‘Australia at a crossroads’: Living standards under threat from lack of competition

Borrowers would be offered mortgages that track official interest rates, travellers compensated for late flights and small businesses given a better chance of winning government contracts under plans from a wide-ranging review that warns without more competition, all Australians’ living standards will fall.

Some economists believe this decline and associated lack of economic dynamism are linked to a fall in competition across the private sector and the dominance of a few businesses in key parts of the economy. The report said that the slowdown in productivity over the past decade was due to a range of factors, including reduced competition among businesses, an increase in market concentration, slower company-level investment in new technology and the shift across the economy towards services.

The committee said the idea of a tracker mortgage, first raised by the Australian Securities and Investments Commission in 2016, should be re-examined. Another ongoing complaint has been about the nation’s airlines, particularly their treatment of customers due to delayed or cancelled flights.

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