Mark Dreyfus (Isaacs, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

The purpose of the Trade Practices Act 1974, as section 2 of the act makes clear, is to ‘enhance the welfare of Australians through the promotion of competition and fair trading and provision for consumer protection’. This bill, the Trade Practices Legislation Amendment Bill 2008, which I support, will further that purpose by restoring the intended effect of the provision of the act which prohibits various trade practices that are anticompetitive conduct. That provision, section 46, has been undermined in recent years by a series of court decisions, which I will go to. Before doing so, though, it is worth recalling that the Trade Practices Act was introduced in 1974 by a Labor government, under Prime Minister Whitlam, and substantially improved by another Labor government, the Hawke government, in 1986. Labor also introduced, in a similar vein, the National Competition Policy in the 1990s. Labor has a very longstanding commitment to promoting competition. It is also worth remembering that the 1986 amendments—

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