Mathias Cormann (WA, Liberal Party, Minister for Finance) Share this | Hansard source

The answer to the question is no. We have not refused to back anything; we are backing everything. As I said in my response to the question from Senator Bushby, we are specifically supporting, in whole or in part, 44 of the 56 recommendations—and we remain open to the remaining 12 recommendations, on which there will be further consultation. We have not taken anything off the table. We are doing some more work in relation to a particular part of competition policy reform which is particularly contentious, where there is a diversity of views across the broader community and indeed across business. You would have seen Professor Harper earlier today acknowledging that, even in the work that his review did, they changed that recommendation between the draft version of the report and the final version of the report. He supported the proposition that the government outlined, which is that we will do some further work to ensure we get the final approach absolutely right. It is very important to get the final approach to any possible improvements to section 46 of the Trade Practices Act right—and that is something the government is totally committed to.