Report on Price Signalling bills now released

The House of Representatives Standing Committee on Economics has now released (three weeks late) the ‘Advisory Report on the Competition and Consumer (Price Signalling) Amendment Bill 2010 and the Competition and Consumer Amendment Bill (No. 1) 2011‘.

The (government) majority recommended that “The House of Representatives pass the Competition and Consumer Amendment Bill (No.1) 2011 and reject the Competition and Consumer (Price Signalling) Amendment Bill 2010.” A dissenting report was prepared by opposition members of the Committee.

The government bill is due to be debated in the House today.

More details on the inquiry and report are on my web site – here.  I will provide further commentary on the report on that site throughout today and tomorrow.  Briefly, it does not look particularly thorough or impressive.  Repeated reference to (perceived) deficiencies highlighted by the ‘Apco’ case are particularly odd, given the proposed limitation of the legislation to the banking industry – at least for the foreseeable future.

Creeping acquisition bill back in Parliament

In 2010 the Government announced it would introduce laws to deal with ‘creeping acquisitions’.  In May 2010 they introduced a bill which they claimed would do this (see my blog post discussing the proposed amendments).  That bill was considered by the Senate Economics Legislation Committee which, on 15 June 2010 (precisely a year ago!) recommended that it be passed.  The bill subsequently lapsed as a result of the 2010 Federal Election.

Today the Government re-introduced this bill (in the same terms as far as mergers are concerned – the bill also deals with unconscionable conduct).  View also David Bradbury’s second reading speech.

More to follow …