From Caversham to St Kilda, Musselburgh and further afield towards Brighton, families are being told to "go online" or "travel further" for services that were once close, familiar and dependable.
As a local MP and as Labour’s Seniors spokesperson I am very clear: this decision will hit older New Zealanders first and hardest. It will also hit the South Island disproportionately with 50 of the 140 outlets closing here.
In Dunedin city, closures include Māori Hill, Brockville and the Octagon.
For many seniors, the local post outlet is a practical lifeline. It’s where bills get paid, parcels are sent to mokopuna, forms are verified, and important documents are handled with confidence.
It’s also where people who are not comfortable with apps, passwords or unreliable internet can speak to a human being and know they’ve done the right thing.
We can talk about efficiencies and changing consumer habits. But an "efficiency" that pushes a pensioner on to two buses, into the cold, or into a long queue at an unfamiliar outlet isn’t efficiency — it’s cost-shifting.
It shifts cost on to the person least able to carry it: those on fixed incomes, those with limited mobility, those who have stopped driving, and those for whom a short walk to a trusted counter was the difference between independence and isolation.
Digital services are valuable, but they are not universal.
South Dunedin has older residents who do not own a smartphone, who cannot afford constant data, or who live with eyesight and dexterity challenges that make online processes difficult.
When we remove in-person options, we don’t modernise — we exclude.
This is also about dignity. Seniors should not be made to feel like an inconvenience in their own community.
A local postal counter is often one of the last face-to-face public services left in a neighbourhood. When it disappears, we don’t just lose stamps and parcel labels — we lose a point of connection and reassurance.
The lack of consultation is appalling, and decision-makers should front up publicly, and explain how seniors across our city and suburbs will be supported.
If closures proceed, there must be real mitigations: accessible alternatives, reliable outreach options, and clear transport and service plans — not vague assurances.
It’s so important to count the social costs of financial decisions as a legitimate part of cost-benefit analysis rather than stringent widget-counting that ignores the human cost.
Communities are not balance sheets and seniors should not pay the price for decisions made far from the streets where they live.
