{"id":373494,"date":"2026-06-22T16:07:34","date_gmt":"2026-06-22T06:07:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/southburnett.com.au\/news2\/?p=373494"},"modified":"2026-06-22T19:08:19","modified_gmt":"2026-06-22T09:08:19","slug":"secret-plan-to-shut-post-offices-mps","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/southburnett.com.au\/news2\/2026\/06\/22\/secret-plan-to-shut-post-offices-mps\/","title":{"rendered":"‘Secret Plan’ to Shut Post Offices: MPs"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>
Senator Sarah Henderson<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

June 22, 2026<\/strong><\/p>\n

The Federal Opposition claims Australia Post has a “secret plan” to close down post offices in rural and regional areas.<\/p>\n

The Coalition says a leaked Australia Post document\u00a0 states “the key design elements of the non-major cities major network model\u201d had been approved under a program called “Licensed Post Office Reimagined”.<\/p>\n

“Format conversions” could involve consolidating or relocating postal services into pharmacies, newsagents or convenience stores, or downsizing them to parcel agents.<\/p>\n

The program will allegedly start with the 159 last-service LPOs, where there is no financial institution for more than 50km.<\/p>\n

Victorian Liberal Party Senator Sarah Henderson said Communications Minister Anika Wells and Australia Post must “come clean to Australians about their secret plan to rationalise post offices across the country\u201d.<\/strong><\/p>\n

“What will happen to LPO licensees who don\u2019t accept Australia Post\u2019s inducements. How many post offices will be shut down? How many regional communities will be affected? How many Australia Post employees will lose their jobs?” she said.<\/p>\n

“These changes would directly affect millions of Australians, as well as small and family businesses in communities across the country. They deserve honest answers from Anika Wells and Australia Post.”<\/p>\n

Victorian Nationals MP Dr Anne Webster said the “secret plan” was “a callous attack on people living in regional, rural and remote Australia\u201d.<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cRegional post offices play a vital role in meeting Australia Post\u2019s Community Service Obligations which include that the letter service is reasonably accessible to all Australians on an equitable basis,\u201d Dr Webster said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Federal Opposition claims Australia Post has a “secret plan” to close down post offices in rural and regional areas.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":20,"featured_media":373499,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[5,3],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"\n'Secret Plan' to Shut Post Offices: MPs - southburnett.com.au<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"The Federal Opposition claims Australia Post has a "secret plan" to close down post offices in rural and regional areas.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/southburnett.com.au\/news2\/2026\/06\/22\/secret-plan-to-shut-post-offices-mps\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"'Secret Plan' to Shut Post Offices: MPs - southburnett.com.au\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The Federal Opposition claims Australia Post has a "secret plan" to close down post offices in rural and regional areas.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/southburnett.com.au\/news2\/2026\/06\/22\/secret-plan-to-shut-post-offices-mps\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"southburnett.com.au\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2026-06-22T06:07:34+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2026-06-22T09:08:19+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/southburnett.com.au\/news2\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/sarahhenderson2.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"300\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"200\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Anne Miller\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Anne Miller\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/southburnett.com.au\/news2\/2026\/06\/22\/secret-plan-to-shut-post-offices-mps\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/southburnett.com.au\/news2\/2026\/06\/22\/secret-plan-to-shut-post-offices-mps\/\",\"name\":\"'Secret Plan' to Shut Post Offices: MPs - southburnett.com.au\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/southburnett.com.au\/news2\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2026-06-22T06:07:34+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2026-06-22T09:08:19+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/southburnett.com.au\/news2\/#\/schema\/person\/d43a5027bdddc95f54e9c6274d8a57ae\"},\"description\":\"The Federal Opposition claims Australia Post has a \\\"secret plan\\\" to close down post offices in rural and regional areas.\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-AU\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/southburnett.com.au\/news2\/2026\/06\/22\/secret-plan-to-shut-post-offices-mps\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/southburnett.com.au\/news2\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/southburnett.com.au\/news2\/\",\"name\":\"southburnett.com.au\",\"description\":\"Kingaroy and South Burnett News\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/southburnett.com.au\/news2\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-AU\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/southburnett.com.au\/news2\/#\/schema\/person\/d43a5027bdddc95f54e9c6274d8a57ae\",\"name\":\"Anne Miller\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/southburnett.com.au\/news2\/author\/anne-miller\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"'Secret Plan' to Shut Post Offices: MPs - southburnett.com.au","description":"The Federal Opposition claims Australia Post has a \"secret plan\" to close down post offices in rural and regional areas.","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/southburnett.com.au\/news2\/2026\/06\/22\/secret-plan-to-shut-post-offices-mps\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"'Secret Plan' to Shut Post Offices: MPs - southburnett.com.au","og_description":"The Federal Opposition claims Australia Post has a \"secret plan\" to close down post offices in rural and regional areas.","og_url":"https:\/\/southburnett.com.au\/news2\/2026\/06\/22\/secret-plan-to-shut-post-offices-mps\/","og_site_name":"southburnett.com.au","article_published_time":"2026-06-22T06:07:34+00:00","article_modified_time":"2026-06-22T09:08:19+00:00","og_image":[{"width":300,"height":200,"url":"https:\/\/southburnett.com.au\/news2\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/sarahhenderson2.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Anne Miller","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Anne Miller","Est. reading time":"2 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/southburnett.com.au\/news2\/2026\/06\/22\/secret-plan-to-shut-post-offices-mps\/","url":"https:\/\/southburnett.com.au\/news2\/2026\/06\/22\/secret-plan-to-shut-post-offices-mps\/","name":"'Secret Plan' to Shut Post Offices: MPs - southburnett.com.au","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/southburnett.com.au\/news2\/#website"},"datePublished":"2026-06-22T06:07:34+00:00","dateModified":"2026-06-22T09:08:19+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/southburnett.com.au\/news2\/#\/schema\/person\/d43a5027bdddc95f54e9c6274d8a57ae"},"description":"The Federal Opposition claims Australia Post has a \"secret plan\" to close down post offices in rural and regional areas.","inLanguage":"en-AU","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/southburnett.com.au\/news2\/2026\/06\/22\/secret-plan-to-shut-post-offices-mps\/"]}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/southburnett.com.au\/news2\/#website","url":"https:\/\/southburnett.com.au\/news2\/","name":"southburnett.com.au","description":"Kingaroy and South Burnett News","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/southburnett.com.au\/news2\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-AU"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/southburnett.com.au\/news2\/#\/schema\/person\/d43a5027bdddc95f54e9c6274d8a57ae","name":"Anne Miller","url":"https:\/\/southburnett.com.au\/news2\/author\/anne-miller\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/southburnett.com.au\/news2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/373494"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/southburnett.com.au\/news2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/southburnett.com.au\/news2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/southburnett.com.au\/news2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/20"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/southburnett.com.au\/news2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=373494"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/southburnett.com.au\/news2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/373494\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":373532,"href":"https:\/\/southburnett.com.au\/news2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/373494\/revisions\/373532"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/southburnett.com.au\/news2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/373499"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/southburnett.com.au\/news2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=373494"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/southburnett.com.au\/news2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=373494"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/southburnett.com.au\/news2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=373494"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}