Graham Perrett (Moreton, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I love a meat pie, and it is for a captive audience so it just goes with the sporting event. I know that stadium owners need to make a quid, but it is obvious to all sporting fans that when there is no competition consumers lose out.

That is why it is so important that in the broader marketplace, beyond pies at the footy, that we have strong and effective competition policy. That is what our economic system is based on. We need strong competition laws to keep down grocery and fuel prices and the many other cost-of-living pressures. I should go on the record and say that my pecuniary interests state that I am a shareholder in one of the major supermarkets. Nevertheless, I think there was a Choice investigation that showed whenever you have Woolies and Coles it is almost like a duopoloy. But when you put an Aldi in the same area, the prices go down at all three supermarkets. It just goes to show that it is not even simple enough to have Woolies and Coles, or two competing people; you need a real market. A real market is where you have the best possible price for the consumers.

This is why the Rudd government made an election commitment in 2007 to address threats to market competition such as creeping acquisitions. It is where the market is not operating as it should. These are acquisitions that of themselves are no threat to competition, but together with a number of small acquisitions over time actually lessen competition. That is when the economic system breaks down and we end up paying too much for goods.

The bill before the chamber amends section 50 of the Trade Practices Act to ensure the courts and the ACCC have the power to consider local or geographically confined markets. This will enable individual acquisitions to be assessed in small markets under section 50 of the act. Section 50, subsection 6, of the Trade Practices Act limits the power of the court and the ACCC to substantial markets, so this bill before the chamber will remove the word ‘substantial’ to ensure that even geographically confined markets are covered by the act. In doing so, this bill removes any legal doubt about the power of the ACCC or a court to look at creeping acquisitions in small local markets, as detailed by the member for Werriwa, in the merger guidelines publication.

The bill also clarifies that a court or the ACCC can consider the impact of a proposed acquisition on competition in any market—that is, a local market, a regional market or a national market. It ensures that a court or ACCC ruling cannot be challenged on the grounds that competition would be impacted in markets other than the primary market.

This bill also implements the recommendations of an expert panel set up to investigate the benefits of introducing a statement of principles into the Trade Practices Act. Workable unconscionable conduct provisions are important in trade and commerce to ensure that no party is disadvantaged in dealings with another party. It is a basic tenet of law. I would differ with you slightly on a couple of these points, Madam Deputy Speaker Moylan, but it is not appropriate while you are sitting in the chair, I guess, that we have that exchange. The bill amends the unconscionable conduct provisions of the Trade Practices Act and the ASIC Act to cover both supply and acquisition of goods under the one provision. It also expands what a court should consider when judging whether conduct is unconscionable. The bill also attempts to mirror the principles previously applied by the courts when making rulings on unconscionable conduct.

The interpretive principles do not change the effect of the law but will help the court interpret and apply unconscionable conduct laws. The principles include: (1) unconscionable conduct is not limited by the unwritten law, (2) the prohibition on unconscionable conduct may applied to systems of conduct or patterns of behaviour, and, (3) the court may consider the terms and progress of a contract—because it is important that we see it in the particular circumstances. As well as helping courts interpret the law, these principles will give all stakeholders a clearer understanding of the meaning and scope of unconscionable conduct law.

The Rudd government is committed to putting downward pressure on the cost of living. That is what Labor governments do. It might have escaped the media’s attention, or your attention, Madam Deputy Speaker, but to do that we have proposed a resource super profits tax. This would give tax relief to the 770,000 companies throughout Australia, bringing down their company tax rate from 30 per cent to 28 per cent, something that could then flow on to people at the petrol pump, flow on to people in the small businesses, flow on to people at the supermarket. There is an alternative policy, obviously, about whacking two per cent on top of it—the maternity leave for millionaires rate, which would then flow on to people at the checkout—but that is an alternative policy that hopefully will not see the light of day. We are also, as part of the RSPT, talking about tax breaks for the 2.4 million small businesses throughout Australia who, as anyone knows, are the drivers of our economy—the people who get tangled up in red tape, the people who are benefiting from so many of the initiatives that we have put forward.

What else do you do to apply downward pressure? You look after people when times are tough. That is why we have been able to come through the global financial crisis with an unemployment rate of only 5.2 per cent. When you look around the world you see it is a disaster in the OECD countries. If we had not brought the stimulus into the economy when we did, we would have had 200,000 extra people out of work—200,000 households, 200,000 families, 200,000 sad stories spread throughout the community, 200,000 people who are not going into the shops, the small businesses and the companies that we need to tick over to keep the economy strong. It is only a few days until the tax cuts will kick in, from 1 July, which will benefit many people throughout Australia to keep the pressure down.

See this speech in context