Nationals leader and Deputy Prime Minister Barnaby Joyce has been pushing for tighter restrictions on foreign investment in agricultural land.
Tracey Nearmy/AAP
In a major victory for small business and the Nationals over big business, the government has agreed to write an ‘effects test’ into competition policy.
If done poorly, competition law can actually reduce competition.
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The federal government will implement Harper’s much-pushed for recommendation for a new competition policy body - but how its fits with other regulators is uncertain.
Is further consultation on section 46 really likely to reveal something the already extensive input has not?
AAP/Lukas Coch
In kicking the can down the road on section 46, the federal government has chosen good politics over good law.
There are a number of overlooked recommendations within the Harper competition review that would help small business.
AAP/ames Morgan Photography, James Morgan
Both big and small business have much at stake in competition policy reform, but they need to move on from simplistic arguments about misuse of market power.
Whether the Harper Review might stoke competition in the retail grocery sector remains to be seen.
AAP/Dan Peled
Supermarket giants are predictably opposed to
Harper Review’s effects test, but the report is a mixed bag when it comes to other retail competition issues.
The Harper Review should focus attention on planning and zoning reform as a crucial way of improving competition.
Flickr/Theen Moy
The main question to ask of the Harper report is: what will make a tangible difference to our economic prosperity?
The Harper competition policy review recommendations include changing the way misuse of market power can be prosecuted.
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