The Government has asked Parliament about the future of the network. Submissions close 5pm Canberra time, Monday 7 December 2026.
Are you a Post Office customer or community member? You can also have your say in the House inquiry. Read Parliament’s guide to making a submission.
LPO Group gave evidence to the Senate inquiry and will make its own submission to this one. This page has been developed to help licensees understand the process and prepare their own independent submissions.
Picture a post office that does more, not less. You come in to send a parcel. While you’re there you prove who you are for a new bank account, get help with a Medicare problem from someone who knows the system, pay a bill and take out cash. It’s one trusted counter, in almost every community in the country, run by people who know their town.
That counter already exists. The premises, the trained staff, the secure systems and the local trust are all in place. What it needs is the work to put through it.
Right now the network is heading the other way. Services are being removed. Parcels are being sent to lockers and other shops. Each change can be defended on its own. Together they give people fewer reasons to come through the door, and a post office without visits doesn’t last.
The Government asked for it. The Minister for Communications referred it on 26 October 2026 to the House Standing Committee on Communications, the Arts and Sport, chaired by Susan Templeman MP. Its recommendations go back to the Government that asked the question. The committee is expected to report by mid 2027.
The committee is looking at how to make postal services more sustainable and more accessible. That covers Australia Post’s finances, competition in parcel delivery, the role of post offices in communities, different ways of delivering services locally, and what other countries have done.
It has two limits. Its answers can’t rely on new government funding, and they can’t change what Australia Post is required to do by law.
The front counter fits inside both. Banks already pay to use the counter through Bank@Post. Identity and government services can work the same way, paid per transaction. That brings in revenue instead of costing the taxpayer, and it needs no change to the law. France and Japan already run their post office networks this way.
Lockers, shared shopfronts, smaller formats and fewer letter delivery days also fit inside those limits, and they’re all named in the terms of reference. So the committee is choosing between a network that does more and a network that does less. Both are possible. Only one keeps a full-service counter in your community.
The committee will hear from Australia Post, the parcel industry and others with a stake in the network.
It needs to hear from the people who run the counters and the communities who rely on them.
The committee can’t see what happens at your counter unless you tell it. What has changed, how your business has been affected, and what your community has lost only reach the committee if licensees write in.
The committee has said it won’t accept form submissions or campaign submissions. That makes every individual submission count. A hundred licensees writing in their own words is a hundred pieces of evidence. A hundred copies of the same letter won’t be accepted at all.
If you wrote to the Senate inquiry, use it as your starting point, but rewrite it for this committee.
Your submission doesn’t need to be long, formal or written by a lawyer. It doesn’t need to cover every term of reference. Tell the committee what you’ve seen, how it has affected your business, and what your counter could do for your community if it were given the work.
We have put together answers to the questions licensees most commonly ask about the inquiry. If something is on your mind, it is probably covered below.
Ready to start writing? Go straight to the Submission Planner.
Both houses of Parliament run inquiries. The Senate inquiry into Australia Post’s retail network was set up by the Senate itself. This one was referred by the Minister for Communications to a committee of the House of Representatives. The committee gathers evidence, may hold public hearings, and reports back with recommendations. The Government then responds to those recommendations.
A submission is a written document you send to the committee setting out your views, observations, and experience relevant to the inquiry. It becomes part of the evidence considered by the committee when preparing its report.
Submissions can be as short as a few paragraphs or as long as several pages. There is no required format. The committee is interested in firsthand evidence, not formal documents.
Submissions close at 5pm Canberra time on Monday 7 December 2026. That is 5pm in NSW, Victoria, Tasmania and the ACT, 4:30pm in South Australia, 4pm in Queensland, 3:30pm in the Northern Territory and 2pm in Western Australia.
The committee is expected to report by mid 2027. Allow a few days before the deadline in case of technical issues.
Yes, but you don’t have to start from scratch. Parliament’s rules say a submission must be prepared for the inquiry it goes to and not published anywhere else, so you can’t send your Senate submission in as it is.
If your Senate submission speaks to these terms, use it as your starting point. Address it to the House committee, link each point to one of the five terms on this page, cut anything that only fitted the Senate’s terms, and add anything that has changed since.
If you have operated a Licensed Post Office and have firsthand experience relevant to one or more of the inquiry’s terms of reference, a submission from you may assist the committee.
You do not need to be a policy expert. You do not need to have experienced every issue the inquiry covers. If you have observations about how changes to the network have affected your business or your community, that is evidence the committee cannot get from anyone else.
This inquiry is also open to the people who rely on your post office. Customers, local businesses and community groups can each make their own submission. Point them to our community page.
Write about your own experience operating a Licensed Post Office and how it relates to what the committee is examining. You do not need to cover every topic the inquiry addresses.
Start with what you know. You do not need to research the issues or prove what has happened across the network.
The Submission Planner below walks you through a series of questions to help you identify what is most relevant to your situation. Your submission should focus on your own observations and their impact on your business.
The Terms of Reference section of this page explains each of the committee’s five questions in plain English. It also describes the kinds of evidence that may be relevant to each one.
No. The committee has said it will not accept any form submissions or campaign submissions. Your submission needs to be written by you, about your post office, in your own words.
The Submission Planner on this page gives you questions and notes, not text to copy. That is deliberate.
That is enough. A submission that addresses one issue clearly, with specific observations and evidence, is more useful to the committee than a submission that attempts to cover everything briefly.
The committee is building a picture from many submissions. Your specific experience of a specific issue may help the committee understand something that would otherwise be missing.
No. There are five terms of reference. Address the ones that are relevant to your experience. Most licensees will focus on terms 3 and 4.
There is no set length. A submission that clearly describes your experience and its effect on your business will be useful whether it is one page or five. If it runs to more than a few pages, put a short summary at the front.
The committee is interested in evidence based on firsthand experience, not polished writing. A submission written in plain, straightforward language is entirely appropriate.
If writing is difficult, you can use voice-to-text on your phone or computer to speak your submission and convert it to text. The Submission Planner on this page is also designed to help you think through what you want to say before you start writing.
AI can help you organise your thoughts and work out what is relevant. The words need to be yours. If many submissions read the same way, the committee may treat them as a campaign. A submission that sounds like you, about your counter and your community, carries weight that a polished generic one does not.
You remain responsible for the accuracy of everything in your submission.
Include whatever you have that is relevant and accurate. This might include records of changes to your commission payments, correspondence about services or operating arrangements, data showing changes in transaction volumes, or a factual account of how specific changes have affected your business.
You do not need formal documentation. A clear, specific account of your observations is itself evidence. If you do have documents that support your observations, refer to them in your submission and attach them where appropriate.
For further guidance on what makes a strong submission, see the Parliament website’s guide to submitting.
If any of it is commercially sensitive, see the questions on confidentiality below.
If your submission is published, anyone can read it, including Australia Post.
Your submission is protected by parliamentary privilege. You cannot be sued for lodging it or for anything you say in it. Once the committee publishes it, sharing the published version is protected too. It is an offence to improperly influence anyone not to make a submission, or to threaten anyone for making one.
That protection covers your submission as lodged with the committee. It does not cover copies you share yourself before the committee publishes it, so wait until then.
If you are still worried about what you plan to include, read the next two questions or contact the committee secretariat before you submit.
You can ask. The committee has said it will consider requests to keep commercially sensitive information confidential, and will decide each request case by case. If you want to include figures from your business or anything else you would not want published, contact the committee secretariat before you submit.
Phone: +61 2 6277 4386
Email: communications.reps@aph.gov.au
Yes. You can ask for your submission to be published as “Name withheld”. It still appears on the committee’s website and can be quoted in the report, but your name is not published. For many licensees this is a better option than a confidential submission, which the committee cannot quote.
You can also put sensitive figures in an appendix and mark only the appendix confidential. The rest of your submission can then be published and used by the committee.
Whichever you choose, say so clearly on the front page of your submission and give a short reason.
The committee will decide whether to accept your submission. Most accepted submissions are published on the committee’s website with your name. You cannot withdraw or change a submission after it is published, but you can send a supplementary submission if you have something to add.
The committee may invite some people who made submissions to give evidence at a public hearing. Community hearings are expected.
Not until the committee publishes it. Once you lodge it, you cannot publish or share it, including in the Facebook group, until the committee authorises publication. After that it is public and you can share the link.
The committee can only recommend what it has evidence for. When licensees independently describe the same things, the committee sees a pattern no single submission shows. If no one tells it what the counter could do, that future won’t be in the report.
What are terms of reference?
When an inquiry is set up, it comes with a list of the specific questions the committee has been asked to examine. These are the terms of reference. They tell you what the committee wants to hear about.
This inquiry has five. You do not need to address all of them. Most licensees will focus on terms 3 and 4.
Two limits sit over all five. The committee is looking for measures that improve the sustainability and accessibility of postal services “within existing fiscal parameters and in line with Australia Post’s established postal legislative functions”. In plain English, it wants answers that do not depend on new government funding and do not change what Australia Post is required to do by law. Keep those limits in mind as you write. Services that bring paid work to the counter fit inside both. The most useful submissions describe what works, or could work, inside them.
The changing financial position of Australia Post due to the change in consumer behaviour and the evolving role of letters in Australia’s communications landscape.
What this means in plain English: People send far fewer letters than they used to, and they use the post office differently. The committee wants to understand how that is changing Australia Post’s finances.
Evidence that may assist the committee: You do not see Australia Post’s books, but you see the counter. This could include what customers come in for now compared with a few years ago, how letter and stamp sales have moved at your outlet, and what has replaced them, if anything.
The growth in market share of delivery services operated by global marketplace retailers, specifically the impact on Australia Post’s ability to maintain a nationally accessible postal service that supports small business and protects workers.
What this means in plain English: Some of the biggest online retailers now deliver their own parcels instead of using Australia Post. The committee wants to know how that affects Australia Post’s ability to keep a postal service available to everyone, including the small businesses that rely on it.
Evidence that may assist the committee: Changes in the parcels you handle, the small business customers who post through your counter and what they depend on you for, and what happens in your community when a parcel goes to a locker or another provider instead of your counter.
The role and viability of post offices in communities, with respect to declining foot traffic and retail revenue, and opportunities to enhance or diversify services to support community and commercial sustainability.
What this means in plain English: This is the term written about post offices. The committee wants to understand what post offices do, what falling foot traffic and retail revenue mean for post offices, and what new or expanded services could keep them viable for both the community and the business. This is your chance to describe your post office as you know it, and to say what would make it work.
Evidence that may assist the committee: The services you offer and who relies on them. Services that have been removed and what that did to foot traffic and revenue. Services customers ask for that you cannot offer, such as government, banking or identity services. What your counter could do with the right services and fair pay for them, and what that would mean for your community. Changes in how you are paid and what that means for viability. Letters from customers, local businesses or community groups about what your post office means to them.
Options to better meet consumer needs through efficient and locally tailored services within the existing regulated network. This could include parcel lockers, colocation with existing retail services, other postal formats and frequency of letter delivery.
What this means in plain English: The committee is looking at different ways Australia Post could deliver services in each area. The terms name parcel lockers, putting post office services inside other shops, other post office formats, and how often letters are delivered. These options will be considered whether or not licensees comment on them.
Evidence that may assist the committee: Your experience of what these options mean in practice. What a parcel locker near your outlet has meant for your counter and your customers. What your customers would lose if their post office became a counter inside another business, or a different format. What the people in your community need from local postal services that a locker or a reduced service could not provide.
Examples of international best practice in maintaining the sustainability and accessibility of national post.
What this means in plain English: The committee wants to learn from how other countries have dealt with the same problems.
Evidence that may assist the committee: Most licensees will skip this term. If you have worked in or used another country’s postal network and have direct experience of what worked there, it may help. LPO Group will address international examples in its own submission.
There is no catch-all term in this inquiry. If something matters to you that does not fit neatly, connect it to term 3 or term 4. Explain what it means for the viability of your post office or for your community’s access to services.
If you are not sure where to start, the Submission Planner below will guide you through a series of questions.
There is no required format. The structure below works whether or not you used the Submission Planner. If you did, it matches your planning notes. Useful submissions make a clear argument, contain recommendations for action, and provide sources for any references. If the submission is more than a few pages long it is helpful to include a table of contents and a summary.
Start with a short introduction. Tell the committee who you are, the name and location of your Post Office, how long you have been a licensee, and a sentence or two about the community you serve. This gives the committee context for everything that follows.
If you want your name withheld or part of your submission kept confidential, say so here, with a short reason.
Write one section for each issue you want to raise. Give each section a short heading and say which term of reference it relates to. If you used the Planner, there is one section for each experience you worked through.
For each section, write two to four paragraphs in your own words. Say what happened, what you saw, and what effect it had on your business or your community. Write it the way you would explain it to someone who knows nothing about your post office.
Stick to what you have seen and what you think would work. Leave out blame.
If you used the Planner, your notes list the documents you identified. Attach only what directly supports what you have written. Quality matters more than volume.
Consider asking your community
Customers, local businesses and community groups can make their own submission to this inquiry, and the committee wants to hear from them. Point them to Parliament’s guide to making a submission. If someone would rather write a short letter for you to attach, ask them to write it themselves, in their own words. Do not hand them a template.
End with a short paragraph. Tell the committee the one thing you most want it to take away, or the one change that would make the biggest difference to your post office and your community. If you used the Planner, start from your answer to the final question.
Before you save and lodge
Submissions can be uploaded as a Word document, a PDF, or in plain text format. You can upload multiple documents: for example, a covering letter, public submission and a confidential attachment. PDF is recommended as it preserves your formatting.
There is no set length. Shorter submissions are read and considered. The committee is interested in your firsthand experience, not polished writing.
Work through this checklist before you lodge your submission.
Your submission
Your evidence
Confidentiality
Contact details
Ready to submit
Remember: Your submission does not need to be perfect. The committee is interested in your firsthand experience, honestly and accurately described.
When you have your submission ready, lodge it through the committee’s online portal.
Submissions are lodged through the Parliament of Australia website. The process takes around ten minutes once your document is ready.
Open Parliament’s online submission portal using the Lodge My Submission button at the end of this section.
Sign in to your My Parliament account. If you do not have an account, select Create an Account and register using your email address and a password of your choice.
On the Make a Submission page, scroll down and confirm Inquiry into postal services is selected. Click Next.
Under "Is this account for a personal submission or for providing a submission on behalf of an organisation?" select Personal.
Fill in your contact details and click Next.
A note on privacy
Published submissions become part of the public record. They can be cited by the committee in its report, referenced in parliamentary debate, and read by members of Parliament and their staff.
If you are comfortable with your submission being published, this gives your evidence the widest reach.
If your submission includes commercially sensitive information, contact the committee secretariat before you submit. The committee decides confidentiality requests case by case. You can also publish your main submission and request confidentiality for attachments only. See the FAQ above for how to do this.
The choice is yours. LPOG does not recommend one option over the other because individual circumstances vary.
Upload your submission document and any supporting evidence. Accepted file types are PDF, Word or plain text. Click Submit. Don’t share or post your submission, including in the Facebook group, until the committee publishes it.
After you submit
You will receive an email confirmation from the secretariat once your submission has been received. The committee will review your submission and notify you of the outcome. If you have questions at any point, contact the committee secretariat directly.
Phone: +61 2 6277 4386
Email: communications.reps@aph.gov.au
Post: PO Box 6021, Parliament House, Canberra ACT 2600
