As anticipation for election day builds, so too will the pile of political pamphlets in your mailbox.

So 23-year-old Talei from Western Australia asked the ABC's You Ask, We Answer project:

Can I opt out from receiving mail-outs from political parties and MPs? If so, is it something that needs to be addressed before each election?

The bad news for Talei is that while a simple "no junk mail" sign will generally block unsolicited advertising material, political campaign material is exempt.

Australia Post says it's required by law to deliver "unaddressed mail items" classified as "community notices", including to mailboxes with "no junk mail" signs.

Community notices include any items sent by federal, state and local governments, political organisations, religious or educational institutions and charitable bodies.

So what does the law say?

There's actually no federal law that explicitly states Australia Post must deliver community notice material.

Instead, Section 32 of the Australian Postal Corporations Act allows Australia Post to apply its terms and conditions to its delivery service.

Australia Post's Unaddressed Mail Terms and Conditions state:

"Australia Post shall deliver Unaddressed Mail … provided always that articles cannot be delivered to points displaying stickers or signs bearing the words 'no unaddressed advertising material' or other similar request unless they are community notices and their delivery is permitted by law. "'Community notices' means articles lodged pursuant to this Agreement by, or under the authority of, local, state or federal governments or their agencies, political organisations, religious or educational institutions, or charitable bodies [including benevolent and welfare societies]."

Huh. So it's not actually a law, but rather a condition imposed by Australia Post and enforced through legislation.

We were (kind of) close to legislating against unsolicited mail once…

Back in 2016, independent MP Andrew Wilkie introduced a bill to Parliament amending the postal corporation act, but it failed to pass.

Mr Wilkie's bill sought to prevent Australia Post from delivering unaddressed political material to a premises where a sticker or sign specifically requested unaddressed mail or political material not be delivered.

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In the second reading of the bill in Parliament, Mr Wilkie said:

"Australia Post employees are currently required to deliver unaddressed political mail to every single letterbox because they regard it as a community notice.

"In other words, if you don't want political mail in your letterbox, there's literally no way to opt out of getting it."

In a recent statement to the ABC, Mr Wilkie said there remained an "urgent" need to change the law to allow people to opt out.

"There's no reason that politicians should have their own set of rules and be allowed to ignore the wishes of their constituents."

Is there any way to reduce what you receive?

There could be a way to stop receiving correspondence that might fall into the "community notice" ambit, but that depends on whether it's addressed or unaddressed mail.

Australia Post's general manager of mail products, Mark Pollock, said the company was required to deliver all addressed mail to the address the sender placed on the item.

But businesses, groups and individuals also send unaddressed material, which usually manifests as being addressed "to the homeowner".

Mr Pollock said unaddressed mail that's deemed to be a community notice can be delivered to letterboxes with "no junk mail" signs, or something of the like, "if the sender requests this to occur".

In other words, you can opt out of receiving this by being taken off the mailing list. The only catch is, you'll have to contact each sender and request to be taken off their mailing list.

Will this work with political mail?

Let's test this out. I decided to call my representative's office to see if I could be taken off their mailing list.

The first call I put in was to my local member. In two minutes I was assured it would be no problem to be taken off the mailing list and that, if I preferred, correspondence could be sent by email instead. Tick.

The next call was to my federal member. A representative told me it wasn't possible to opt out of unaddressed mail, as the postal workers are required to deliver it, but that I could be taken off their mailing list for addressed mail.

So there you have it — unaddressed political mail is unavoidable, addressed is optional.

The more you know.