Nick Sherry (Tasmania, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Superannuation and Corporate Law) Share this | Hansard source

Could I raise a matter I am not sure about, and it would be useful if Senator Brandis could clarify this. The opposition’s two amendments we are dealing with here will remove one of the key benefits of the government’s bill in relation to treatment of recoupment by the courts. The bill clarifies the role of recoupment in predatory pricing cases under section 46(1AA). At present section 46 does not expressly provide whether it is necessary to prove recoupment in order to establish a case in predatory pricing. Submissions to the 2004 Senate inquiry raised concerns about this lack of clarity and its impact on the effectiveness of section 46, and in particular they expressed concerns that it may be necessary to prove recoupment in order to establish a predatory pricing case. I wanted to clarify whether it is actually the opposition’s intention to change this provision.