[LINK] Nutty Judgement in Australia Post Case

[Adam Todd]

I gotta admit, this is just ridiculous.  Maybe someone from the Link 
Intelligence Department can explain this to me.

I was in the Supreme Court today on a motion moved by me to have mail 
redirected from the PO Box I have held and continue to pay for,for the last 
ten years, to my temporary "wherever I am PO BOX" as I have for the last 
several years.


Now the PO BOX is used by my wife, kids, often by people working on films 
with me, people sending letters about the films, often addressed to the 
film title and no persons name, gosh I even get mail addressed to my domain 
names!


OK this is all good.  It gets to the Post Office and they sort it, see that 
notice on the back of the PO BOX saying "Redirect to New Address" and stuff 
it into an envelope and send it away.

That been happening for quite a few years.  It's simple.  And as I continue 
to specifically and exclusively pay for the PO BOX to which mail is 
addressed there is no issue of "a new owner's" mail being confused.  I 
guess the cost of two PO boxes is just a cost I have to live with.  It's 
only a few bucks a year anyway.

Anyway, since May this year mail stopped being redirected.  We didn't 
notice as I was over seas at first and then in June caught up in the 
Supreme Court nearly every day.  Then in July I noticed we weren't getting 
the usual 20-200 letters a week and some people contacted me to say they 
had received mail back "return to sender" or "left address" which is 
ridiculous.

Hence I started my investigation.

Now this is the problem.

Australia Post say to redirect any mail addressed to PO BOX XX to another 
address would be in contravention of the Crimes Act (section 85N to be 
exact.)  Because they don't have authority to redirect mail not addressed 
exclusively to me.

And they will only redirect mail that is addressed:

ADAM TODD
PO BOX 174
ROSEVILLE NSW 2069

If it's addressed:

ADAM TODD
Producer
PO BOX 174
ROSEVILLE NSW 2069

They have said it will be returned to sender marked "Left Address"

OK, so they won't redirect the mail unless I give them an exhaustive list 
of all possible variations, and will probably refuse to use any variation 
that "looks like a business name."

Now I can't prevent people sending letters to me with any variety of 
addressing.  The only thing I can control is the use of the BOX address 
itself.  People write to me as Mr Todd, Mr A Todd, then there are the "job 
titles" that people attached to try and make their envelop look important, 
and then there is my wife, her maiden name, the fact that a relative won't 
use my last name and sends letters to the kids only in their first name and 
the list goes on.


People see the film "Something About AJ" and write to the film's title at 
the PO box.  Well that kinds makes sense I guess, even if it's totally 
wrong as there isn't really a "Something About AJ" person, but as the 
Producer, I am responsible for that mail and it's management.  I can't stop 
people writing to that name.


Anyway, the crunch came to this:

Australia Post will issue two new cut keys (one for me and one for my wife) 
so we can go to the post office box and collect the mail.  That means 
everything they won't redirect gets put in the PO BOX.

Everything they won't redirect because of Section 85N will be put in the PO 
BOX and we can collect it with the key - even if it's not addressed to us, 
we can still get it.

Now can anyone tell me please, why I can get a new set of keys to collect 
the mail delivered to my PO BOX, but I can't get the exact same mail 
redirected to a temporary or new address?

Am I just mentally ill, socially inept, outside of community standards and 
expectations?