Christine Holgate revives quest to access AusPost’s infrastructure

afr.com:

Team Global Express chief executive Christine Holgate has revived her push to access post offices and local delivery services run by Australia Post after a similar move in the United Kingdom earlier this month.

The logistics business, once part of Toll Holdings and now owned by private equity group Allegro Funds, floated the idea in May but was given a cold shoulder by Australia Post, which Ms Holgate previously ran.

Team Global Express chief executive Christine Holgate argues sharing last-mile infrastructure will help regional communities. Peter Rae

Ms Holgate, who resigned from Australia Post in 2020 after it emerged that she had gifted her senior executives Cartier watches as performance bonuses, said she still wanted the government postal service to open up its infrastructure. Ms Holgate later won a $1.1 million settlement for her exit.

“I’m a massive believer in it,” Ms Holgate told The Australian Financial Review Infrastructure Summit. “And like all negotiations, they take time, sometimes longer than I’d like, but that’s a reality of negotiating.”

A spokeswoman for Australia Post said it had rejected the proposal because it was not commercially viable.

Ms Holgate cast the proposed arrangement as one that would help regional post offices handle more parcels and transition to becoming service hubs in regional areas as letter volumes declined. It would also help their profitability, she said, at a time Australia Post was facing significant financial strain.

“Last mile” is the industry’s term for the sorting and delivery infrastructure which readies packages and letters for delivery or pick-up at post office boxes and parcel lockers.

Last week, the UK Post Office announced it would let customers choose from several