In 1988 CEDA issued a paper on Postal Services in Australia which discussed the regulatory framework and the social and economic effects of regulating postal services.
Burdens and Benefits of Regulation, concluded that abolishing Australia Post's letter monopoly would not necessarily improve the quality or cost of the letter service, and that privatisation would not achieve improvements. Read more from Postal Services.
The issue arose again in 2014 at CEDA's State of the Nation, where Minister for Communications, the Hon. Malcolm Turnbull stated that Australia Post would not be privatised. However Mr Turnbull foreshadowed regulatory changes by stating that the company's ability to adapt to technological changes is limited by current regulations and anticipates a total enterprise loss in 2015, the first since the company was corporatised in 1989.
Mr Turnbull said the cost of a stamp in Australia does not reflect the true cost of delivery and analysis by BCG, who surveyed 8,000 Australia Post customers, revealed half of survey respondents were willing to accept a move to a three day a week letter delivery.
This paper was included as part of the Burdens and benefits of regulation publication presented to CEDA's Strategic Issues Forum in 1988.
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