ACCC meeting marks beginning of APIA journey

Meeting with the ACCC is just the beginning of APIA’s journey to keep paper a part of every day life.

At the meeting attended by Bernard Cassell and campaign consultant, Tim Woods, the industry outlined how the incorrect and in some cases malicious attacks on paper and printed communications have spread very widely across the economy and are impacting many businesses in the industry.

"We outlined to the ACCC our approach of seeking positive engagement and change, based on facts and evidence, before seeking regulatory or legal action in specific instances. That seemed to be well received, especially as we could point to several cases where engagement has worked for positive change and also quite a few where it has not,” Cassell said.

"It was suggested to us that the industry might be invited to participate in the review of the Commission's guideline for green marketers and we welcome that. Apparently that review will proceed in 2011 and we expect our industry will be active in it.”

Cassell believes that the meeting was important in pushing the campaign even further. "Importantly, industry was invited to submit detailed evidence of specific complaints where our engagement approach has not worked. We are working towards that, so it was helpful to get a sense of how the Commission will deal with those situations,” he said.

"The meeting with senior officers of the ACCC was a good start in what will clearly have to be a long process of engagement. We have a lot of ground to make up, with so many instances of false, misleading and in some cases deceptive attacks on our industry and products."