Stephen Conroy (Victoria, Australian Labor Party, Deputy Leader of the Opposition in the Senate) Share this | Hansard source

The principal change in the government’s amendments is to ensure that the commission must give a report to the tribunal in authorisation matters. This is a concession to Labor’s calls for the government to stop sidelining the ACCC in the merger process. The government plan is to make the tribunal the decision maker, but Labor believes the ACCC, the regulator, should be defended. The ACCC should be the decision body. The change is an improvement but not enough to gain Labor’s support. We want the ACCC to be the decision maker.

The government made its new amendments available at 5.30 last night. There has not been time for consultation, and Labor argues that House procedures were breached in moving this amendment this morning. Senator Fielding has caved in yet again. I can probably only say on this matter, yet again, that I concur with what my colleague Senator Murphy said in the other place. But having said that—