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THE BUSINESS REPORT ON THE
POSTAL DEPARTMENT
?
The report supplied to the iFederal Go
vernment by Mr M 'Anderson on the
working of the Postal Department from
a .purely business point of view will
doufbtSess be regarded by anany people
tis having appeared, opportunely, for
ihe reason ifaat it has been produced
at tihe time when t5he Government Is
preparing to levy, and collect £4 ,000,000
of fresh taxation, and wlhen represen
tation is being made ag to the seed
of Government economy in oooneotian
with ordinary Government expenditure
Thait there is scope for avoidance by the
Federal Government of much expendi
ture classifiable a& unnecessary is &
widely entertained opinion^ And what
Mr M' Anderson ihas found'- in the
course of investigation to say about the i
IPbsbal Department is hardily likely ibo
have any effect otner than an increase ;
and strengthening of that view. It
will probably also he taken . as evidence
of. the difficulties which, beset) tihe man
agement of a puKde service department
operative throughout the Common
wealth. Even when tiie department is
one that makes uniform charges for
the services it renders the public, no
ma/tter in what part of the Common
wealth it renders them, and notwith
standing tike existence of a special
Act of Parliament and other statutory
provisions iilesigned to ensure uniform
and efficient administration. In round
terms, what Mr M'Anderson reports is
that tbe department which embraces
tiie public postal, .telegraph, telephone,
and radio-telegraph services is feeing
carried on at an annual loss of aibo-ut
half a million sterling. In only two
of the States (Victoria, £13,683, and
South Australia, £327) is there a bal
ance on the right side. Nearly one
half of iihe total loss is incurred in
New South Wales, £228,949 ; but there
are also heavy losses in Western Aus
tralia;, £148,244, and Queensland,
£110,221 ; and the Tnfsmanitvn. accounts
uhow a Joss of C'2S,(io2.
In the briefest . form in which it can
!-e summarised the loss on working of
half a million for a single year repre
sents the businoss position of ithe de
partment's affairs after a period of
fourteen years of Federal 'adlministra
tion. No private enterprise business
could be earned on witih such a result,
and the Federal Government is able
to continue the services of the depart
ment only because it is in a position to
make up the toss by revenue obtained
from taxation or contributed by the
public in some other form. - Since - fed
eration tbe department has had no
less than thirteen Postmaffber&Gen era!
— nearly one for each year of {federa
tion. Nominally the PostmasterGen
eral is- responsible to Parliament for.
?Che working of the department and !he
nominally has control of it. But ac
tually his administration is largely sub
ject to or affected by various otKer
authorities who act under, statutory,
provision, and it is also affected by
bodies rwhjicQi are not responsible to iihe'
Government or Parliament. Beside the
administration of tie PostmasterGen
eral and his : staff of executive officers,
the affairs of the department may Ibe
affected by the Fedfera-l Parfiament, tihe
Public 'Service Gxmimiseiotier, the Fed-!
eral Arbitration .Court, and- the unions
of the employees of ' the .department!
Moreover, as jVfr 'M'Anderson points
out, no matter how capable an admin
istrator tbe Postmaster-General may
be,, Sie occupies his office for only a
comparatively short time. . He has
BcarceTiy had time to get a grip of the
affairs of' the department wSban he
leavfes and a new chief is installed. In
addition to tbis the office of ' Postmas
ter-General is one. filled by- political
and ..party appointment, and tie ap
pointment is not necessarily made be-^
cause of tried aiid proved taxiiministra
tiive ? capability ; it' is usually ? a re- '
ward for service rendered to the poii- 1
Meal party tliat happens for the time i
being .to have a majority of the . seals'
' in . Parliament, and as a. matter of - fact
a Poskmaste^General' need mot have
had any administrative experience be- 1
fore be: takes tihe. office' that nominally
imposes an him ' tlhe responsibility - ,
administering a department in which
30,000 people are employed, and whose
cash financial transactions in .the
course of a year amount to £46,000,
COO. The theory is that -the Postmas
ter-General should be held responsafbite
for matters of departmental policy,
and that tlhe routine of tihe department
should be supervised by departmental '
executive officers aijd the work' done by
an army of employees.
He reeuClts of fourteen years of ef
fort to redutee this tlheoTy to practice,
as they are set out in Mr M'Ander-.
son's report . from a' business point of
view, may be said to speak for them*
selves. As it exists to-day the condi
tion of the departtme-nt is not altogeth
er .attributable to' lack of attempt to
discover what needed adjustment, for
a Bldyal Commission spent a great dteal
of time and money some years ago,
and made a number of reoommenda
tioHs. Mr M'Anderson is of the opin
ion tihat if more of tfbese recommenda
tions had been adopted and applied, as
some of them were, to the . working oif
the department its difficulties -would
have 'passed away.' VFfliat teas to fee
met now are financial oonddtikmisi arising
from an increase of the, expenditure of
the department greater than the in
crease of its rwenue. (In Tasmania
the Postal Department viefbded a pro
fit IBefore it was transferred to the ,
CSbmnuon-weaitb. iNb-w its loss on work
ing in tftiis State in one year, is shown
to be £28,052. The business ? of . the
department for tihe whole of tihe Com
monwealtlh was double in 1913—14 wliai
it was in 1901-2, the number of em
ployees was not quite so much greater,,
but the number of post and receiving
offices inoreased only from 71100 to
8409, and the nsaail: services from
3-524 to 4899, whale salaries rose from
£1,208,222 in 1901 to £2,568,000 in
11014. For tihe four years 19KW.4 the
departmental revenue increased 20 per
cent, and the salary expenditure 6-5
per cent. Mr M'Anderson is convinced
that it would be possible to balance
the department's accounts by effecting
Savings to the amount of tihe present
Loss, butt to adopt . this course of
ajctbion would he says inflict Uuard^iip.
Therefore, in addition to certain ad- 1
mindstraitfive cluaingfes, he ireoommends ;
increases of the charges made by the
department for services which it ren
ders tihe public. The additions to
charges renom'm ended inctade doubling
the present charge for each telephone
caJJ, increasing tihe charge for tele
eiiams, and dioublinig the charge for
(bulk newspaper postage. Tbms his pro
posal is tiliat most of the department's
loas should Ibe madie up by increased
payments by tbe puWldle. The Postmas
ter-Generail has already indicated that
tlie recoim.mpnda.tion for tiie Appoint
ment of a General Manager with ade
- quarte aiutihority is not likely to be
(adopted by the Government, because
it winnild involve an alteration o? exist
?dng legiyJation., lint it eccm.'i to be
1
quite likely tihat when the promised
statement of the Government's inten
tion is made to Parliament it will be
fcund to (embrace some, if not ail, of
tbe ' increased1 charges recoimim ended, j
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