The Sydney Morning Herald
reports that Finance Minister Nick Minchin was asked yesterday at the
National Press Club whether Australia Post would be privatised. He
listed the various government businesses which are for sale or being
readied for sale and commented: “There are a few other smaller business
that could be considered but we’ve not turned our mind to Australia
Post and we have no policy to do so.”

That the government owns a
retail network that competes directly with independently-owned small
business newsagents is appalling. Australia Post is a tough competitor.
They target newsagents with their promotions. They have only started
this competition in fairly recent years. They are leveraging the
goodwill of the postal service to hurt this already challenged small
business channel.

While the mail delivery and stamp production
should be controlled by the government, the retail network should be
completely sold off. Some have been, but not all. Nick Minchin and the
government are wrong on this. Their refusal to even consider the sale
of the retail network is proof of a lack of commitment to small
business. Here they are profiting from exacting commercial success in a
competition with newsagents.

My own newsagency is directly
opposite a government owned Australia Post shop. They compete
aggressively for stationery, greeting cards, phone recharge, Western
Union and bill payment. They do so on unfair terms. They get better
landlord treatment. They have guaranteed traffic. They control how
their store is laid out. They leverage their government protected
monopoly traffic so they can sell products which are crucial to my
success.

Visit Mark’s newsagents blog here.