Malarndirri McCarthy (NT, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Indigenous Australians) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

McCARTHY (—) (): I move:

That these bills be now read a second time.

I seek leave to have the second reading speeches incorporated in Hansard.

Leave granted.

The speeches read as follows—

customs tariff amendment (incorporation of proposals and other measures)

The Customs Tariff Amendment (Incorporation of Proposals and Other Measure) Bill 2024 amends the Customs Tariff Act 1995 to incorporate the measures in two customs tariff proposals moved in the House of Representatives in July this year. The Bill also makes certain minor technical amendments to the Customs Tariff Act.

The first set of amendments in the Bill are consistent with the alterations made by Customs Tariff Proposal (No. 1) 2024, moved in the House of Representatives on 3 July 2024. These amendments repeal the general rates of duty for over 450 tariff classifications and replaces the rates with 'Free'.

These tariff classifications were selected because most importers were applying relevant tariff concessions or free trade agreement preferential rates, which effectively reduced the 5 per cent duty rate to a 'Free' rate of duty. Eliminating customs duty for these classifications will reduce business compliance costs and make it easier to import a range of goods including toothbrushes, electric blankets, washing machines and a range of clothing and footwear. This is the largest unilateral tariff reform in two decades. The 'Free' rate of duty for these tariff classifications applied from 1 July 2024.

Amendments will also be made to the corresponding free trade agreement preferential rates to ensure they are not higher than the general rate of duty. This ensures that importers utilising free trade agreements are not disadvantaged by the unilateral reduction of the general rate.

The second set of amendments are consistent with the alterations made by Customs Tariff Proposal (No. 2) 2024, also moved in the House of Representatives on 3 July 2024.

These amendments extend the 'Free' rate of customs duty applied to goods that are the produce or manufacture of Ukraine. As a result, goods from Ukraine will continue to benefit from a 'Free' rate of duty until 3 July 2026. This 'Free' rate of duty applies to all Ukrainian goods, except for excise-equivalent goods (being petroleum, fuel, tobacco and alcohol products).

The extension of the concessional treatment supports Ukraine's continued participation in international trade. The tariff concession is one part of Australia's package of defence, economic and humanitarian support and a sign of our ongoing and steadfast support for Ukraine and its people.

The third set of amendments are technical amendments, which repeal spent phasing rates and associated provisions. Phasing rates are customs duty rates that incrementally reduce to 'Free' over a specified period of time.

A number of the phasing rates in Schedules 3, 10 and 11 to the Customs Tariff Act have incrementally reduced to 'Free'. The increments are now redundant and no longer required in the text of the Customs Tariff Act. The repeal of these provisions will simplify the text without altering the operation of the Act or the duty rates applied to any goods.

I commend this Bill to the Chamber.

sydney airport demand management amendment bill 2024

The Albanese Government is undertaking the most significant reforms to Australian aviation in a decade to drive competition, improve consumer outcomes and boost resilience. This Bill takes the next step in that reform process.

In February this year, a major package of reforms to the Sydney Airport demand management scheme was announced, improving the use of this significant piece of national infrastructure while maintaining community protections.

Since announcement of these reforms, the work of implementation has begun.

The first slot audit is well underway, with findings to be released in coming months.

And, importantly, an open tender is underway to contract the slot manager, including stronger independence requirements to manage real and perceived conflicts of interest.

This Bill takes the next step in implementing Sydney Airport reforms to deliver better outcomes for the Australian travelling public.

Australia's busiest airport, Sydney Airport, is our major international gateway to the world and a critical hub for the national aviation network.

Located in the heart of Australia's biggest city, Sydney Airport poses a number of challenges and community impacts that are not shared with other Australian airports.

It is capacity constrained, it has no room to expand, and it is located close to dense residential communities.

Since the opening of the parallel runway in 1997, the Airport has operated under a unique demand management framework that balances managing operational capacity at the airport, community concerns about aircraft noise and ensuring access for regional NSW cities and towns.

Over time however, this Framework has fallen out of date, harming productivity, resilience and competition.

It is essential that this Framework enables the Airport to perform to its fullest potential, while ensuring that communities on the ground are not unduly impacted.

That is what these reforms will deliver.

Taken together, these reforms will encourage competition. By moving the responsibility for making the Slot Management Scheme from the Slot Manager to the Minister, the demand management system will be able to be updated so that it better aligns with modern international standards, while significantly increasing transparency about how slots are allocated. Airlines will be required to provide regular information on how they use slots, such as reasons for cancellations or major delays, and this monitoring information will be regularly published through independent audits.

These reforms will crack down on slot misuse by modernising the compliance regime to include new civil penalties for failing to use a slot, for no-slot and off-slot movements, for flight operations conducted not in accordance with slot requirements, for applying for slots with no reasonable prospects of using them and for failing to return or transfer unused slots, along with updated and strengthened enforcement tools for the Government to watch airlines more closely and take effective legal action where necessary.

New transparency powers are being introduced to support the strengthened compliance regime. This will include a power for the Minister to compel airlines to produce information on slot usage and a requirement for the Slot Manager to regularly publish information about how slots are issued to airlines, how the airlines use them (such as information about cancellations and delays), and information about airlines that lose slots when they break the rules on slot misuse. This will help make sure that consumers have better information about airline performance.

These reforms will improve connectivity for regional communities by allowing regional NSW services to apply to use any slot during new peak period hours, not just the slots that are already set aside for priority access by regional NSW services. In addition, when allocating slots to airlines, the Slot Manager will be required to consider giving priority to regional NSW airlines asking for peak period slots among the other priorities for slot allocation.

The reforms will also boost resilience of the entire aviation network by introducing a 'recovery period'. This strictly controlled 'recovery period' will be implemented after severe weather events or other major disruptions (for example; security issues) to temporarily allow up to 85 movements per hour for a maximum of two hours on the same day following the disruption. This change will not increase noise impacts on communities, but it will mean more travellers can reach their destinations and spend the night at home rather than on a terminal floor or in a hotel room.

This package of reforms will benefit the flying public and include strong protections for communities affected by aircraft noise and those in regional areas.

Those better outcomes for the travelling public are at the heart of the significant reforms being undertaken all across aviation.

From better monitoring airline performance and pricing to improving outcomes for travellers with disabilities and creating the first Aviation Industry Ombuds Scheme—the Albanese Government is undertaking the most significant aviation reform agenda in a decade, delivering reforms that were left in the 'too hard' basket by those opposite.

Along with the opening of Western Sydney International Airport in 2026, this reform package will enable a more competitive, transparent and productive aviation network for years to come.

treasury laws amendment (mergers and acquisitions reform) bill 2024

Today I am proud to introduce the Treasury Laws Amendment (Mergers and Acquisitions Reform) Bill 2024.

This Bill is another big step towards reforming Australia's merger rules and further boosting competition and productivity in our economy.

It outlines the biggest reforms to Australia's merger settings in almost 50 years.

It will create a regime that more efficiently and effectively targets mergers that are anti-competitive, while allowing mergers that are pro-competitive to proceed faster.

We understand most mergers have genuine economic benefits and are an important feature of any healthy, open financial system.

They can attract capital, re-tool businesses and improve the uptake of new technologies.

They can allow businesses to achieve greater economies of scale and scope, to access new resources, technology and expertise.

This can flow through to consumers via greater product choice and quality as well as lower prices.

But some mergers can cause serious economic harm.

This can happen when businesses are not interested in improving profitability by lifting productivity.

When they're solely focused on squeezing out competitors to capture a larger percentage of the market.

This can strangle innovation, reduce productivity in our economy and punish consumers with reduced choice.

Treasury's Competition Taskforce has spent a lot of its time hearing about and thinking about these issues.

This Taskforce and its work has made plain that Australia's approach to mergers is no longer fit for purpose.

The need for reform is clear.

Australia is one of only 3 OECD countries that doesn't require compulsory notification of mergers.

Last year, over 1,400 mergers were recorded, at a value of around $300 billion.

Meanwhile, the ACCC looked at an average of 330 mergers a year over the past decade.

But we don't know whether these are the right 330, or the mergers with the greatest potential to cause harm.

When the ACCC does assess mergers, the current approach is not transparent for businesses or the community.

Clearance can be too slow and cause expensive delays for some businesses as they wait.

This legislation will bring our merger system into the 21st century.

This Bill enshrines our historic reforms into law.

The legislation will improve our regime in five ways, by making the system faster, stronger, simpler, more targeted and more transparent.

Approvals will be faster under the new system, with mergers ticked within 30 working days where the ACCC is satisfied they pose no threat to competition.

The regime will be stronger thanks to a mandatory notification system and empowering the ACCC as the decision maker on all mergers.

The system will be simpler, because we are reducing three streams to a streamlined path to approval that removes duplication and standardises notification requirements for mergers.

It will be more targeted, because mergers that create, strengthen or entrench substantial market power will be identified and stopped while those consistent with our national economic interest will be fast tracked.

Finally, the merger regime will be more transparent, by ensuring the ACCC has better visibility of merger activity.

We are creating a public register of all mergers and acquisitions notified to the ACCC to promote this transparency and accountability.

Reviews of ACCC decisions will be the responsibility of the Competition Tribunal made up of a Federal Court judge, an economist and a business leader.

Under the strengthened system, not every merger will be captured.

Only mergers above monetary thresholds will need to be notified to the ACCC and be approved before proceeding.

The Government intends to set these monetary thresholds in regulations following the passage of this Bill.

There will be three key thresholds.

Firstly, any merger will be looked at if the Australian turnover of the combined businesses is above $200 million, and either the business or assets being acquired has Australian turnover above $50 million or global transaction value above $250 million.

Secondly, the ACCC will look at any merger involving a very large business with Australian turnover more than $500 million buying a smaller business or assets with Australian turnover above $10 million.

Finally, to target serial acquisitions, all mergers by businesses with combined Australian turnover of more than $200 million where the cumulative Australian turnover from acquisitions in the same or similar goods or services over a 3-year period is at least $50 million will be captured, or $10 million if a very large business is involved.

Land acquisitions involving residential property development and certain commercial property acquisitions won't be included to avoid clogging up the system with simple land purchases unless they are captured by additional targeted notification requirements.

These thresholds have been developed in close consultation with industry and the community.

The thresholds strike the right balance between creating a rigorous and robust regime without calling in every merger.

These thresholds will allow the ACCC to focus its efforts on the mergers that really matter.

We want to see the majority of mergers approved quickly, so the ACCC can focus on the minority that give rise to competition concerns.

The thresholds will be reviewed 12 months after coming into effect, to ensure they are working as intended.

In addition, the legislation provides flexibility to allow the Treasurer to adjust and calibrate the thresholds to respond to evidence-based concerns from the ACCC about high-risk mergers, like in the supermarket sector.

This power, combined with the thresholds, will allow the ACCC to review all the mergers that they have been typically concerned about.

Using this provision, the Government intends to make sure the ACCC is notified of every merger in the supermarket sector.

Our intention to mandate this approach is based on evidence provided by the competition regulator.

Reviewing every supermarket merger is all part of the decisive action our Government is taking to help Australians get fairer prices at the checkout.

We want to make sure supermarket mergers don't come at the cost of Australians, families and pensioners getting a fair price on their grocery bills.

Our merger reforms will help ensure our supermarkets are as competitive as they can be so Australians get the best prices possible.

On the advice of the ACCC Chair, the Government also intends to use this power to get the competition regulator to review purchases of an interest above 20 per cent in an unlisted or private company, if one of the companies involved in the deal has turnover more than $200 million.

This is all about lifting the level of scrutiny and transparency for private markets transactions, which have boomed in Australia in the past decade.

It will give the ACCC the ability to analyse changes of control in private companies to ensure negative competition effects are avoided and to scrutinise these deals in more detail.

The Government will also consider designation requirements for sectors such as fuel, liquor and oncology-radiology.

These merger laws will take effect from 1 January 2026 and apply voluntarily from 1 July 2025.

This Bill has been developed through detailed consultation and we'd like to take a moment here to thank everyone for their contributions.

We're especially grateful for the input from the Expert Advisory Panel, comprising Kerry Schott, David Gonski, John Asker, Sharon Henrick, John Fingleton, Danielle Wood and Rod Sims.

I'm also thankful for all the discussions and consultation we have held with businesses, the competition regulator, and the broader community.

That input and those views helped shaped this legislation.

This Bill builds on the Albanese Labor Government's substantial and broad competition reform agenda, which is all about creating a more dynamic, more productive and resilient economy.

This includes revitalising National Competition Policy with all state and territory governments.

Abolishing around 500 nuisance tariffs to cut compliance costs, reduce red tape, make it easier to do business, and boost productivity.

Helping Australians get a fair price at the checkout with a new mandatory Food and Grocery Code, an ACCC inquiry and more funding for its investigations, reforming planning and zoning regulations and funding for CHOICE for price transparency reports.

Promoting competition in our financial system, including in payments, financial market infrastructure and through the introduction of a financial services regulatory grid.

Helping bank customers find and follow better deals on their mortgages and higher interest rates on their savings accounts.

This agenda will help expand choices, lift living standards and grow our economy.

It will help ensure that our people, businesses and industries are beneficiaries of the opportunities before us in the defining decade ahead.

The legislation I introduce today forms a key part of these competition reforms.

And we are proud to introduce it.

Full details of the measure are contained in the Explanatory Memorandum.

Debate adjourned.

Ordered that the bills be listed on the Notice Paper as separate orders of the day.