Privatising Royal Mail – What are the lessons for Australia Post?
ONE DATE ONLY: Wednesday 12 March, RACV City Club (7.30-8.45am)
How to protect the public interest? How to safeguard public assets and work? How to maintain and improve service? Visiting UK mutuals expert, Peter Hunt, will discuss the sale of Royal Mail and the various approaches which could be taken here including the option to sell all or part of the business to employees and stakeholders:
"The Australian Government should see how – in the British example - good management freed from direct control can succeed. It does not require the business to be floated to do this – Australia Post could be a successful commercial mutual, with a public service ethos hard wired into its management and governance."
Register for the breakfast.
About the speaker - Peter Hunt, CEO, Mutuo - UK
Peter is Chief Executive of Mutuo, which he founded as the first cross mutual sector body to promote mutual governance to opinion formers and decision makers. In 2011, he advised the Cameron Coalition Government on its plans to mutualise Post Office Ltd and in 2012 published the report of the Ownership Commission, a two year study into corporate diversity. Peter is in Conversation with Walkely award winning journalist Michael Short (The Zone)
In association with Business Council Of Co-operatives and Mutuals and Net Balance.
Making it Mutual:
Transforming the delivery of public services in Australia
Melbourne | Brisbane | Sydney | Canberra
2014 is destined to be a blockbuster year for out-sourcing public services for all levels of government. In the United Kingdom public service mutuals have emerged as an attractive alternative to for-profit businesses and not-for-profit organisations.
Net Balance in partnership with the Business Council of Co-operatives and Mutuals (BCCM) would like to invite you to a National Workshop Tour, with international guest presenter, public service mutuals expert Peter Hunt (CEO, Mutuo - UK).
The interactive workshop will demonstrate what is better about a public service run as a mutual and how Australian public services can be delivered by co-operatives and mutuals.
Comparative advantage of public service co-operatives and mutuals
Co-operative and mutual models combine the best of private sector efficiency with social purpose, whilst remaining accountable and without privatising public assets. Co-operative and mutuals models reinvest all profits in the enterprise for the long-term benefit of the members, service users, employees, the community, and the government agencies commissioning and purchasing services.
Despite the success of public service mutual models worldwide, surprisingly little is known about the potential to use co-operative and mutual structures to deliver social services in the Australian context.
Key insights
The workshop will explore:
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How government agencies can “spin out” service delivery teams using a mutual model
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How service providers can co-operate to achieve economies of scale and purchasing power, and design and deliver high quality effective services
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How consumers can co-operate to gain better access to public service markets
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The policy levers that can realise the potential of public service mutuals.
The half day workshops will be facilitated by international and Australian co-operative and mutual experts and practitioners, including:
