Saying a quick hello to your local postie as they pass each day is a thing of the past, at least temporarily.
Australia Post will transition to delivering letters every second day in metropolitan areas, in an arrangement that will last until 30 June 2021. All parts of Newcastle are designated as metropolitan.
This adjustment will allow Australia Post to redeploy staff to meet the unprecendented demand for the parcel delivery service as a result of the coronavirus pandemic. For local residential letterboxes this means that in one week your letters will be delivered on Monday, Wednesday and Friday, and the next week the delivery will happen on Tuesday and Thursday.
Express Post and parcels will still be delivered every business day, PO Boxes will still be serviced every business day and there will be no changes to the services offered at local Post Offices.
Federal Member for Newcastle Sharon Claydon recently slammed the changes and accused the Government and Australia Post of “using the cover of the global pandemic and dodgy figures to slash services”.
“In March, the Government and Australia Post said the situation was dire, with letter volume dropping drastically during COVID. Since then, we’ve learnt not only that this is not true, but that on the day the request for the cuts was made, letter volumes were actually four per cent above trend.” Ms Claydon said.
Ms Claydon was also highly sceptical about the Government’s claim that the changes would only be ‘temporary’.
