Australia Post digital mailbox setback
The Australia Post digital mailbox appears doomed for the time being.
Communications Minister Malcolm Turnbull said this week that the federal government will offer state and local governments free access to the myGov online transactional hub.
The Minister’s endorsement of myGov to states and councils is the strongest signal to date that Australia Post cannot expect to be handed a near monopoly on official electronic correspondence.
Over the last few years Australia Post has invested heavily on the MyPost mailbox (announced in Oct 2012) and has lobbied intensely to become the default interface for citizen transactions for most government services.
The MyPost digital mailbox is a free service with the business model largely based on deriving revenue from electronic bill payments and bill providers covering the cost from the money they're saving on postage.
The Coalition government’s policy to have 80% of government communications available digitally, as well as in hard-copy, by 2017 on an opt-in basis and Turnbull ready to sacrifice Post’s digital mail box for myGov does not bode well at all for Australia Post.
Indeed the privately run Digital Post Australia recently announced it would close its service by due to a lack of customers.
