JOINT MEDIA RELEASE

Senator Sarah Henderson
Shadow Minister for Communications and Digital Safety
Senator for Victoria

Dr Anne Webster MP
Shadow Minister for Regional Health
Shadow Minister for Regional Communications
Federal Member for Mallee

Anika Wells must come clean on secret plan for mass post office closures: Coalition to pursue Senate inquiry

22 June 2026

Following today’s revelations about Australia Post’s secret plan to rationalise its metropolitan outlets, Minister Anika Wells must also come clean on Australia Post’s plans to rationalise its rural and regional Licensed Post Office (LPO) network.

A leaked Australia Post business case states that the “Australia Post Board has (also) approved the key design elements of the non-major cities major network model,” under a program called ‘Licensed Post Office Reimagined’.

This is to be achieved by ‘format conversions’, which could involve stripping away core functions, consolidating or relocating postal services into host businesses such as pharmacies, newsagents or convenience stores, or downsizing them to parcel agents.

However implemented, this will mean the end of many LPOs as we know them.

According to the leaked document, Australia Post will measure its success by paying LPO licensees - who have perpetual licences - a higher short-term commission, while enticing them into a “modernised, mutually-protective fixed term licence agreement”.

The document says, “The financial logic is to invest in a near-term commission uplift to… enable a lower medium-term cost-to-serve through targeted network optimisation.”

This looks like a classic ‘bait and switch’ strategy, which will give Australia Post the upper hand to further reduce the footprint of the 1,584 licenced post offices across rural and regional Australia. The program will start with the 159 last service LPOs, where there is no financial institution for more than 50 kilometres.

The end result is that many LPOs in rural and regional towns could be downgraded, and eventually replaced by parcel agents or even parcel lockers.

This leaked document sits in stark contrast to the deceptive evidence given by Australia Post Group CEO and Managing Director, Paul Graham, at Senate Estimates on 27 May 2026 where, despite prolonged questioning, there was no mention of this master plan for mass closures of post offices.

Accordingly, the Coalition will move for an Environment and Communications References Committee inquiry into the future of the LPO network.

The Coalition recognises the crucial role that LPOs play in delivering vital services to communities, particularly in regional, rural and remote Australia.

Once again Anika Wells is missing in action. As a shareholder Minister, the Statement of Expectations for Australia Post states that she should be informed of such changes before they take effect.

Yet today a spokesman for Ms Wells said Australia Post was “legally and financially separate from the government … Australia Post’s day-to-day operations are the responsibility of its board and management.”

Anika Wells must come clean on whether she was informed of this plan, and if so, whether she has issued any directions to the Board or taken any other action in relation to it.

Quotes attributable to Senator Sarah Henderson, Shadow Minister for Communications and Digital Safety:

“Anika Wells and Australia Post need to come clean to Australians about their secret plan to rationalise post offices across the country.”

“What will happen to LPO licensees who don’t accept Australia Post’s inducements. How many post offices will be shut down? How many regional communities will be affected? How many Australia Post employees will lose their jobs?”

“These changes would directly affect millions of Australians, as well as small and family businesses in communities across the country. They deserve honest answers from Anika Wells and Australia Post.”

Quotes attributable to Dr Anne Webster MP, Shadow Minister for Regional Communications:

“Across regional Australia, the local post office is the lifeblood of the community. This secret plan is a callous attack on people living in regional, rural and remote Australia.”

“Regional post offices play a vital role in meeting Australia Post’s Community Service Obligations which include that the letter service is reasonably accessible to all Australians on an equitable basis.”

“This bombshell document is further evidence the Albanese government and Australia Post could not care less about the acute harm this attack on LPOs would cause to the regions.”

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