Australia Post welcomes the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission’s (ACCC) final view that it has no objection to a proposed price increase for reserved ordinary letters, which includes a 30-cent increase to the Basic Postage Rate (BPR) from $1.20 to $1.50. Subject to the finalisation of the remaining steps, the proposed increase will take effect on 3 April 2024.
Concessional and seasonal stamp prices are not affected by the change. The price of concession stamps ($0.60) and seasonal greetings stamps ($0.65) has not increased since they were launched almost a decade ago.
The BPR increase will help Australia Post address the rising cost of delivering letters as letters use continues to decline. Even with this increase, Australians will continue to have some of the lowest stamp prices in the OECD.
Australian households only receive two letters on average each week and letter volumes are expected to halve in the next five years. On average, for households that regularly send letters, the increase to $1.50 will cost them about $4.50 extra per year.
Charities will continue to be able to access our heavily discounted Charity Mail service while business and government customers, who send more than 95 per cent of all mail in Australia, can access a broad range of discounted services.
ENDS
Media contact:
Katherine Perry, Senior Media Manager, Australia Post
M: 0411 247 629
Lara Evans, Head of Media Relations, Australia Post
M: 0419 226 449
About Australia Post: As Australia’s postal service for more than 214 years, we’re at the heart of every community. Last financial year we delivered more than 2.5 billion items to 12.7 million delivery points. Australia Post has one of the largest retail networks nationally, with more than 4,000 Post Offices. Australia Post employs people of all ages, genders, and abilities in our extended workforce of more than 63,000 team members, reflective of the diverse communities we operate in. We are proud to be included in the inaugural Indigenous Employment Index with 3 percent of our workforce identifying as Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander and we are one of the largest Australian employers to be certified as a Disability Confident Recruiter.
