PIAA fights Australia Post

PIAA says Australia Post’s disregard for mailers needs to be addressed as it launches a national campaign to win political support to stop Post from increasing its bulk mail prices. The monopoly mail carrier has applied to the ACCC for its biggest increase yet, intending to increase stamp prices by 48 per cent from 70c to $1 from January 4, 2016. Jason Allen, Printing Industries chief executive, says, “The price increase issues are a major concern and they are the tip of an iceberg threatening the future viability of the entire mailing industry and all the associated sectors whose economic livelihoods are under threat by Post’s blindsiding tactics.

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(l-r) AusPost CEO Ahmed Fahour, PIAA CEO Jason Allen

“Post has consistently failed to consult and to make an economic and social business case substantiating its actions. It has failed to highlight any improvements and benefits that businesses would be expected to provide their clients with accompanying any price increase. “We believe it has failed to meet the criteria of the Australian Government’s Cost Benefit Analysis (CBA). It has avoided quantifying the impacts of its actions across the community and failed to provide economic and social evaluation in monetary terms of its proposed actions.” Australia Post is set to increase small pre-sort mail by 37.5 per cent for regular service and 48.5 per cent for priority. At $1.08, priority residue mail will cost more than a basic stamp. 70 per cent of presort is sent on regular. The new promo post, used for direct mail campaigns, will have a less painful 24.6 per cent hike, but can only be run on the regular timetable. It makes up about 2.8 per cent of mail volume. Print post is due to have an eight to nine per cent hike already scheduled for October – priority is up 15 per cent for under 125g and 13 per cent for the rest, with regular small up 13 per cent and the rest 11 per cent. This is all on top of a 2.8 to 5 per cent price rise from October announced in August, which spurred industry panic that Post would use the 42 per cent stamp increase as an excuse for huge bulk mail rises next year. Allen says it was the duty of the Parliament to hold Post to account and the PIAA inspired campaign was geared to achieve just that. australia_post_ok

“Printing Industries along with key industry stakeholders, has commissioned the research, done the homework and prepared the math that politicians around the country need to see to understand what has been going on and to expose the erroneous pathway that Post is on,” he says. “From the end of this week politicians around the country will be receiving our report on the Economic Contribution of the Australian Mailing Industry and our plea to pull this monopolistic, national service provider into line and into compliance. “Members of Parliament need to understand the consequences of Posts actions on the employment of as many as 150,000 people who contribute $14.1b in Gross Value Added to the Australian economy not just the 30,000 people Australia Post employs.” The mailing campaign to politicians will be followed by meetings with mailhouses in Sydney and Melbourne next week encouraging the industry lobby every politician to support the campaign. A significant submission will be prepared when the ACCC calls for feedback on the proposals. Allen says, “No decision has been made on pricing by the ACCC, but this time they will have a substantial amount of new information and a large and angry industry demanding compliance, transparency and consultation before any decisions on Post’s submissions are made. “The mailing industry understands the challenges it faces by the rise of the digital economy. These challenges must be dealt with by all stakeholders working collaboratively and will not be effectively met by repeated prices increases from Australia Post. “We call on the government to urgently implement all of the Senate Committees’ recommendations not just those related to Licenced Post Offices.”

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