Andrew Leigh (Fenner, Australian Labor Party, Assistant Minister for Competition, Charities and Treasury) Share this | Hansard source

At the outset can I say I am grateful for the way in which the member for Curtin has approached these amendments. She brings a great deal of policy rigour to her analysis of issues in the House, and the parliament benefits from her insights and her consideration of this and many other issues. The government, however, will not be supporting the amendments, and I wish to outline in process and specific terms why that is.

The first is that these amendments were only circulated yesterday for a bill which has been through a very extensive consultation process. For the benefit of the House, can I outline some of that consultation process.

The Competition Taskforce within Treasury was established in the middle of last year, and merger reform has been the major issue that they have considered. They have conducted extensive consultation to inform the policy and legislative design, including three public consultations. They've engaged in targeted stakeholder engagement and meetings to gather a diversity of perspectives. They have met with groups representing consumers, larger businesses, including multinational firms, and small and medium enterprises. They've engaged with businesses in the agricultural sector, with legal practitioners, with academics and industry associations, and all non-confidential submissions are available on the Treasury website.

The bill was also considered by the Competition Review Expert Advisory Panel comprising some of the best Australian and global competition thinkers: Kerry Schott, David Gonski, John Asker, Sharon Henrick, John Fingleton, Danielle Wood and Rod Sims. I want to thank each of them and the competition taskforce, led by Jason McDonald and Marcus Bezzi, for their careful analysis of these reforms.

It's also worth the House being aware that following its introduction to the House the bill went through extensive scrutiny in the Economics Legislation Committee. The committee unanimously recommended passage of the bill after hearing from key stakeholders.

I'll take the House now to the specifics of the member for Curtin's amendments. Regarding the 'notification threshold' amendment, the relevant provision makes it clear that the level of concentration in a market may be a specified threshold in any legislative-instrument-determining notification threshold. The Treasurer has clearly decided that market concentration should not be used as a way of assessing whether a matter should be notified as this bill takes effect, but it is possible that there may be circumstances in the future where a minister may want to take a different view. The provision as currently drafted would enable that flexibility without needing to amend the legislation. The Treasury and the ACCC are working together to develop data analytic capability which may in future provide a reliable evidence base for a threshold that uses concentration in a market. If so, there might be substantial efficiencies for business and the ACCC in being able to use such a threshold in the future.

Regarding the 'classes of acquisition' amendment moved by the member for Curtin, including 'may' allows more targeted consideration as there may be many reports or pieces of advice which could be irrelevant to the immediate matter under the minister's consideration. It's important that the minister be able to flexibly exercise the power in 51ABR independently of the ACCC, which is the regulator and administrative decision-maker. The exercise of the Treasurer's power would be subject to the usual parliamentary scrutiny process.

In closing, can I note that this is the biggest reform to Australia's merger laws in half a century. I want to thank the many stakeholders who've engaged with us on this reform journey, reform which will see Australia's merger laws become more efficient and more timely, better targeted at high-risk mergers and underpinning the more dynamic competitive economy that the Albanese government is committed to. Competition reform is a core aspect of our cost-of-living plan, delivering better prices for Australians. But it's also critical to ensuring economic dynamism, as the House economics report, chaired by Daniel Mulino, made abundantly clear. Merger reform is one of the most important parts of competition law. I commend the bill to the House and I thank the member for Curtin for her engagement with it, albeit that the government will not, on this occasion, be supporting her proposed amendments.

Question negatived.

Bill agreed to.

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