'The Maritime Union of Australia is claiming that the ACCC is soft in applying the Trade Practices Act 1974 to business,' Australian Competition and Consumer Commission Chairman, Professor Allan Fels, said today.
'In fact the ACCC is widely acknowledged to have been extremely vigorous in applying the Trade Practices Act to break up price-fixing and other cartel agreements; the abuse of market power by monopolists; anticompetitive mergers; misleading and deceptive conduct; and unconscionable conduct affecting small business and consumers. It has applied the law without fear or favour to the biggest and most powerful corporations and interests in the land.
'The MUA has cited a particular 1995/96 decision not to pursue a price increase by some importers. The key point is that there is a major exemption to prices by shippers written into Part X of the Act. This has been strongly supported by the MUA. The ACCC has strongly opposed this exemption for many years and has tried to get it lifted.
'It was essentially because of the Part X exemption that the 1995/96 price rise was not pursued to litigation. Every enforcement agency, no matter whether vigorous or lax, has marginal cases. The 1995/96 price rise was marginal to negative in the ACCC's assessment. A very selective quotation has been taken from an ACCC letter to the industry at the time - even that letter makes it clear that the matter was at most marginal.
'What is not said is that as a result of the ACCC's preliminary investigations the price increase was withdrawn (although later some of the increases may have found their way into unambiguously exempt freight charges).
'More generally the ACCC has been vigorous in applying the law to the waterfront. It vigorously opposed with success the attempt by P&O to take over the bulk of Port Adelaide some years ago. As a result a new entrant, Sealand, entered the Australian market. It recently opposed Adsteam tugboat mergers in Sydney in court (even though it effectively lost that case). This is not to say that there are not limitations on the effectiveness of the Act in relation to the waterfront. The Act can foster competition, it cannot force it in certain industry structures.
'The MUA's claims cannot be taken seriously. They are simply a crude attempt to discredit an independent regulator doing its job properly and to divert attention from issues affecting parties to the recent dispute on the waterfront.'
'In fact the ACCC is widely acknowledged to have been extremely vigorous in applying the Trade Practices Act to break up price-fixing and other cartel agreements; the abuse of market power by monopolists; anticompetitive mergers; misleading and deceptive conduct; and unconscionable conduct affecting small business and consumers. It has applied the law without fear or favour to the biggest and most powerful corporations and interests in the land.
'The MUA has cited a particular 1995/96 decision not to pursue a price increase by some importers. The key point is that there is a major exemption to prices by shippers written into Part X of the Act. This has been strongly supported by the MUA. The ACCC has strongly opposed this exemption for many years and has tried to get it lifted.
'It was essentially because of the Part X exemption that the 1995/96 price rise was not pursued to litigation. Every enforcement agency, no matter whether vigorous or lax, has marginal cases. The 1995/96 price rise was marginal to negative in the ACCC's assessment. A very selective quotation has been taken from an ACCC letter to the industry at the time - even that letter makes it clear that the matter was at most marginal.
'What is not said is that as a result of the ACCC's preliminary investigations the price increase was withdrawn (although later some of the increases may have found their way into unambiguously exempt freight charges).
'More generally the ACCC has been vigorous in applying the law to the waterfront. It vigorously opposed with success the attempt by P&O to take over the bulk of Port Adelaide some years ago. As a result a new entrant, Sealand, entered the Australian market. It recently opposed Adsteam tugboat mergers in Sydney in court (even though it effectively lost that case). This is not to say that there are not limitations on the effectiveness of the Act in relation to the waterfront. The Act can foster competition, it cannot force it in certain industry structures.
'The MUA's claims cannot be taken seriously. They are simply a crude attempt to discredit an independent regulator doing its job properly and to divert attention from issues affecting parties to the recent dispute on the waterfront.'