Senate Estimates - AP responds to questions on notice

Legal CostsSenator Marshall had posed some questions to Australia Post representatives regarding the level of expenditure by Australia Post on external legal advice, ie funds spent on lawyers outside the AP internal corporate legal area. Australia Post responded recently, noting an extensive list of lawyers which it had used. It noted that for the 2004/05 year it spent $9,767,000 on "external" lawyers.Bank@PostAustralia Post was asked some questions about Bank@Post by Senator Conroy. Australia Post advised that the Bank@Post rollout to manual LPOs will be completed by December 2006. The first phase, in which 20 manual LPOs were upgraded to electronic outlets, was completed by 30 June 2005.At the end of the rollout, there will be about 540 LPOs still operating under manual conditions.Paperwork on taking over an LPOIn response to a question on notice by Senator Conroy, Australia Post advised that a site-specific LPO Agreement is provided to the incoming Licensee approximately 30 days prior to signing.Other questions on noticeAustralia Post provided responses to several questions on notice, on matters such as Private Box installations, provision of post office services in new residential or industrial areas, Community Postal Agent disputes, and a number of Mail Contractor issues.