But for the people who rely on the Caversham Post Shop — particularly seniors — this closure is not a business decision. It is a breach of trust.
Many Dunedin residents have been loyal NZ Post customers for decades.
In Caversham, older residents continue to use over-the-counter services for parcels, bill payments, official mail and essential documents.
These are people who often cannot easily drive, who rely on footpaths rather than apps, who depend on human help rather than digital self-service. Yet NZ Post has decided that their needs no longer matter enough.
The most disturbing part is this: there is no evidence that NZ Post or the government commissioned any modelling to understand the consequences for communities labelled "non-rural" but functioning as rural in practice, such as Caversham or Brighton.
Officials claim that stores "in urban areas" will have alternatives. But ask any resident of South Dunedin or Brighton whether their postal access resembles a metropolitan network. It does not.
Consider too bowel-screening kits — a programme that literally saves lives. Every year, thousands of New Zealanders aged 58 and over receive kits in the mail. The sample must reach a laboratory within eight days to produce an accurate result.
Yet a letter posted in Dunedin today can take two weeks to reach another Dunedin address, because even locally delivered mail now travels via Christchurch. That is before the closure of more post shops, before even greater consolidation, before more delays.
I wonder how many bowel-screening samples will be jeopardised by these closures? How many early cancers will go undetected because a parent or grandparent could no longer reach a functioning post office in time?
NZ Post claims the closures are about reducing duplication. The truth is they are reducing access — and increasing risk.
Seniors, disabled residents, low-income communities and those without cars will pay the price so NZ Post can present tidy financials. This is not modernisation. It is abandonment, for seniors and disabled communities who make up large sections of the South Dunedin community in particular.
New Zealanders deserve a postal service that serves the public, not just a balance sheet. Sadly, everything with this National government seems to be transactional, without any thought to the consequences beyond the immediate narrow cost analysis.
The government must halt plans for these closures immediately and commission proper social-impact modelling — because communities like Caversham cannot afford to be an afterthought.
