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.