Andrew Murray (WA, Australian Democrats) Share this | Hansard source

The petrol inquiry was an extremely interesting one, but the conclusion of its report irritated me a great deal. My very brief minority report reflects that irritation. However, I do not want to get caught up in the past. I prefer to concentrate on the issues. The issues at hand fall into two categories. One is whether the general punishment powers of the ACCC—in other words, the penalties—are sufficient with respect to breaches of the Trade Practices Act. The second issue is whether the investigatory powers of the ACCC are sufficient for the task.

I am one of those who support a much stronger Trade Practices Act. I think it is weak and that is reflected in its inabilities. With respect to investigation, I have three main concerns. The first is that there are insufficient powers for the ACCC, on its own motion, to pursue these matters. The second—and it is linked—is that effectively it was waiting for political guidance, namely, the Treasurer had to initiate an ACCC investigation. He has done that recently, but in my view it deserved to be done long before this. Waiting for a political response is, I think, the wrong way to go for what should be an independent regulator, although of course I would never take away from the Treasurer the right or power to instruct a regulator to examine a particular area. The third area is whether the trade practices commissioner has sufficient powers to get behind the corporate veil to establish exactly what is going on in such matters. That is still an area of considerable concern.

Consequently, I am interested in the Labor Party’s propositions, but I want to see how they will be fleshed out. There is absolutely no reason why the Labor Party could not develop them and present them as amendments to the trade practices bill—I think it is the Trade Practices Legislation Amendment Bill (No. 1) 2007—when it comes forward from the government. Let us debate those issues here and now. We do not have to wait until after the election for the policy measures proposed by the Labor Party to be introduced. I would be interested in examining them further. I must say that I need to be persuaded that there needs to be a petrol commissioner, but I would be very interested in powers and penalties. I would be particularly interested in the ability of the ACCC to investigate on their own motion to get behind the corporate veil and to ensure that the penalties are appropriate where collusion or wrongful anticompetitive conduct has occurred.

With respect to the government’s response to the recommendations, I do not see much else that the government could have said. There were only two recommendations and they were extremely limited ones. The government’s limited response reflects the nature of what were fairly ordinary recommendations that did not go to the issues of investigation or penalties. I seek leave to continue my remarks later.

Leave granted; debate adjourned.