Australia Post's performance

Requirements under the Act

Under the Australian Postal Corporation Act 1989 (APC Act), Australia Post is required to supply a letter service, available at a single uniform rate of postage for carriage within Australia of standard letters. To offset this obligation, Australia Post has the exclusive right to carry letters within Australia, whether the letters originated within or outside Australia.

Under the APC Act, a letter is defined as 'any form of written communication that is directed to a particular person or address, and includes: any standard postal article; any envelope, packet, parcel, container or wrapper containing such a communication; and any unenclosed written communication that is directed to a particular person or address'.

Section 29 of the APC Act provides Australia Post with the exclusive right to carry letters within Australia and from overseas to addresses within Australia. There are a number of exceptions to Australia Post's reserved service, including:

• the carriage of a letter weighing more than 250 grams unless the letter consists of an envelope, packet, parcel, container or wrapper containing two or more separate letters;
• the carriage of a letter within Australia for a charge or fee that is at least four times the rate of postage for the carriage within Australia of a standard postal article by ordinary post;
• the carriage of a newspaper, magazine, book, catalogue or leaflet, whether or not directed to a particular person or address and whether or not enclosed in any sort of cover;
• the carriage of a letter from an office of the individual or organisation sending the letter to another office of that individual or organisation;
• the carriage of a letter to an office of Australia Post where it is then lodged for delivery under a bulk interconnection service;
• the carriage of a letter, in the course of a document exchange service

All other services provided by Australia Post are open to competition.

Performance standards

In 1998, regulations were made to prescribe minimum performance standards in relation to Australia Post's letter service.

These standards require Australia Post to:

• provide a daily weekday delivery service to 98 per cent of all delivery points in Australia and at least a twice weekly delivery service to 99.7 per cent of all delivery points;
• to deliver 94 per cent of all reserved letters within the time specified in Post's schedule of delivery times;
• to maintain at least 10 000 street posting boxes in addition to providing lodgement facilities at each of its retail outlets; and
• maintain at least 4000 postal outlets of which at least 50 per cent of the total number or a minimum of 2500 (whichever is the greater) must be located in rural or remote areas.

The Australian National Audit Office is required to report annually to the Minister on the extent to which Australia Post has complied with these regulations.

This report, together with a breakdown of the actual performance achieved, is included in Australia Post's Annual Report. The results for 2006-07 are as follows:

Community Service Obligations

Section 27 of the APC Act imposes Community Service Obligations (CSOs) on Australia Post to supply a letter service that:

• carries reserved service mail;
• carries mail between Australia and other countries;
• carries standard postal articles anywhere within Australia for a single uniform rate;
• ensures the letter service is reasonably accessible to all people in Australia on an equitable basis, wherever they reside or do business;
• reasonably meets the social, industrial and commercial needs of the Australian community.

Australia Post is also required to meet performance standards that require that it provide a daily (excluding Saturday and Sunday) mail delivery service to 98 per cent of all delivery points and a delivery on at least two days per week to 99.7 per cent of all delivery points. For the purpose of the regulations, a delivery point can be street or roadside delivery boxes, post office private boxes, unlocked bags or private and community bags.

Australia Post does not receive Australian Government funding for the CSOs but meets the cost by cross-subsidisation within its letter service.

• Document ID: 31506 |
• Last modified: 5 February 2008, 7:24pm