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Australia Post – Australia Post Inc (1990)

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'A commercial enterprise' education content clip 1

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

Clip description

In this clip Michael Talbot, Australia Post deputy state manager of New South Wales, addresses controlling postal managers (CPMs) and postal managers (PMs) directly, informing them of why and how things must change for post offices under the new corporate structure.

Curator’s notes

by Adrienne Parr

While Australia Post’s conversion to a Government Business Enterprise was a massive adjustment for every employee of the organisation, it was especially so for the new structure’s CPMs and PMs – managers of post offices and post office agencies and previously known as ‘postmasters’. In the clip Michael Talbot talks to the CPMs and PMs about the projected potential income from the retail post network – the network of new PostShops. PostShops were first trialled at Expo 88 in Brisbane and introduced more widely throughout the country beginning in 1991.

Talbot talks about the impending separation of delivery and retail functions, and describes the financial imperative to actively sell Australia Post products and persuade customers to buy booklets rather than individual stamps. These approaches represented major changes to the organisation’s philosophy, and their impact on the jobs of the CPMs and PMs was twofold. Not only did they have to steer their staff through the transformation. They had to manage the responses of the general public, who had long been used to one type of post office and whose concept of that post office had everything to do with public service and not-for-profit and nothing to do with revenue and retail.

Teacher’s notes

provided by The Le@rning FederationEducation Services Australia

This clip shows Australia Post staff at work as the presenter explains the changes necessary for Australia Post to become a commercial enterprise: productivity targets, cost-effective branches and reforms to work processes. Some of the annual running costs of a typical post office following corporatisation are shown and the presenter explains that assets will be sold off or redeveloped to meet increased costs. As an example of how post offices can improve productivity, he urges Australia Post staff to aim for more sales of stamp booklets rather than individual stamps.

Educational value points

  • This clip is an extract from a change management video produced within Australia Post. The video was to be used to provide information to middle managers about the changes occurring in Australia Post as a result of it becoming a corporatised government organisation.
  • The presenter, Michael Talbot, then Australia Post’s deputy state manager for New South Wales, emphasises that changes in branch work practices are required as, under the Australian Postal Corporation Act (APC Act) 1989, postal services are no longer subsidised. He discusses methods of increasing income through improving and expanding the delivery services and retail functions of the enterprise.
  • The clip indicates that the incorporation of Australia Post in 1989 meant introducing a user-pays approach, and a reduction in the cross-subsidisation of certain activities by other units of the organisation. Under the new system each branch and business unit would be expected to pay its own way and be profitable.
  • This clip presents the problems facing the controlling postal managers (CPMs) and postal managers (PMs) in the restructured Australia Post, and some proposed solutions. The presenter explains that Australia Post must become a self-supporting commercial enterprise by covering costs and making profits, and describes change-oriented solutions that include selling more products and gaining higher yields to compete with similar businesses.
  • The video presentation was designed to allay the fears of CPMs and PMs about the proposed changes to the workplace, which would have presented them with new and substantial challenges. The presenter’s confident and calm tone is meant to convey a sense that these changes are achievable. Videos such as this were a popular management strategy in the 1980s and 90s.
  • This video illustrates a major shift in the administration of public services that followed the introduction of an economic rationalist approach in the 1980s. It was argued that government-operated services would be more efficient and cost-effective if provided by competitive private enterprises. The APC Act was the result of the Australian Government’s decision that postal services should not be completely privatised but that Australia Post had to be competitive.
  • The APC Act outlines Australia Post’s community service obligations as a Government Business Enterprise. These include the obligations to provide a letter service for both domestic and international letter traffic, to ensure that this service is available at a single uniform rate for standard letters within Australia, and to ensure that it is reasonably accessible to everyone in Australia.
  • The setting of this clip is the familiar workplace of the audience for whom the training video was intended, managerial staff in post office branches. In this context, the presenter acts as a role model for the managers as he engages with the counter staff and gives an example of a daily activity (selling more stamps) that, he argues, will help to make the new corporation a thriving, profitable enterprise.
  • The clip includes an animated map and an illustration of a possible future development overlaid on footage of a current asset, demonstrating how digital communication tools can visually enhance otherwise dry economic arguments for their intended audience.
  • In this clip the camera work, soundtrack and editing support the point of view of the presenter, Michael Talbot. The camera angles and movements centre on his journey through the workplace while lively editing is employed to engage the viewer.
  • The clip presents the changes that were made to Australia Post’s business practices as a result of corporatisation. Australia Post is one of Australia’s largest government organisations. From its beginnings as a tiny, one-person post office in Sydney in 1809, the organisation grew and adapted to changes in communications technology until by 2000 it had achieved an annual profit of $402 million before tax.