Australia Post weathers reform
Small business has not made any complaints to the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission about Australia Post following the introduction of reforms under the Postal Services Legislation Amendment Bill 2003.
When the bill was passed by parliament on June 14, then communications minister Daryl Williams said small business would gain from “better quality, more flexible postal services”.
Small business has not made any complaints to the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission about Australia Post following the introduction of reforms under the Postal Services Legislation Amendment Bill 2003.
“There will now be certainty for small businesses and consumers who use aggregation services to gain access to Australia Post bulk mail discounts and for the many small businesses that use document exchanges as a complementary service to Australia Post,” Mr Williams said.
Under the reforms, the ACCC has the power to hear disputes about the terms and conditions of Australia Post’s bulk mail services.
And Australia Post has to publish reports assuring competitors that it is not cross-subsidising services with revenue from other services.
Also, the carriage of letters between aggregation service providers and their customers, and between document exchange customers and document exchange centres will be legitimised.
“It’s largely about formalising practices that have been tolerated even though they were slightly against the previous legislation for the last several years,” said the external affairs manager for Australia Post, Matt Pollard. “It doesn’t have any implications for us at all.”
Mr Pollard said that Australia Post, which was consulted in the drafting of the legislation, had no reason to believe that any of the amendments would have an adverse effects on the organisation.
Regulations under section 32B of the Australian Postal Corporation Act allow the ACCC to inquire into disputes over terms and conditions, including the price of access to Australia Post’s bulk mail services.
The intent is to ensure that people who use bulk mail services receive fair terms and conditions in relation to the supply of those services.
