Australians have access to basic financial services.The members of COBA who use our Bank@Post service are being asked to continue to support this service in our Community Post Offices. We have asked these financial institutions to pay a Community Representation Fee CRF. The fees offered reflect their level of usage of the service. For many of these smaller institutions the Bank@Post CRF is just 25000 pa or around 7.15 per Post Office. In return they get access to 3500 Community Post Offices providing this service to their customers.This compares to the 20 million CRF agreed to by CBA Westpac and NAB.Group Chief Executive Officer Managing Director Christine Holgate said the Bank@Post service lost 48 million last year.The service required significant investment and we needed to ensure we paid our Licensed Post Office Partners fairly for the work they do. Australia Post was faced with two options to either close the service or seek fair pricing as neither Australia Post or our Licensed Post Office Partners can afford to continue to subsidise this important service Ms Holgate said.I welcome COBAs acknowledgment of the value of Bank@Post and the need for this essential service to be protected.The majority of these institutions are being asked to pay a small fraction of one percent of the larger banks and they get the same benefits of accessing the 3500 strong Post Office network. For many of the mid-tier and smaller banks Bank@Post means they do not have to bear the cost of investment in a branch network but they benefit from the reach and trust of our Community Post Office network.I remain very grateful to CBA Westpac and NAB as without their support we would not have been able to keep this service. I believe this service is critically important particularly in the 1550 communities where there is a Post Office and no bank branch. Their support has been essential in supporting the future prosperity of Post Offices.The Community Representation Fees will enable urgent investment in the Post Office network including upgrading security and information technology. They will also allow Australia Post to pay Post Office operators fairly for providing the service the majority of whom are community-based small business people in rural and regional Australia.