The Senate inquiry will examine, among other factors, the role licensed post offices (LPOs) play in delivering community services across Australia.
About two-thirds of the Australia Post network is made up of LPOs, with about 2,900 operating nationally. Unlike general post offices, which Australia Post runs itself, LPOs are operated by licensees, either as standalone outlets or alongside another business.
The South Australian town of Tarpeena, in the state's south-east, already knows what closure looks like. In 2022 the LPO run out of the local pub, the Pines Hotel, shut down, leaving the closest post office 20 kilometres away.
Shirley Little, whose mother owned and managed the Tarpeena LPO for more than four decades when it operated alongside the local general store, said older residents felt the loss deeply.
"I think when the post office did eventually close down, the older people missed it because it was somewhere they could go every day and someone would say hello to them," she said. "From a mental health point of view, it wasn't good for a lot of older people in the community."
LPO Group, the peak body representing licensees, said services such as banking were being "run down" as Australia Post shifted its focus towards parcel services. Chief executive Scott Etherington said the LPO was often the most important business in a regional town.
"When you're in the rural and regional parts of Australia, that's one of the most important businesses in your town," he said. "If that's taken away and replaced by just a point of presence... I would suggest that community has lost an awful lot."
Pines Hotel licensee Lynton Cram said the post office failed to attract business after it moved into the hotel.