Cassandra Fernando (Holt, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Treasurer. What is the Albanese Labor government doing to ensure a more competitive, dynamic economy and get fairer prices for Australians? How does this compare to alternative policies?

Jim Chalmers (Rankin, Australian Labor Party, Treasurer) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Because the member for Holt is such a good local member, she understands that we need to engage in this fight against inflation on every front that we can. We need to provide as much help as we responsibly and meaningfully can to people who are doing it tough, whether it's in her community or communities represented by all honourable members in this place. That's why our cost-of-living relief is so important, but it's also why it's so important that we do what we can to make our economy more competitive, because a more competitive economy is an economy which is fairer for consumers and also, ultimately, a stronger economy.

That's why it's so important that I was able to introduce legislation to the parliament today—and I acknowledge the work of Assistant Minister Leigh in putting together this legislation before the House—which represents the biggest change to our mergers regime in around half a century. It is a really important economic reform. It is a total overhaul of our mergers regime, and it will help make our economy more competitive, more dynamic and more productive as a consequence.

The current system of merger approvals is too slow, and too many mergers slip through the cracks. These reforms will make the system stronger, faster, simpler, more targeted and more transparent. It's all about approving the good mergers faster—recognising that many are good—but also catching the damaging ones where we can. This means more competition for consumers and more certainty and more clarity for business at the same time.

I want to acknowledge here the really quite outstanding work of the ACCC chair, Gina Cass-Gottlieb, who was at the press conference this morning reminding people that these are the sorts of changes that the ACCC itself has sought so that they can do their really important work when it comes to merger approvals.

In addition to the monetary thresholds that we also announced today—they're set by regulation but we announced them today—we also made it really clear that there are some sectors of our economy which warrant particular attention. One of those, obviously, is supermarkets. We know, and the honourable member knows, that a lot of the cost-of-living pressure that people feel, they feel at the check-out, so we want to make sure that the supermarket sector is as competitive as it can be. That means that I have determined that every supermarket merger will be screened under these new arrangements. Not just the ones caught automatically by the monetary thresholds but all of the supermarket mergers that are proposed will be screened. That's because we do understand that, in order to make our economy more competitive, there are some sectors which are more sensitive than others. Supermarkets are an obvious candidate. It's not the only thing we're doing when it comes to competition policy but a really important part of it. (Time expired)