You think it would be a good idea if Australia post had a database of every person in Australia and their addresses?

No, just for those who want this type of redirection. Hey sell it as an add-on service - no one else can as they have a legislated monopoly over items smaller than a certain size. Most mail is automatically sorted and I’d guess most is electronically labelled now so its not a big step forward. See how your mail gets routed if you put an incorrect postcode in those little squares.

Beside, that would be an insane step backwards for sorting and utility. You’re adding a wait for a lookup and result to every item before it can be sorted.

Computers are really amazingly fast these days! Even if you had everyone in there 20 million entries is small fry.

But its only an example. Maybe I’m just bitter at Australia Post because the posties are too lazy to try to deliver packages around here And they don’t open weekends for package collection!

Chris, I think far too much is made of the supposed initiative to innovation from the market. Particularly with most privatised entities operating in markets which are high cost entry ones.

I think there’s some truth to that especially with high cost of entry markets, and we’ve seen that problem with Telstra. Still even as government monopolies there is a strong temptation to sit on old profitable technology even if there are better solutions out there for customers because these days they’re seen by governments as profit making entities. And with no competition, there is very little incentive to try new things out.

I do remember being very surprised when getting a payment from Telstra when the person connecting the phone didn’t turn up within the 4 hour window. The time previously as Telecom the best estimate they could make was a given day, and even then there was no compensation if they didn’t turn up.

“Unless I’ve misunderstood, Australia Post’s National Address File is a mapping of addresses to Delivery Points and geo-coded locations. There isn’t any person data in it.”

Possibly the kind of database matching that is meant is that if someone tries to enrol at an address that is not on the (G-)NAF, then it is flagged for investigation.

Unless I’ve misunderstood, Australia Post’s National Address File is a mapping of addresses to Delivery Points and geo-coded locations. There isn’t any person data in it.

d

So how do you think this will stand with the highly unpopular view when O’Farrell takes electricity privatisation to the next election, which he has stated is his intention?

So you make sure the events are voted down as the Premier said he has no intention of revisiting it then you vote that lot back in. As long as he (the Party) sticks to his word WIN-WIN on this issue

Darryl, the Australian Electoral Commission has been running an address-based database against the electoral roll for over a decade now, because it enables database matching with other departments and agencies like Australia Post for example, for the purpose of continuously updating and maintaining the integrity of the roll:

http://www.aph.gov.au/Library/pubs/bd/2003-04/04bd136.htm

Auspost has really changed its spots, IMHO. It actually operates as a business, while having a community servie obligation. Go to another country where the mails are private, or where no-one has attempted to reengineer the business and you’ll find out about slow queues and poor service.

I think judgements about whether a business is better in public or private hands are therefore highly contextual and specific to the operation itself.

Coming back to NSW power, my take would be to ask “How much will the taxpayer receive (compared to the current dividend stream)?” and “What is your plan for the money (i.e. will the dividend stream be replaced by some NSW version of a Future Fund, will it go into productive investment or will it be blown on current expenditure and election goodies)?”

You think it would be a good idea if Australia post had a database of every person in Australia and their addresses?

Beside, that would be an insane step backwards for sorting and utility. You’re adding a wait for a lookup and result to every item before it can be sorted. A transcription error at any point will send a letter to a random destination. Staff and users could no longer simply look at a letter to know where it’s supposed to be delivered. It would increase the cost of the mail and slow down delivery for all users while providing a small benefit for a tiny number of users at any given time.

d

http://larvatusprodeo.net/2008/08/29/privatising-democracy/

…bucketloads of balls all ’round.

There does seem to be a few more balls around than usual. Fatty O’Barrel has apparently grown a pair of them.

Costa’s grown one as well, but for some reason he’s grown it on top of his neck.

Aus Post does a good job? Not really. Queues can be awful, and they are almost never able to deliver my New Yorker in a decent time frame.

Chris Says:

What about the innovation we haven’t had? One simple example - why is it that we still need to register for redirection of mail these days? Why can’t I just have an address thats fixed for the rest of my life and I just tell Australia post when I move - surely pretty much all mail can be sorted electronically these days?

What planet are you two idiots from?

Here on planet earth, I have to queue up at the bank, at the supermarket, etc., and the banks won’t let me transfer automatic account deductions between them.

I’m guessing you’re from the Libertarian fantasy planet, where everything is privately owned, there are no queues, and everyone gets a pony with every transaction.

We all understand Chookie.
Promise.

Uncle festa is a good guy, even when he sticks the light bulb in his mouth and Costa isn’t.
http://maggieg.files.wordpress.com/2007/10/f_charge.jpg

And it’s such a fabulous company now?

At least people now increasingly have the choice of not dealing with Telstra. If it was government run they’d probably still be sitting on ADSL technology milking the better profits from ISDN.

The correct comparison shouldn’t be between ossified bureaucratic structures of the 80s and privatised companies now. It might be better to have a look at Australia Post, say, a government owned corporation that does a highly efficient and good job. The only way to produce a well run company is not to privatise it!

What about the innovation we haven’t had? One simple example - why is it that we still need to register for redirection of mail these days? Why can’t I just have an address thats fixed for the rest of my life and I just tell Australia post when I move - surely pretty much all mail can be sorted electronically these days?

In Vic we’ve got generation and retail. In fairness, Stockdale did allow for a lot of competition checks and balances to avoid exploitation by the white shoe brigade, as seemed to occur in Thatcher’s Britain. But it’s still a mess for the average punter. How are we advantaged by being pestered by door-to-door salesmen trying to get us to switch retailers? Offers to save us another 2.5% are pretty meaningless when you have to sign on for two years. What sort of product or service needs door-to-door salesmen anyway? In the old days it was usually something nobody wanted like encyclopedias or insurance, and the methods had to be as dodgy as they are currently.

I try to keep an open mind on privatisation. In Western Vic a private company, West Coast Rail, kept our rail service going on a shoestring with ancient rolling stock. It would have been gutted if left to Kennett or the Public Transport bureaucrats. It is now back in State hands, and run a lot better than the earlier V-Line, but not quite as good as West Coast. On that experience I’m not opposed to privatisation, but … some utilities seem to get greater advantage from economies of scale, and these are probably better in state hands provided there’s a clear level of accountability.

Aus Post does a good job? Not really. Queues can be awful, and they are almost never able to deliver my New Yorker in a decent time frame.

Telstra makes an interesting object study in privatisation in a number of ways. Worth noting is this: those areas where Telstra does face strong and persistent competition - eg, mobile phones - are those areas in which government never really had any control over; the proliferation of mobile phone services in Australia came after the privatisation of Telstra.

Except that
1) There is still no guarantee that a new power station will be built and 2) The ‘consumers’ will not only have to pay for the cost of building a new station but also for the profits for the private company to even consider doing so. and 3) selling it off is likely to mean an increase prices for exisiting generation capacity because they now have to make a profit on top of their costs to satisfy their shareholders.

Is it any wonder there is a large amount of scepticism about electricity privatisation.