Before I begin, I would like to acknowledge Dr Helen Haines and the horrific attack she suffered last week. Our thoughts are with her family, her team and the Indi community. We wish her strength and courage in her recovery.
Thank you Chair and Senators. My name is Paul Graham, and I am the Group Chief Executive Officer & Managing Director of Australia Post.
Today I'm joined by Mr Josh Bannister, our Executive General Manager, Retail, Brand & Marketing, along with Ms Jane Anderson our Executive General Manager, Community, Sustainability & Stakeholder Engagement and Mr Nick Macdonald our Group Corporate Secretary.
I would like to start by acknowledging the traditional custodians, the Ngunawal and Ngambri peoples and pay my respects to their elders.
There has been an increasing amount of press and parliamentary coverage in relation to our post office network in recent months. I want to take this opportunity and place on the public record our absolute commitment to maintaining 4,000 postal outlets across Australia with 2,500 of those in regional, rural and remote Australia. This is not only enshrined in our regulatory framework, but forms a core part of our overall strategy at Australia Post.
Regional Australia remains at the centre of our investment for a stronger Australia Post.
We are now supporting communities where a traditional post office has never been practical. In partnership with Outback Stores, we have opened 16 new community postal agencies in remote communities, many of them in Indigenous-owned stores.
Eleven are in the Northern Territory with others in Western Australia and Queensland. These communities can now send and receive mail and parcels close to home, without long journeys.
Our focus on regional Australia is not only on maintaining our post office footprint, but also in ensuring that reliable and cost-efficient parcel delivery can be maintained. That is why we are continuing to invest in new parcel facilities in places like Morwell, building on the 10 new facilities we announced this past year, all in regional towns, all to help grow local businesses.
E-commerce growth in the regions is outstripping the growth of metro, demonstrating that our investments are making it easier and more convenient for people to access products in these regional, rural and remote areas.
Our commitment to communities goes beyond our network. During Mental Health Month, we announced more than $700,000 in Community Grants for 81 community-led projects that build connection and support mental health and wellbeing. More than half of these grants are going to rural and remote areas.
At the same time, the way Australians live, work and shop is rapidly changing, and customers are looking for longer hours of access and more convenience. We have responded by broadening how and where people can use our services, including through parcel lockers and other self-service options. Importantly, these are in addition to our reported retail outlets. They are designed to complement our post offices, not replace them.
Our licensed post offices remain vital to their communities, and as more Australians shop online, parcels now make up the majority of their transactions. Commissions to licensees have increased every year for the past 17 years and reached a record $635 million last financial year. Additionally, our renegotiated Bank@Post agreements, which now include ANZ, have lifted those commissions by 30 per cent.
Let me be clear, we are not seeking to reduce LPO services. Where third parties and government agencies have moved online and ended their arrangements with Australia Post, we are seeking new ones, with an expression of interest process underway for additional over-the-counter services.
Where licensees choose to retire or leave the network, our priority is continuity of service for those communities. For two years we have been working with licensees and their associations to modernise an LPO model that is more than 30 years old, and that work continues.
However, the challenges for LPOs in metropolitan and non-metropolitan areas are not like-for-like. For LPOs in regional, rural and remote Australia, we have proposed to provide an additional $30 million in commissions each year, with targeted support for those outlets that need it most. The challenges in metropolitan areas are largely due to significant geographical overlap, and we remain committed to exploring opportunities to strengthen and improve their financial sustainability.
Importantly, Australia Post maintains this nation-wide network without the support of taxpayer funding. We remain one of the only major postal operators in the world that delivers on our government-mandated service obligations on a fully self-funded basis.
Australia Post is about to enter the busiest time of our year. Australians are increasingly relying on eCommerce to find the lowest possible price to help in the current cost of living crisis. At the end of next month, Black Friday will mark the start of what we expect to be our biggest peak delivery period on record.
Last year we delivered almost 111 million parcels across November and December, including more than three million on a single day for the first time. This year we are preparing to deliver more than 120 million parcels.
To meet this anticipated demand, we have recruited 3,900 casual team members and expanded our air network. Last month, together with Qantas, we welcomed the first of three additional Airbus A321 freighters, based at the new 24-hour freight terminal at Western Sydney International Airport.
None of this work and the services we provide are possible without our people. Our team members, licensees and delivery partners will once again work long hours over the coming weeks so that Australians receive the gifts, medicines and essentials they rely on. I want to sincerely thank them for their continued dedication. They are the beating heart of the communities we serve.
Finally, last week I announced my intention to retire in June next year. I will remain fully committed to supporting customers and our team members right up until the last minute of my last day, working hard to keep our people safe, delight our customers and communities and ensure our long-term sustainability.
