Steve Fielding (Victoria, Family First Party) Share this | Hansard source

I move:

At the end of the motion, add “and makes the following further amendment to the bill:

(1)    Schedule 1, item 27, page 10 (line 23), after “agrees”, insert “or the Commission so decides”.

(2)    Schedule 1, item 27, page 16 (line 22), after “is”, insert “, subject to subsection (3),”.

(3)    Schedule 1, item 27, page 16 (after line 30), at the end of section 95AO, add:

        (3)    However, if before the end of the period referred to in subsection (1) (including any period that is taken to be substituted for that period by any other application or applications of subsection (2)), the Commission decides that the matter cannot be dealt with properly within that period, either because of its complexity or because of other special circumstances, which must be notified in writing by the Commission to the applicant, the period is extended by a further 20 business days and the longer period is taken to be substituted for the period referred to in subsection (1) (or any other period that is taken to be substituted for that period by any other application or applications of subsection (2)).

(4)    Schedule 1, item 27, page 19 (line 14), after “is”, insert “, subject to subsection (8A),”.

(5)    Schedule 1, item 27, page 19 (after line 21), after subsection 95AR(8), insert:

     (8A)    However, if before the end of the period referred to in subsection (7) (including any period that is taken to be substituted for that period by any other application or applications of subsection (8)), the Commission decides that the matter cannot be dealt with properly within that period, either because of its complexity or because of other special circumstances, which must be notified in writing by the Commission to the applicant, the period is extended by a further 20 business days and the longer period is taken to be substituted for the period referred to in subsection (7) (or any other period that is taken to be substituted for that period by any other application or applications of subsection (8)).

(6)    Schedule 1, item 27, page 22 (line 14), after “is”, insert “, subject to subsection (11A),”.

(7)    Schedule 1, item 27, page 22 (after line 22), after subsection 95AS(11), insert:

   (11A)    However, if before the end of the period referred to in subsection (10) (including any period that is taken to be substituted for that period by any other application or applications of subsection (11)), the Commission decides that the matter cannot be dealt with properly within that period, either because of its complexity or because of other special circumstances, which must be notified in writing by the Commission to the applicant, the period is extended by a further 20 business days and the longer period is taken to be substituted for the period referred to in subsection (10) (or any other period that is taken to be substituted for that period by any other application or applications of subsection (11)).”.

This amendment is about extending the number of days by which the ACCC, under formal clearances, can extend the process to allow them extra time to review anything that comes before them as far as mergers are concerned in a formal sense. It is reasonable. I think 20 days or more makes sense. I ask that all senators consider this amendment to support an extra 20 days for the ACCC to have that discretion to examine those cases that are more complex and that would need some extra time to allow them to do their job.