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Australia Post – Meeting the Challenge (1988)

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Motivation to compete education content clip 1

Original classification rating: not rated. This clip chosen to be G

Clip description

In this clip Michael Talbot, acting deputy state manager of New South Wales, talks about Australia Post’s new private business competitors and how the organisation is dealing with becoming a commercially based enterprise.

Curator’s notes

by Adrienne Parr

During the 1980s, with the speed of business transactions and communication on the increase, the marketplace made new demands on mail and parcel delivery service providers. A proliferation of commercial operators offering express delivery sprung up overnight, presenting Australia Post with the challenge of maintaining a share in the market it had once dominated. In the clip Michael Talbot talks about these ‘formidable opponents’, citing the situation in the UK, where private companies had gained substantial footing in the delivery market during the postal strikes occurring at the time.

The Australian and British postal services share a common origin, and their recent histories are not dissimilar. Britain’s General Post Office became the Post Office Corporation in 1969. In 1981 this was split into the Post Office and British Telecom. Australia’s Postmaster General’s Department was split in 1975 into the separate commissions of Australia Post and Telecom Australia. Where the two services differ greatly is in their respective market obligations. In 1986 the Thatcher government split the British Post Office into four separate businesses (letters, parcels, post offices and its banking operation), to both divide the unionised workforce and to establish entities suitable for eventual privatisation. The banking operation was sold off, but what is now Royal Mail/Post Office Ltd survived the privatisation flurry of the 1980s and 90s. This was much less due to the saleability of the postal service than to successful union action. With Australia’s much lower population and its vast distances to be covered, privatisation of its postal service will always be far more problematic.

Teacher’s notes

provided by The Le@rning FederationEducation Services Australia

This clip shows images of large, modern, fast delivery vehicles, including spacecraft, as the presenter, Michael Talbot, then acting deputy state manager of Australia Post in New South Wales, explains that the commercial challenges and competition faced by the recently corporatised Australia Post amount to a ‘battle’. Dramatic music, analytical graphs and images of mechanised processes and various postal scenarios support this presentation, aimed at Australia Post employees.

Educational value points

  • The presenter of this staff training video emphasises the need for Australia Post staff to adopt a new approach to their work as a result of Australia Post’s imminent incorporation under the Australian Postal Corporation Act 1989. This move meant profound changes for staff as their branches had to become profitable, self-sustaining enterprises. No longer subsidised by government, post offices had to focus on commercial and competitive imperatives.
  • The clip opens with a commercial delivery operator travelling towards the British Houses of Parliament as the presenter describes the inefficiencies of the UK’s government-managed postal system, inefficiencies that had become apparent during a strike. Although the presenter is calm as he describes the possibility of a similar situation occurring in Australia, this tone contrasts with the aggressive policies that he insists are needed to avert such a crisis.
  • The presenter’s focus on the need to implement market-driven policies is balanced in the latter part of the clip by his reassurance that these new objectives are achievable. He mentions the initiatives already taken by senior management and the positive response of staff members to the challenges. These are promoted as hopeful signs that the branches will succeed in becoming self-sustaining, profitable enterprises.
  • The clip presents one of the major themes of the debate that arose in the 1980s and continues today about government administration of public utilities. The clip presents the argument that services such as postal services may be more efficient and cost-effective if provided by competitive private enterprises. The 1989 Act that transformed Australia Post was the result of the government deciding that postal services should not be completely privatised but that Australia Post had to be competitive.
  • This 1988 training video employs various film techniques to present an aggressive marketing message to its target audience. The selection and editing of images and the choice of camera angles emphasise the message that modes of transport are vehicles of battle, while automated processes and products are depicted as if they are missiles and part of the machinery of war. Market competitors are presented as the enemy and the language employed is warlike.
  • The images in the clip suggest the particularly Australian challenge of the long distances that delivery services had to be able to cover efficiently if Australia Post was to become and remain profitable in a more competitive marketplace.
  • Text is used in this clip to emphasise the message to employees. This includes branding and logos on vehicles, text on computer screens and on shop and office walls, and digitally enhanced graphs. The use of specific fonts in the subtitles enhances the overall message – the bold title superimposed on an image of the British Houses of Parliament reflects the serious tone and the child-like lettering used for the Do Better campaign is encouraging.
  • The clip opens with a full orchestral climax featuring trumpets, which heralds Talbot’s warning. Music is used effectively to establish and alter mood and to persuade the viewer of the serious nature of the message. The tone of the music is more reassuring when Talbot talks about improvements that have already occurred within Australia Post, such as postal managers taking on greater responsibilities and exercising more authority, and the Do Better campaign.
  • The clip depicts the challenges Australia Post faced as it entered a competitive marketplace. From the first one-person post office in Sydney in 1809, the organisation has grown and adapted to changes in communications technology and increasingly market-driven policies. In 1989, under the Australian Postal Corporation Act, Australia Post became a Government Business Enterprise.