Funding will be available under the Commonwealth Government’s Rural Transaction Centre (RTC) Programme to more than 100 postal outlets to help install Electronic Point of Sale (EPOS) equipment for banking and bill paying services in small rural communities.
The cooperative venture between the Commonwealth Government and Australia Post will benefit at least 40,000 people living and working in rural and regional Australia. Around 100 small communities become immediately eligible for improved financial and other services in a considerable extension of the Federal Government’s RTC Programme.
Initially rural post offices in towns where there is no existing face to face financial services, with more than 5,000 manual transactions each year, will be able to participate. Following the initial rollout, other eligible postal outlets will be progressively invited to apply for RTC EPOS.
Mount Larcom in Queensland became the first to participate in the programme when the Minister for Regional Services, Territories and Local Government, Senator Ian Macdonald, signed the agreement for the installation of the RTC EPOS Centre in the town’s postal outlet.
Mount Larcom typifies the type of small town the initiative is designed to benefit and has a history of dedicated service to the needs of its rural community.
The RTC Programme is allowing more communities access to basic services that people who live in larger Centres take for granted. The new option to provide EPOS in eligible postal outlets in smaller communities builds on the growing participation throughout Australia in the Federal Government’s RTC Programme.
There are now over 80 RTCs funded to provide financial, Government and other services and around 440 communities involved in the programme.
