About Australia Post

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Australia Post is the major organisation in the Australian postal industry. Its operations are primarily regulated by the Australian Postal Corporation Act 1989 (APC Act).

Under the APC Act, Australia Post's principal function is to supply postal services within Australia and between Australia and other countries. The APC Act also provides for Australia Post's subsidiary function, which is to carry on outside Australia any business or activity relating to postal services. Apart from these functions, section 16 of the APC Act provides that Australia Post can carry on any activity incidental to its primary and secondary functions.

To assist it in carrying out its functions, Australia Post has a legislated monopoly (the reserved service) on the delivery of letters. The APC Act provides for a number of exceptions; for instance, the carriage of letters weighing 250 grams or more, the carriage of letters for more than four times the standard postal rate, the carriage of catalogues or leaflets and the carriage of letters in the course of a document exchange.

Australia Post also provides other services in the competitive market such as parcel delivery, courier and express services.

Australia Post's community service obligations are set out in section 27 of the APC Act, which requires that:

• Australia Post provides a letter service for both domestic and international letter traffic
• the service be available at a single uniform rate within Australia for standard letters
• the service be reasonably accessible to all in Australia, wherever they reside, and
• the performance standards for the service reasonably meet the social, industrial and commercial needs of the community.

According to Australia Post's 2011-12 Annual Report, it employs 32 582 full-time and part-time staff (excluding casuals), serves more than one million customers every business day and delivers mail to more than 11 million Australian addresses. Australia Post has 4428 retail outlets, of which 2560 are in rural and remote areas. The network is made up of Corporate PostShops, Business Centres, Community Postal Agencies and Licensed Post Offices (LPOs). The small business operators who own and run LPOs may operate them as stand-alone businesses or as part of other enterprises (such as chemists, newsagents, gifts and stationery shops, milk bars or convenience stores).

The pages on this site have more information about the history of Australia Post, its performance and performance standards and governance arrangements. See also  www.auspost.com.au