A Mystery Contributor penned a great piece for ProPrint last month on Australia Post. Central to the article was the idea that Post is leading us all into disaster by avoiding tough decisions on headcount, raising prices rather than looking at costs, and neglecting reform of its monopoly market in letters while chasing the gold at the end of the parcel freight rainbow.
The Mystery Contributor (MC) also made the point that at the same time we’re all forced to deal with the consequences of Post’s policies, Post themselves are working with China Post via a joint venture called Sai Cheng that allows clients to offshore their printing and mailing.
Post working against us is nothing new of course – up until recently they’ve been competing with us via the Postconnect business. I work closely with Post and they weren’t above contacting my clients to try and cut me out – nothing personal though, just business you understand.
But for me, the most remarkable aspect of this article was the very existence of Sai Cheng. Who allowed Australia Post to set up this relationship with China Post?
Sai Cheng’s website says the joint partnership started in 2003, putting the whole thing squarely in the hands of the Howard Government. What were they thinking?
I understand Post has been corporatised for decades and quite rightly run at arm’s length from the Federal Government. Everyone wants Post to be run as efficiently as possible as ultimately it is taxes paid by you and me that are going to have to fix it if it goes wrong. But you would think (or hope) that when the CEO of Post decided he was going to shaft every printer in the country smaller than Blue Star he would have run it past the Minister who was going to cop the flack.
But did he cop any flack? Did PIAA or any industry body protest Sai Cheng’s creation in 2003? I don’t remember it. And if they didn’t then, why aren’t they calling for the closure of the joint venture as part of their submission on Post now that things are a lot tougher for us in 2015?
I’m not coming at this from a protectionist view – to me the sooner NetFlix, Uber, Tesla and the other overseas companies who are remodelling the world come in and force Australia to move into the 21st century the better. If China Post wants to come in and provide a better service than Australia Post, then let them. The competition will do everyone good. But this partnership between Australia Post and China Post is our government acting with the Chinese government to rob us and it’s outrageous.
Maybe Sai Cheng isn’t that big a deal. After all it’s been around for twelve years, and there are still printing and mailing houses around. But how do you know how much work they’ve been draining out of the country all this time? Do Post report it? Do China Post brag about it somewhere?
Maybe we wouldn’t have lost Geon or the original Blue Star if Sai Cheng wasn’t in the field.
And just a quick reminder that one of the reasons Focus Press got that six million dollar grant from the NSW State and Federal Governments was its promise that it would bring work back from China. It boggles the mind – on the one hand the Federal Government is colluding with the Chinese Government to send work out of the country and on the other its subsidizing printers to try and win it back.
The whole thing beggars belief. Hopefully the Progressive Party that runs PIAA will have a look.
Baden Kirgan is managing director of Jeffries Printing Services
Editor’s note: Australia Post responded to this article when it was published in print to say that: “Sai Cheng is solely focussed on parcels and packets and B2B freight solutions ex Asia. The business does not do offshore printing.”
Make of this what you will.
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