Democracy 'stolen' from Wellingtonians as postie fails to deliver
Residents of the Wellington suburb of Mapuia are seeking their mail, and democracy, after a postie was discovered to have dumped 3000 of their mailed items.
Amongst the dumped items were 667 voting papers which affected 13 streets in Mapuia.
Head of the Miramar-Mapuia Residents Progression Association, Robin Baldwyn, told Newshub: "Democracy hasn't been allowed to happen if your voting papers are not delivered".
NZ Post discovered this morning that a quantity of mail items had not been delivered.
Ms Baldwin was shocked it took New Zealand Post so long to become aware of the postie's dumping.
"I think they should have picked up on it a lot earlier. You wouldn't deliver 3000 [items] in a day, let alone in a week I don't think," she says.
"One would wonder how that person was caught? Whether the letters were caught dumped, or whether the person was caught doing it," she added.
John Maynard, Postal Workers Union Southern District president, says the alleged dumper had sullied the good work of other posties.
"These incidents are very rare and they're quite concerning for other posties because they feel it reflects on them. We don't know yet the mitigating circumstances, what they may be."
Mr Maynard questioned New Zealand Post's vetting process on hiring a person who would dump so much mail.
"The company drug tests people before they get a job, the company security checks people before they get a job. They have a fairly rigorous vetting process. How rigorous was this check?"
New Zealand Post was severely criticised last year over a similar mail dumping incident, when it ignored people's complaints over their missing mail.
The company has promised to sort through Mapuia's dumped mail and get resident's voting packs to them in time for the upcoming elections.
The postie in question has been stood down pending a disciplinary process.
Wellington City Council electoral officer Warwick Lamp says he is "most disappointed" it took so long for NZ Post to tell him about the undelivered voting forms.
New ones will be delivered on Friday, along with an apology letter from NZ Post.
Ms Baldwin had a simple message for New Zealand Post: "Get your act into gear."
Newshub.
