CWU makes push for Australia Post to set up banking services The postal workers union believes Australia Post's future may lie in diversification. Australia Post should not be privatised: it should start providing its own banking and insurance services instead, according to the postal workers union. That would help to loosen the grip of the big four on Australia's banking system while filling the "vacuum" the banks created when they withdrew from rural and regional Australia. The suggestion has been made in a submission to the Abbott government's Commission of Audit, by the Communication Workers' Union. It comes as Australia Post wraps up an online survey asking customers if they would prefer to have their daily mail deliveries scaled back to three times a week, or pay a $30 fee each year. An Australia Post spokesman said the annual survey, which finished last week, provided no indication about what "may or may not be implemented in the future." But it was the first time questions about scaling back deliveries have been included in the survey, the spokesman said. The CWU has challenged the idea that Australia Post ought to be privatised. It says the postal delivery service should become a "one stop shop" for rural and regional communities by providing its own financial services. It says the company should also raise the price of stamps by 10¢ (to 70¢). "The Nationals and independents I've spoken to are very supportive [of the idea]," the Assistant National Secretary of CWU Australia Martin O'Nea, said. But the federal government doesn't seem to be completely pro-competition. The big four banks with their market share, and billions of dollars in profits, there's an opportunity for Australia Post to compete against them but there's a reluctance on behalf of some in the government who probably see that as government competing against the banks," he said. It comes after Australia Post lost $187 million on its mail business last year, with the company delivering a billion fewer letters than it did five years ago. Its mail delivery business is being subsidised by its profitable arms, such as parcel deliveries. The Commission of Audit has been asked to find ways for the federal government to save money and return the budget to a surplus. It has been asked to review and report on the performance, functions and roles of the Commonwealth government. This month the chairman of the competition regulator, Rod Sims, suggested the commission ought to consider everything in its review, including the privatisation of government-owned assets. The implications of this ignited debate about the role of government and the delivery of monopoly services. Federal Treasurer Joe Hockey is opposed to Australia Post providing its own banking services.