Government tables changes to allow 3 day delay of regular mail

Legislation tabled to allow regular letter postage timeframes to be delayed by up to 3 days.

The Federal Government has finally tabled an amendment to Australian Postal Corporation (Performance Standards) Regulations 1998, allowing Australia Post to create two tiers of postage – “priority letters” and “regular letters”.

The changes were long sought after by Australia Post whose letters delivery service was raising to over $300 million dollars per year.  Communications Minister, Malcolm Turnbull, confirmed plans to implement the two-tiered postage priority in March this year.  The company had indicated in the past that priority mail costs would start at around $1.50 when the service is first introduced, with the option of increasing prices to $2.00 in the future.

Comparing the standards table in the amendment with the current standards table, all delivery times have been shifted by three days in the proposed regular letters standard compared with current timeframes.  Current delivery timeframes are maintained if customers choose the priority letter tier.

Table showing time-frames for two-tiered postage
Table showing time-frames for two-tiered postage
Table showing current time-frames for regular letters
Table showing current time-frames for regular letters

The company was also seeking to increase regular postage costs from the current 70c to $1.  The proposed changes still needs to be passed by both houses of Parliament.