GOVERNMENT ADOPTS LABOR’S POLICIES - TWO YEARS LATE

 

Two years after Labor called for an increase in anti-consumer penalties, the Turnbull Government has finally introduced a bill to Parliament.

 

On June 15, 2016, Labor announced a plan to reform competition, stating that we would increase civil penalties, increase penalties for anti-competitive conduct, increase the ACCC’s litigation budget and give a market studies function to the ACCC.

 

610 days later, the Turnbull Government finally introduced a bill to legislate part of that plan.

 

While we welcome Scott Morrison and his colleagues adopting our idea to increase in penalties for anti-consumer conduct, we’d also encourage them to take on the rest of our measures.

 

We now call on the Government to adopt Labor’s other important reforms:

 

Amend the Competition and Consumer Act 2010 to give a fully autonomous market studies function to the ACCC to explore public interest issues such as pricing discrepancies and increased market concentration; and

Increase the ACCC’s litigation budget to boost their ability to take more potential scammers to court

 

Labor will study the other provisions of the bill closely to ensure scammers and shonks will no longer profit from ripping off Australian consumers.