Brian Mitchell (Lyons, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I rise to speak on the Competition and Consumer Amendment (Fair Go for Consumers and Small Business) Bill 2024, and I thank the previous member for her contribution; she had some very salient points in her speech. We have seen and heard far too many examples in Australia for many years of consumers not getting a fair go from big business. These include airlines, telecommunications companies and, of course, supermarkets. All, at various times, have been accused of price gouging while announcing big profits, and, all the while, everyday Australians struggle with the uncontrollable price increases that have been due to global interest rates. We have seen farmers and suppliers unfairly treated by the supermarkets, with prices rising on the shelves while remaining stagnant or indeed dropping at the farm gate. We have seen franchisees getting an unfair deal and small businesses' cash flows suffering due to slow payments.

In my own electorate, I'm aware of a small family business that waited more than 90 days for a $700 invoice to be paid by a multimillion dollar national company. Indeed, the former leader of the National Party, Barnaby Joyce, and I were on a committee some years ago where we were talking to mining companies and small and medium-sized enterprises with big contracts with big mining companies, and they were pleading for action from the parliament to get these invoices under control, these 90-day invoices, which were crippling them for cash flow. There was an agreement made at the time that, if they didn't do it voluntarily, then the parliament would act to bring in legislation for 60-day payments. I should really catch up on where that is. My understanding is that there was some agreement made at the time, and I hope that that has come to pass. It was crippling those businesses. Family businesses of many decades standing were being driven to the wall by big business who were simply not paying their bills on time and all because of the market power that they had.

The amount of that $700 invoice for that small business in my electorate might be a drop in the ocean to a corporate giant. Indeed, it's an accounting error! But, for a small business, that cash flow is so vital, and it's not good enough for small businesses to be waiting so long for the money they are owed for the services they provide. It's just a fact that the duopolies, the big businesses and the multinationals dominate these markets, particularly in Australia. We heard the previous speaker, the member for Mayo, talk about how the United States, the home of capitalism itself, is aware of these issues and has in place laws to deal with the dominance and to prevent the overdominance of any one, two or three players in the market. It's no secret that Australia is one of the places in the world where the fewest big players exist, and that dominance unfortunately has been increasing. We need to address it, and our government is addressing it. The fact is that duopolies work together to keep smaller competition out. Prices get higher, and service expectations fall. It's unfair to consumers and to small businesses. We need complaint structures in place that protect people from the power that the large corporates have over them.

Since coming to office, the Albanese government has been hard at work examining Australia's competition law and policies, and we want to get the balance right. We don't want to stifle innovation, and we don't want to stifle business. But we want to protect consumers, and there is a balance to be played. We have increased the penalties for breaches of competition and consumer law. It is harder for small businesses to compete if larger companies use sneaky tactics to try to dominate the market. We've strengthened protections against unfair contract terms to help level the playing field in negotiations between big corporations and both small businesses and consumers. We have appointed former competition minister Dr Craig Emerson to lead a review of the Food and Grocery Code of Conduct to ensure that the supermarket sector is working as it should, and, if it's not, he'll find out why it's not and make recommendations about how to fix it. We have directed the ACCC to investigate pricing and competition in the supermarket sector to ensure that Australians are paying a fair price for their groceries. The ACCC will investigate the competitiveness of retail prices and allegations of price gouging in the supermarket sector.

It's an important part of the government's broader efforts to boost competition and put downward pressure on the price of essentials for Australians. We will fund the respected consumer group CHOICE to provide quarterly price transparency and comparison reports for three years. We've established a competition taskforce to foster greater dynamism in the economy, and one of the taskforce's first priorities is to look at Australia's merger laws. When big firms join forces, the resulting entity has better economies of scale, which gives it the potential to benefit consumers. But, if it wields significant market power, it can also drive up prices and reduce quality. At a time when many other countries are reviewing their merger codes, it's only sensible to consider whether Australia's laws need an update.

More competition should mean better prices, which is why Labor committed at the last election to establishing a designated complaints function within the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission. The Competition and Consumer Amendment (Fair Go for Consumers and Small Business) Bill 2024 before the House today delivers on this commitment, with designated complainants being able to raise significant or systemic complaints with the ACCC from July this year.

Consumer and small-business advocates have expressed the need for a consumer complaints framework that allows certain designated entities to bring evidence of significant or systemic market issues to the ACCC for consideration. This bill provides the framework to empower designated consumer and small-business advocates to bring forward evidence of significant or systemic market issues in a timely and transparent way.

Certain consumer and business advocacy groups will be approved by the minister to make designated complaints to the ACCC. There'll be nothing vexatious about this. There'll be nothing petty. There'll be no way for people with an axe to grind to get in on the act. This is serious business. Consumer and business advocacy group will be approved by the minister to make designated complaints. We are treating it seriously, and it deserves to be treated seriously. Complaints will need to meet certain criteria, including that they relate to a significant or systemic market issue affecting consumers or small businesses in Australia and that they relate to a breach of the Competition and Consumer Act or to the ACCC's powers or functions under the act.

A range of entities may apply to the minister to be approved as a designated complainant, including a corporation, an individual or an unincorporated association. I can think of a few off the top of my head that I imagine would seek approval to be a designated complainant. This provides an opportunity for entities that represent the interests of consumers or small businesses in Australia to become designated complainants regardless of the entity type.

Upon receiving a designated complaint, the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission will be required to assess the complaint and notify the designated complainant within 90 days of any action it intends to take. If the ACCC proposes to act on a designated complaint, it must commence that action as soon as practicable and within six months. Any response by the ACCC will be based on its existing powers and functions under the Competition and Consumer Act 2010 and may include education, research, compliance and enforcement functions, or a combination of any of this.

The ACCC has welcomed the introduction of this bill, with ACCC Chair Gina Cass-Gottlieb saying:

"The proposed new designated complaints function will reinforce the importance of key issues impacting consumers and small business to the ACCC's work, as well as the role of advocate organisations in detecting and highlighting emerging issues," …

She continued:

"… it will reinforce public confidence in the responsiveness of the ACCC to the competition, consumer and fair trading issues significantly impacting the community," …

The designated complaints function this bill brings will promote transparency and accountability, with the minister and the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission being required to publish certain information on the Department of the Treasury or ACCC website. The bill will empower consumers and small businesses to fast-track complaints through the ACCC, who will be required to assess the complaint and notify the designated complainant within 90 days of the action it intends to take.

We can't control everything large corporations do. We're not that sort of society. We don't want to be that sort of society, where government has its finger in every single pie of what the private market says and does. But we can and should be able to give the powers to be able to hold those businesses to account, to protect consumers and small businesses from unfair and indeed perhaps illegal business practices.

Our government is committed to action on this. We have been since before the election. We've put in place a number of measures since the election. This is just one of a raft of measures that we are taking.

The fact is that Australian consumers should be able to go to the shops, and, when they go to the shops and see products on the shelves, they should be paying a fair price for those products, knowing that the farmer who has produced those products and the processor who has processed them have also been given a fair price down the line. It should not be the case in this country that farmers get ripped off at the start of the farm gate, that everybody gets ripped off along the line and that the shopper then gets ripped off at the check-out whilst, meanwhile, the supermarkets take the money and run. We've seen far too many incidents of that over the last year or so, where larger than required price increases have come through the check-out.

We all understand that, when inflation is higher than usual, prices go up and costs in the supply chain go up—we all understand those price pressures—but, if those supermarkets are increasing their profits in a higher than usual inflation environment, that means they are gouging customers and they are contributing to inflation being higher than it needs to be. That's where we need to focus our attention. Supermarkets should not be hiding in a higher than usual inflation environment. That's not when they should be looking to increase their profits, on the back of price increases that don't need to be as high as they should be in order to take account of supply chain pressures.

Our government is committed to justice for consumers. I don't think you'll see any Labor Party members wearing costumes, running around the halls of parliament, as we saw from a couple of Independent members—the member for Clark and the member for Kennedy. Good luck to them if that's what they need to do to get a headline and a photo in the paper. But the fact is that this is a serious issue. We're taking it seriously and we're taking action. I commend the bill to the House.

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