Chris Bowen (Prospect, Australian Labor Party, Assistant Treasurer) Share this | Hansard source

The shadow minister asks me why I did not vote for it in September. If he had been here earlier, he would have heard me say that we supported this because that was all the previous government was prepared to do and we said at the time it would be better to adopt the recommendations of inquiry after inquiry of the ACCC.

All of those submissions and all of those inquiry recommendations were completely ignored, year after year, by the previous government until five minutes to midnight, and then they introduced the Birdsville amendment with zero consultation with small or large business. At the time that was regarded as having considerable adverse impacts on competition in this country, and we still have the view that it has considerable adverse impacts on competition in this country.

You do have to show leadership on this issue and that is what the government have done. We have restored the market power test to its pre-Boral position. It is an appropriate test, once those anomalies have been corrected. The opposition can continue to engage in cheap political stunts, but they do so as a disservice to small business. They create so much uncertainty that the only people who will be happy about this are the trade practices lawyers, who will be arguing it in the High Court for years to come. They will be arguing over what substantial market share actually is; whether it is 20 per cent, 30 per cent, 50 per cent or 70 per cent. The opposition are doing the small business community and consumers in Australia a considerable disservice by allowing a position to be the law of this nation which every expert commentator says will chill competition, will reduce discounting and will be a disservice to small business. The shadow minister and the opposition should hang their heads in shame.

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