The Australia Post rip-off

Australia Post has drastically raised the price of ordinary letters from 70c to $1, which is an increase of over 42% at first glance. However, in terms of actual value for money, the price of ordinary letters has been increased by 114% (to $1.50). This is outrageous.

In addition to the ridiculous initial price hike (70c to $1), the company is promising customers even worse service, saying that ordinary letters will now take longer to arrive, but — surprise, surprise — customers will now have the added option of using the new “$1.50 priority service”, paying even more money to get the same service that used to cost 70c. Why should Australians be paying $1.50 for what, up until recently, only cost 70 cents? A price hike of 114% is ridiculous, and is indicative of poor management at Australia Post, a once fine company.

The national mail carrier has posted a large financial loss, although a massive part of that was due to restructuring and redundancies — all a part of Australia Post’s “cunning plan” of mismanagement.

And who is the Baldrick-like character driving this idiocy? Who is to blame for this monumental mess? Well, there are those who say that the blame for the decline of Australia Post is due to the incompetence of Ahmed Fahour, Australia Post’s CEO. Ahmed was the one who made the “wonderful” decision to impact the lives of hundreds of Australian families by sacking 900 Australia Post employees, to save the company money (by the way, Ahmed’s salary from Australia Post over the last few years has been between $4.6 million to $4.8 million).

Those in the know will remember Ahmed Fahour — who migrated to Australia from Lebanon, as part of the “wonderful diversity” that the Lebanese Muslims have showered upon our fair country — from when he became head of the National Australia Bank’s Australian operations, and, under his leadership, the bank made a move “to encourage the development of Shariah compliant financial products and services”. After his time at the NAB, Ahmed joined the Middle Eastern Islamic investment bank Gulf Finance House. Ahmed and his family are big financial contributions to the Islamic Museum of Australia, which is run by his brother, Moustafa Fahour.

Under Ahmed’s leadership, will Australia Post be committed to the traditional Australian way of life, support Aussie Post workers, and give good service to customers, or will the company now have a different agenda in mind?

References:
Australia Post delivers $222 million loss as letter posting in ‘terminal decline’”, SMH, 25 September 2015 Jenny Wiggins
Australia Post raises price of stamps for a regular letter to $1”,
Australia Post flooded with complaints about $1 stamp and slower service”, Jan 4 2016
Critics of Australia Post’s decision to sack 900 staff questioning CEO Ahmed Fahour’s $4.8 million salary”, ABC, 11 Jun 2014, Latika Bourke
Ahmed Fahour: delivering the goods for Australia Post?”, The Sydney Morning Herald, 8 August 2015 (Jane Cadzow)
Fahour moves to Islamic banking”, The Australian, 20 July 2009 (John Durie)
Jihad finance coming to Australia: The scam of Islamic banking”, Destiny Magazine, 14 February, 2008 (Darrin Hodges)
Baldrick”, Wikipedia
Ahmed Fahour”, Wikipedia

Comments

  1. Someone has to pay for the ILLEGAL REFUGEES.
    Eddy.

  2. This Fahour character also sits on the board of the Carlton Football Club. Seems the bastard has his tentacles in a lot of places. One suspects that his appointment happened with the privatisation of Australia Post very much in mind. Clearly, he has a corporate, profit-driven agenda and mentality, as opposed to being about providing an actual essential service to customers.

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