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Postal services to two towns across the Tasman Sea will also stop, weeks after New Zealand Post stopped delivering newspapers and parcels to rural areas on Saturdays.
photo: RNZ/Richard Tindiller
Rural communities are concerned New Zealand Post is withdrawing from agricultural areas, leading to a decline in service quality.
The latest area of concern is Tasman, where postal services – including bill payments and postage – will cease in the communities of Māpua and Upper Moutere next month.
Just a few weeks ago, New Zealand Post Newspaper and parcel deliveries to rural areas will be suspended on Saturday The reason is lack of commercial viability.
Rural Women’s New Zealand said it was deeply concerned that post offices would be closed despite a memorandum of understanding with the state-owned enterprise to provide services to all New Zealanders.
“The key message here is that New Zealanders in rural communities, not just city dwellers, need this service,” chief executive Mary Fitzpatrick told RNZ. “That’s something that needs to be factored into New Zealand Post’s operating model.”
“We are very concerned that when services are taken away from rural communities, they will lose connectivity, lose the sense of being part of their local community, and part of New Zealand society.”
She said people could not always pay their bills online due to poor internet connectivity or lack of skills.
She said it was a mistake to assume everyone could drive.
“Rural communities shouldn’t have to spend half an hour just to empty their mailbox, mail a letter or pay a bill. Worse, rural communities often have poor digital connectivity, making it difficult for them to complete administrative tasks online.”
Rural Women’s New Zealand said the closures were continuing, with the Akaroa Postal Centre also abruptly shut.
New Zealand Post said it was looking to partner with another retailer in the Māpua and Upper Moutere areas to offer some discount services, sell basic items such as stamps and prepaid envelopes, and deliver through post boxes, but not provide a full postal service. The company said the post boxes would remain.
“From time to time, an organisation may decide to close, or, as has been the case with organisations in Māpua and Upper Moutere, notify New Zealand Post that they will no longer provide postal services,” a spokesperson told RNZ.
NZ Post said when an agency closed or decided not to provide postal services it considered a number of options, including whether to partner with another agency in the same community, such as whether there was a suitable agency to partner with, whether the new store was commercially viable and its proximity to other stores in the area.
However, due to the low volumes of postal services provided by the two agencies, New Zealand Post said it would not be commercially viable to work with other agencies to provide the same postal service in these communities.
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