Former Labor minister rejects calls for break-up power in competition laws

  • 📰 FinancialReview
  • ⏱ Reading Time:
  • 47 sec. here
  • 8 min. at publisher
  • 📊 Quality Score:
  • News: 43%
  • Publisher: 90%

Politics News

Labor Minister,Break-Up Power,Competition Laws

Former Labor minister Craig Emerson has rejected calls for a break-up power to be included in the nation's competition laws. Instead, he suggests making the voluntary Food and Grocery Code more effective and imposing bigger penalties for breaches.

of the Food and Grocery Code of Conduct by former Labor minister Craig Emerson has rejected populist calls for what Anthony Albanese has dismissed as the “Soviet” option of a break-up power to be included in the nation’s competition laws .to join his Nationals partners, the Greens and the ACTU-commissioned price-gouging inquiry by former Australian Consumer and Competition chairman Allan Fels by backing calls for new divestiture laws to break up Coles and Woolworths.

Hence, the review says the forced sale of existing stores to another incumbent chain could end up in even greater market concentration. Or if bigger chains were banned from buying divested stores and smaller chains were not in a position to do so, the result would be store closures, inconveniencing local shoppers and leading to retail workers losing their jobs. Even the ACTU understands that.

What is striking is the lack of any hard data to show that the alleged abuse of the market power imbalance of the big supermarkets has squeezed smaller fresh produce supplier margins, sent suppliers broke and reduced fruit and vegetable production or pushed up supermarket inflation as claimed. Dr Emerson could fairly say this was not part of his terms of reference to review the operation of the code, and might be the job of one of the multitude of ACCC and other parliamentary inquiries into supermarkets under way.

Labor Minister Break-Up Power Competition Laws Food And Grocery Code Penalties Breaches

 

Thank you for your comment. Your comment will be published after being reviewed.
Please try again later.
We have summarized this news so that you can read it quickly. If you are interested in the news, you can read the full text here. Read more:

 /  🏆 2. in AU

Australia Latest News, Australia Headlines

Similar News:You can also read news stories similar to this one that we have collected from other news sources.

The Whyalla wipe-out never happened. But its residents are feeling cautiously optimistic about the futureMore than a decade since former Labor minister Craig Emerson pulled a cringeworthy stunt singing 'no Whyalla wipe-out' residents of the town are feeling cautiously optimistic about its future.
Source: abcnews - 🏆 5. / 83 Read more »

Labor on brink of historic win in SA byelection to snatch former Liberal premier’s seatCressida O’Hanlon has significant lead in Dunstan though there are many early votes yet to be counted
Source: GuardianAus - 🏆 1. / 98 Read more »

Former NSW Labor trio to face corruption trial next yearOne-time party powerbroker Eddie Obeid and his former political allies Joe Tripodi and Tony Kelly have been charged with misconduct in public office.
Source: brisbanetimes - 🏆 13. / 67 Read more »

Former NSW Labor trio to face corruption trial next yearOne-time party powerbroker Eddie Obeid and his former political allies Joe Tripodi and Tony Kelly have been charged with misconduct in public office.
Source: smh - 🏆 6. / 80 Read more »

Former NSW Labor trio to face corruption trial next yearOne-time party powerbroker Eddie Obeid and his former political allies Joe Tripodi and Tony Kelly have been charged with misconduct in public office.
Source: theage - 🏆 8. / 77 Read more »

‘Stop deflecting’: Andrew Bolt clashes with former Labor minister over nuclear banLabor's steadfast stance on nuclear power in Australia has sparked fierce debate during a panel on Sky News Australia's The Bolt Report.
Source: SkyNewsAust - 🏆 7. / 78 Read more »