Posties stop delivering campaign flyers for October's local body elections

Auckland mayoral candidate Michael Kampkes has been unable to get NZ Post to deliver 32,000 flyers. Photo / Supplied

NZ Post has pulled the plug on delivering flyers for candidates in the local body elections, much to the surprise of one Auckland mayoral candidate.

Builder Michael Kampkes had 40,000 flyers printed for his Auckland mayoral bid. He planned to hand deliver 8000 and pay NZ Post to distribute the other 32,000.

His agent for the flyers told Kampkes yesterday that NZ Post will not be delivering flyers for the elections because the additional load on their labour force due to Covid and other forces will be too great.

Kampkes, who had 40,000 flyers printed alerting people to Labour and National's "disastrous intensification law" about to be inflicted on Auckland, said he was given a price of about $5500 for NZ Post to distribute 32,000 of the flyers.

A copy of Mike Kampkes' flyer that NZ Post won't deliver. Photo / Supplied

"It's a poor show on their part. We are trying to make the democratic process work.

"It's ironic that if these were put in an envelope and posted, NZ Post would deliver them. The costs would be five times greater and that's not a realistic option," said Kampkes, who believes help from supporters to campaign against housing intensification will help get the job done.

Going with a private company to deliver the flyers would cost nearly three times as much, said Kampkes.

NZ Post's general manager mail Matt Geor said it will not be delivering unaddressed flyers of any kind, including flyers relating to mayoral and candidate campaigns, in urban areas during the peak local election delivery period between September 12 and 25.

This period of voting pack deliveries and returns is a big undertaking due to the high volume of mail needing to be delivered in a short time, and represent a large increase over our usual mail volumes, he said.

"The primary purpose of the NZ Post mail delivery network is to deliver addressed mail, so we prioritise acceptance and delivery of these items over unaddressed flyers/advertising leaflets, which are a secondary service we provide. This includes flyers relating to mayoral and candidate campaigns," Geor said.

NZ Post is not delivering flyers for local body candidates at October's elections. Photo / Warren Buckland

Outside the local election delivery period and based on previous experience, such as time pressures and the difficulties of getting flyers delivered within the required time frame, NZ Post will also not deliver unaddressed campaign flyers or related material in urban areas, where the pressures are the greatest, but will still deliver in rural areas, he said.

Geor said this decision was made in the interests of fairness to all candidates, given the current business pressures.

When it comes to getting out voting papers and returning them to electoral officers, Goer said there is a tight, legislated turn-around target for production and delivery "and we do our very best to meet this target".