PostShop – heading for a new town not near you
When I first moved to Newtown, one of the delights of the suburb was that there were so many great facilities – an excellent library, a choice of banks and a variety of shops.
But even though the suburb has grown, banks have closed and other facilities have disappeared. The ‘‘good’’ news is that you can buy any sort of alcohol in one of at least nine pubs, bottle stores, supermarkets or bars between the Basin Reserve and Wellington Zoo. And if you drink too much, Newtown has also become a minicentre for addiction treatment.
The Newtown PostShop is also really good. There’s usually a queue, especially before Christmas, yet the staff are unfailingly pleasant and efficient. And having a Kiwibank branch attached meant that you didn’t have to go into town for banking. The late Jim Anderton did a great job in setting up a bank whose mission was to open in smaller or poorer places where other banks would not.
But New Zealand Post and Kiwibank have amicably separated and now we learn that the Newtown PostShop is going to close. Fewer people are buying stamps and NZ Post reckons that PostShop services can either be done online or franchised out. If Newtown residents need a PostShop, they can travel over to Kilbirnie and add to South Wellington’s considerable congestion problems or drive into town and add to Central Wellington’s considerable congestion problems.
Trouble is, rumours are that Kilbirnie will also close soon and go the way of the Karori PostShop. But surely we shouldn’t worry too much as NZ Post is going to franchise out the Newtown postal service. You might slip across the slimy forecourt of a smelly service station to post that letter. Or you might squeeze into a tiny dairy to send that large package.
Over six thousand concerned citizens of Newtown have signed a petition asking that the PostShop remain open. They are also worried about similar PostShops being closed throughout the country. But NZ Post, a stateowned enterprise that effectively delivered a $5 million profit to the government last year, seems determined to continue with closures.
And it seems that Kiwibank, no longer the friend of the little guy, doesn’t want to be associated with an old-fashioned PostShop. It’s planning its own shiny new corporate-looking banking centre in Kilbirnie.
According to the rules of stateowned enterprises, they are not there to help needy people or
Kiwibank is no longer the friend of the little guy.
bolster communities. They must be run as a profitable business. That’s one reason we see so much crap on television.
Rongotai MP Paul Eagle supports the Newtown petitioners, and Wellington Central MP Grant Robertson, who is apparently less than impressed with some franchise facilities, is also sympathetic.
But Mr Robertson is the finance minister, who is not only bound by Cabinet responsibility but needs the big wodge of money that profitable state-owned enterprises deliver to balance his Budget.
Will we see Robertson sitting alone in a Wellington cafe this week hitting himself? It might be that the compassionate local MP worried about people losing a much-loved community facility has a row with a finance minister hell-bent on balancing his Budget.
Meanwhile, our prime minister, who used the words ‘‘caring’’ and ‘‘community’’ extensively in her election campaign, wants to measure success in other ways besides financial. So in three years’ time, will a government investigation find that while public facilities such as PostShops don’t make much money, they’re really good at connecting communities?
The petitioners will be rallying and presenting their petition at 1pm tomorrow at Parliament. I wish them the best in their quest to convince NZ Post and Kiwibank that people are more important than profits.
If you happen to be there and hear a strange whirring sound, don’t worry. It won’t be a new parliamentary windmill installed by the Greens but the sound of Jim Anderton – creator of Kiwibank and staunch advocate for communities to have efficient, local, state-owned facilities – turning in his grave.