Printing Industries Association of Australia (Printing Industries) has offered to work with the Federal Coalition on creating a model to improve government communication channels and to reduce its costs.
The offer follows comments by Opposition Communications spokesman Malcolm Turnbull on a plan to provide everyone with an online account to receive correspondence from government should they win office at a future election.
Printing Industries CEO Bill Healey said any such proposal should comprehensively examine all possible implications and effectiveness models and not focus solely on printed mail cost savings.
“Any government needs to ensure that its communications are effective and readily and equally accessible to all. Print is still and will remain the mainstay for achieving this and has an important place along with digital technologies in multichannel communication,” he said.
“While there may be savings to be realised by using different forms of electronic communications, this has to be looked at in terms of equality of access for all people, the cost to the public – particularly the growing aged population, the environmental footprint, data integrity and security issues and the possible exposure of people to potential fraudulent risk.
“Many institutions, including banks, have shied away from e-mail contact because of fraudulent or hoax electronic mail abuse. For key important communications the integrity and accessibility of printed matter remains the preferred option.”
Mr Healey said that any Australia Card style of centralised database containing everyone’s personal information potentially including pension payment and other sensitive information, cannot be undertaken lightly without full consideration of what’s involved other than print and postage savings.
“There is a role for all digital and print mediums to work and interact together for the benefit of the community and a role for government, current or future, to ensure the best possible use of its financial resources. We would like to work collectively so that any such proposed policies are properly thought through. We are happy to work with Mr Turnbull or indeed, the current government, should they want to explore future options for communicating more effectively with the Australian community,” he said.
