Editing NZ Post (section)

{{Short description|Postal service in New Zealand}}
{{Primary sources|date=June 2023}}
{{Use New Zealand English|date=January 2013}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=March 2017}}
{{Infobox company
| name = NZ Post
| logo = NZ Post logo.png
| logo_size = 250px
| type = [[State-owned enterprise]]
| industry = [[mail|Postal service]]
| predecessor = [[New Zealand Post Office]]
| founded = {{Start date and age|1987|04|1|df=yes}}
| former_name = New Zealand Post
| hq_location_city = [[Wellington]]
| hq_location_country = New Zealand
| key_people = Carol Campbell (Acting Chair)<br />David Walsh (CEO)<br />Rhonda Richardson (CFO)
| products = Mail service, retail, service centre, banking, air freight, ocean freight, 3PL warehousing, global logistics
| revenue = {{increase}} [[New Zealand dollar|NZ$]]912 million
| revenue_year = fiscal year ending 30 June 2019
| operating_income = {{decrease}} NZ$(21) million
| income_year = 2019
| net_income = {{decrease}} NZ$(121) million
| net_income_year = 2019
| assets = {{decrease}} NZ$1,631 million
| assets_year = 2019
| equity = {{decrease}} NZ$1,162 million
| equity_year = 2019
| num_employees = 4,778
| num_employees_year = 2019
| website = {{url|http://www.nzpost.co.nz|nzpost.co.nz}}
| footnotes = [https://www.nzpost.co.nz/sites/nz/files/uploads/shared/annual-reports/2019-nz-post-integrated-report.pdf New Zealand Post Integrated Report 2019] [https://www.nzpost.co.nz/sites/nz/files/uploads/shared/annual-reports/2019-nz-post-annual-report.pdf New Zealand Post Group Annual Report 2019]
}}
[[File:New Zealand Post Oddshaped.jpg|thumb|right|248px|A NZ Post box with slots for two classes of mail]]

'''NZ Post''' ({{langx|mi|Tukurau Aotearoa}}),<ref>{{Cite web|title=New Zealand Post Group {{!}} New Zealand Post|url=https://www.nzpost.co.nz/about-us/who-we-are/new-zealand-post-group|access-date=2021-08-30|website=www.nzpost.co.nz}}</ref> shortened from '''New Zealand Post''', is a [[Government-owned corporation|state-owned enterprise]] responsible for providing most [[mail|postal service]] in New Zealand.
[[File:New Zealand Post Logo.png|thumb|right|250px|New Zealand Post logo used from 2000 to 2021]]
The [[New Zealand Post Office]], a government agency, provided postal, banking, and telecommunications services in New Zealand until 1987. By the 1980s, however, economic difficulties made the government reconsider how it delivered postal services. For example, in 1987–1988, the postal division lost [[New Zealand dollar|NZ$]]50 million.<ref name="RCampbellpostalbook">{{cite book |last=Campbell |first=Robert |date=13 March 2002 |title=Politics of Postal Transformation: Modernizing Postal Systems in the Electronic and Global World |publisher=McGill-Queen's University Press  |isbn=978-0-7735-2368-5 }}</ref> In 1985, the [[New Zealand Labour Party|Labour Party]] [[Fourth Labour Government of New Zealand|government]] under [[Prime Minister]] [[David Lange]] launched a review, led by [[New Zealand Motor Corporation]] CEO Roy Mason and [[KPMG]] New Zealand Chairman Michael Morris, to find solutions to the Post Office's problems. In its final report, the team recommended transforming the New Zealand Post Office into three [[state-owned enterprise]]s. The government in 1986 decided to follow the Mason-Morris review's recommendations, and passed through [[New Zealand Parliament|parliament]] the State-Owned Enterprises Act, which [[Corporatisation|corporatised]] several government agencies into state-owned enterprises.<ref>{{cite act |title=State-Owned Enterprises Act 1986 |type=Act |number=1986 124 |date=18 December 1986 |url=http://www.legislation.govt.nz/act/public/1986/0124/latest/whole.html#DLM97377 |access-date=5 April 2017 }}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=https://nzhistory.govt.nz/culture/the-1980s/1987 |title=The 1980s |publisher=New Zealand Government |access-date=5 April 2017}}</ref> The Post Office's corporatisation was then completed with the 1987 passage of the Postal Services Act.<ref name="RCampbellpostalbook" /><ref>{{cite act |title=Post Office Act Repeal Act 1987 |type=Act |number=1987 115 |date=1 July 1987 |url=http://www.legislation.govt.nz/act/public/1987/0115/latest/whole.html |access-date=5 April 2017 }}</ref> The two acts broke up the New Zealand Post Office into three corporations: the postal service firm New Zealand Post Limited, the savings bank Post Office Bank Limited, later rebranded as [[PostBank]], and the telecommunications company [[Spark New Zealand|Telecom New Zealand Limited]]. Today, only NZ Post remains a state-owned enterprise, as PostBank and Telecom were [[Privatisation|privatised]] in 1989 and 1990, respectively.<ref name="Ecorysstudy">{{cite web |url=https://circabc.europa.eu/webdav/CircaBC/FISMA/markt_consultations/Library/postal_services/studies/CS%20Report%20New%20Zealand%20final.pdf |title=Brief country report: New Zealand |date=17 February 1998 |publisher= Ecorys |access-date=5 April 2017}}</ref>

In its first year of operation, New Zealand Post turned the losses of previous years into a NZ$72 million profit.<ref name="NZposthistory">{{cite web |url=https://www.nzpost.co.nz/about-us/who-we-are/history-of-new-zealand-post |title=History of New Zealand Post |publisher=New Zealand Post |access-date=5 April 2017}}</ref>

A year after the 1987 Post Office Act, the Lange Government declared its plan to fully privatise the post.<ref name="NZposthistory" /> To prepare for privatisation, it decided to gradually reduce NZ Post's monopoly. When it was corporatised in 1987, New Zealand Post had a monopoly for mail up to 500 grams and NZ$1.75 value. This was first reduced to $1.35, then $1, and finally 80 cents. The government also let NZ Post downsize by closing a third of its locations. In 1991–1992, another review came out in support of the government's privatisation plan. However, by the end of 1993 the government abandoned its plan because of public opposition.<ref name="RCampbellpostalbook" />

New Zealand Post began its life with 1,244 post offices, later rebranded as ''PostShops'', of which 906 were full post offices and 338 were postal agencies. On 5 February 1988, 581 post offices or bank branches were downsized or closed,<ref>{{Cite web |date=16 October 1987 |title=List of P.O. closings and modifications. Press |url=https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/CHP19871016.2.39 |access-date=2024-10-13 |website=paperspast.natlib.govt.nz}}</ref> after government subsidies expired. As of March 1998, there were 297 PostShops and 705 Post Centres. However, there are now more outlets than before corporatisation, with 2,945 other retailers of postage stamps.{{citation needed|date=May 2016}}

There was a reduction in the "real" price of postage, with a nominal drop of the standard letter postage rate from 45 cents to 40 cents in 1996, and restoration of the 45 cent rate in 2004. Since then the cost has risen to 50 cents in 2007, to 60 cents in 2010, to 70 cents in 2012, to 80 cents in 2014, to $1 in 2016, to $1.20 in 2018, to $1.30 in 2019, to $1.40 in 2020, to $1.50 in 2021, to $1.70 in 2022, to $2.00 in 2023 and $2.30 in 2024, amidst significant declines in mail volumes.{{Citation needed|date=August 2024}}