Nationals leader and Deputy Prime Minister Barnaby Joyce has been pushing for tighter restrictions on foreign investment in agricultural land.
Tracey Nearmy/AAP
The Productivity Commission says existing oversight is adequate to deal with misuse of market power.
Answering what is considered a substantial lessening of competition is not easy.
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A recent legal case illustrates why the government has made a mistake in changing its market misuse law.
An effects test is a win for principle over politics.
Reuters/Daniel Munoz
The government will adopt an “effects” test to combat anti-competitive behaviour. It should ensure meaningful penalties are attached.
Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull strongly denied he had previously opposed the “effects test”.
Lukas Coch/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 debate over two words in Australian competition law could lead to an anti-competitive future for Australian businesses.
The government has agreed to a push from Professor Ian Harper for a new competition policy body.
AAP/Lukas Coch
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
Ian Harper made a bunch of less glamourous but very useful recommendations in his competition review, that deserve not to be overshadowed.
Bipartisan support for the competition review reforms could help Australia’s transition away from a mining-led economy.
Tracey Nearmy/AAP
The proposed changes to Australia’s competition regime make sense, and deserve bipartisan support.
How did the so-called ‘effects test’ on market power become such a polarising topic for business and politicians?
The new Turnbull government should follow the lead of the Harper Review and introduce an ‘effects’ test on market power.
ACCC chairman Rod Sims is among those advocating a so-called ‘effects test’ to determine whether market power has been misused.
Alan Porritt/AAP
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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The “effects test” aims to boost prosecutions for misuse of market power. But will it really make it easier for the ACCC to win cases?