Simon Birmingham (SA, Liberal Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for the Murray Darling Basin) Share this | Hansard source

I indicate that the opposition strongly opposes this amendment. Senator Ludlam, who is often a wise and astute commentator in this place, even though we may disagree from time to time, indicated that this is a very heavy-handed amendment. The reality is that the amendment reads very clearly that under certain conditions the ACCC must apply to the Federal Court for an order under proposed subsection (2). We think that this is extremely heavy-handed, that it ties the ACCC’s hands and that it does not provide for the type of responsiveness that we would expect from an agency such as the ACCC. There are of course other means by which the ACCC can seek enforcement, and we do not think that the chamber needs to be this prescriptive in this legislation on this occasion.