Australia Post will still send your letters but it has much more elaborate plans . Australia Post has made a return to profit despite at dramatic decline in its letters business, while it plans a bold move to run potential online Australian elections. On Friday, Australia Post chief executive Ahmed Fahour announced a $36 million profit after last financial year’s $222 million loss. Like last year’s result, this year’s financial result (despite being a profit), was still marred by a disastrous letter business decline. Ongoing digital disruption saw addressed letter volumes fall by 9.7 per cent, contributing to a $138 million loss in the postal business — the largest decline in Australia Post’s 207 year history. Mr Fahour painted a pessimistic outlook for traditional letter deliveries, which will remain a loss-making part of the Australia Post business. “We do have a business that is in structural decline. There’s no question about it,” Mr Fahour told the ABC. Mr Fahour was pessimistic about letter trade. Photo: AAP “We’ve stemmed the losses in our letters business but it’s still losing money. We lost $138 million in delivering the mail this financial year. “Unfortunately Australians are saying we want alternatives, we want to communicate in a different way. “And that large volume decline means 43 percent less letters per letterbox compared to our peak eight years ago.” He said Australia Post remained committed to letters, and that a strong performance in parcels drove the profit. Australia Post push for digital voting Australia Post recently made a submission to a Victorian parliament inquiry into electronic voting. The postal company wants to help run an electronic election, with “blockchain” technology at the centre of its plan. An Australia Post spokesperson told The New Daily that Australia Post could not comment further on its submission. […]
