An Australian Competition and Consumer Commission guide to the Trade Practices Act for rural producers was launched today in Tamworth.
The Trade Practices Act brings substantial benefits to end users consumers, farmers, small business, indeed all forms of business.
ACCC Chairman, Professor Allan Fels said at the launch, Actions by the ACCC such as busting a concrete price fix or a freight price-fix and market-sharing arrangement flow through to all consumers including rural Australia by showing such arrangements are not on, and are costly to the perpetrators to the tune of multi-millions of dollars.
The impact on Australia's international competitiveness, with impediments stripped away, can only benefit a sector which is largely oriented to exports.
The movement of Woolworths into petrol retailing a flow on of changes to the structure of the oil industry is bringing prices down in provincial areas.
Rural Australia is already benefiting from cheaper long-distance telephone calls since the introduction of competition in telephony.
And currently, the ACCC is conducting an intensive investigation of allegations into predatory pricing in the Australian meat industry. Such actions, if found to be correct, could have a profound effect on prices paid to producers and employment in country towns' abattoirs.
Professor Fels was taking part in the launch of the Rural industry and the Trade Practices Act: a guideline for rural producers.
The revised guideline is part of an ACCC education campaign to assist rural associations, cooperatives and the rural industry generally to understand their rights and responsibilities under the national competition policy reforms.
The guideline has been launched today by Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister for Primary Industries and Energy, Senator David Brownhill, and myself in Tamworth, the city where one of the ACCC's two non-metropolitan offices is located.
The object of the Trade Practices Act is to enhance the welfare of Australians through the promotion of competition and fair trading.
With deregulation of public utilities, greater (and fairer) competition for all types of services, rural Australia should be able to better bargain for the best services at the lowest cost.
The rural sector should gain from the changes in many ways. As well as competitively priced inputs and better service, the rural sector will be better able to compete in international markets.
If savings made through efficiency are passed to consumers, via lower prices, primary producers should benefit from increased sales.
The rural guideline explains, in simple terms, recent developments in competition policy, the rural sector and the Trade Practices Act including price-fixing, boycotts, mis-use of market power, refusal to supply and secondary boycotts. It also explains customers' rights before and after the farm gate.
The rural guideline discusses the ACCC's authorisation power in some detail. Authorisations allow some practices which would otherwise breach the Act if there is sufficient public benefit. This route has already been used by South Australian chicken growers in their negotiations with processors.
The ACCC recognises that some industries are undergoing transition from regulated to deregulated conditions. Authorisations will be particularly important for these industries as the ACCC has recognised that there is a public benefit in facilitating a smooth and phased transition to deregulation.
The ACCC has already taken a keen interest in the rural sector, including authorisations of the Australian Wool Exchange, rail access for transporting grain, the wool stockpile 'buyout' deal, and claims of predatory pricing and price-fixing in the Australian meat market.
The ACCC has also been involved in mergers between companies such as QUF and Associated Dairies; George Weston Foods and Bunge; Angus Park Fruit Company and Robinvale; and Australian Meat Holdings and Thomas Borthwick in North Queensland.
Professor Fels said the ACCC expected to maintain, and even expand, its role in the rural sector as it embraced the full impact of the reforms.
All grower organisations, farmers, rural-oriented businesses and related groups should be aware of the Trade Practices Act, Professor Fels said. Rural industry and the Trade Practices Act: a guideline for rural producers, is available from all ACCC offices at a cost of $10.
For further information about this media release: Professor Allan Fels, Chairman, (03) 9290 1812
The Trade Practices Act brings substantial benefits to end users consumers, farmers, small business, indeed all forms of business.
ACCC Chairman, Professor Allan Fels said at the launch, Actions by the ACCC such as busting a concrete price fix or a freight price-fix and market-sharing arrangement flow through to all consumers including rural Australia by showing such arrangements are not on, and are costly to the perpetrators to the tune of multi-millions of dollars.
The impact on Australia's international competitiveness, with impediments stripped away, can only benefit a sector which is largely oriented to exports.
The movement of Woolworths into petrol retailing a flow on of changes to the structure of the oil industry is bringing prices down in provincial areas.
Rural Australia is already benefiting from cheaper long-distance telephone calls since the introduction of competition in telephony.
And currently, the ACCC is conducting an intensive investigation of allegations into predatory pricing in the Australian meat industry. Such actions, if found to be correct, could have a profound effect on prices paid to producers and employment in country towns' abattoirs.
Professor Fels was taking part in the launch of the Rural industry and the Trade Practices Act: a guideline for rural producers.
The revised guideline is part of an ACCC education campaign to assist rural associations, cooperatives and the rural industry generally to understand their rights and responsibilities under the national competition policy reforms.
The guideline has been launched today by Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister for Primary Industries and Energy, Senator David Brownhill, and myself in Tamworth, the city where one of the ACCC's two non-metropolitan offices is located.
The object of the Trade Practices Act is to enhance the welfare of Australians through the promotion of competition and fair trading.
With deregulation of public utilities, greater (and fairer) competition for all types of services, rural Australia should be able to better bargain for the best services at the lowest cost.
The rural sector should gain from the changes in many ways. As well as competitively priced inputs and better service, the rural sector will be better able to compete in international markets.
If savings made through efficiency are passed to consumers, via lower prices, primary producers should benefit from increased sales.
The rural guideline explains, in simple terms, recent developments in competition policy, the rural sector and the Trade Practices Act including price-fixing, boycotts, mis-use of market power, refusal to supply and secondary boycotts. It also explains customers' rights before and after the farm gate.
The rural guideline discusses the ACCC's authorisation power in some detail. Authorisations allow some practices which would otherwise breach the Act if there is sufficient public benefit. This route has already been used by South Australian chicken growers in their negotiations with processors.
The ACCC recognises that some industries are undergoing transition from regulated to deregulated conditions. Authorisations will be particularly important for these industries as the ACCC has recognised that there is a public benefit in facilitating a smooth and phased transition to deregulation.
The ACCC has already taken a keen interest in the rural sector, including authorisations of the Australian Wool Exchange, rail access for transporting grain, the wool stockpile 'buyout' deal, and claims of predatory pricing and price-fixing in the Australian meat market.
The ACCC has also been involved in mergers between companies such as QUF and Associated Dairies; George Weston Foods and Bunge; Angus Park Fruit Company and Robinvale; and Australian Meat Holdings and Thomas Borthwick in North Queensland.
Professor Fels said the ACCC expected to maintain, and even expand, its role in the rural sector as it embraced the full impact of the reforms.
All grower organisations, farmers, rural-oriented businesses and related groups should be aware of the Trade Practices Act, Professor Fels said. Rural industry and the Trade Practices Act: a guideline for rural producers, is available from all ACCC offices at a cost of $10.
For further information about this media release: Professor Allan Fels, Chairman, (03) 9290 1812