About Australia Post

Australia Post is the major organisation in the Australian postal industry and was established by the Australia 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 secondary 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 letters weighing 250 grams or more and the carriage of letters for less than four times the standard postal rate (currently 50c). The reserved service is subject to 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 2006–07 Annual Report , it employs 34 524 full-time and part-time staff, serves more than one million customers every business day and delivers mail to more than 10 million Australian addresses. Australia Post has 4449 retail outlets, of which 2553 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).

Find more information about the history of Australia Post, its performance and governance on linked pages or see its website at www.auspost.com.au

• Document ID: 31498 |
• Last modified: 5 February 2008, 7:23pm