Legislation Review Compendium Third Edition December 1999 National Competition Council Legislation Review Compendium Third Edition December 1999 © Commonwealth of Australia 1999 ISBN 0 9577490 5 8 This work is copyright. Apart from any use as permitted under the Copyright Act 1968, no part may be reproduced by any process without prior written permission from AusInfo. Requests and inquiries concerning reproduction rights should be directed to the Manager, Legislative Services, AusInfo, GPO Box 84, Canberra ACT 2601. National Competition Council Level 12 Casselden Place 2 Lonsdale Street MELBOURNE VIC 3000 GPO Box 250B MELBOURNE VIC 3001 Telephone (03) 9285 7474 Facsimile (03) 9285 7477 Email Website info@ncc.gov.au http://www.ncc.gov.au Printed in Australia by Dynamic Direct Print, Melbourne. Introduction Table of Contents Introduction 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 Commonwealth New South Wales Victoria Queensland Western Australia South Australia Tasmania Australian Capital Territory Northern Territory 1 7 23 53 77 113 139 159 199 233 249 251 Appendix A Legislation Review – Clause 5 of the Competition Principles Agreement Appendix B National Competition Policy Contacts iii Introduction Australia’s nine governments signed three agreements establishing the National Competition Policy (NCP) on 11 April 1995, namely: • • • the Competition Principles Agreement (CPA); the Conduct Code Agreement; and the Agreement to Implement the National Competition Policy and Related Reforms. The agreements are reproduced in the National Competition Council publication, Compendium of National Competition Policy Agreements - Second Edition (June 1998), and are accessible on the Council’s website: http://www.ncc.gov.au As part of the NCP, governments are reviewing and reforming, where appropriate, all existing legislation that restricts competition, by 31 December 2000. The principles guiding legislation review and reform are outlined in Clause 5 of the CPA.1 In short, governments agree that legislation should not restrict competition unless they can show that: • • the benefits of the restriction to the community as a whole outweigh the costs; and the objectives of the legislation can only be achieved by restricting competition. All governments have a timetable for reviewing their restrictive legislation over the period to 2000. Governments also report annually on their progress against their review schedule. Timetables and annual reports are available from respective State and Territory competition policy officials. Contact details for State and Territory competition policy officials are provided in Appendix B. 1 The full text of clause 5 is reproduced at Appendix A. Legislation Review Compendium The legislation review compendium The third edition, the Council incorporated data from jurisdictions’ most recent NCP annual reports. Jurisdictions have provided further data current to the dates listed below. Commonwealth: New South Wales: Victoria: Queensland: Western Australia: South Australia: Tasmania: Australian Capital Territory: Northern Territory: 31 October 1999 31 October 1999 5 November 1999 3 November 1999 6 December 1999 15 November 1999 14 November 1999 9 November 1999 31 October 1999 The compendium provides summary information for each government’s program. The following information is provided, where it is available from jurisdictions’ timetables and reports: • • • Name of legislation; Agency — the department, authority or Minister responsible for the legislation; Description/Comment on review — identifies the nature of the restriction on competition, and indicates where governments have proposed legislation be reviewed on a national or joint basis, proposed a particular type of review process or provided guidelines for prioritising reviews; Review scheduled — some governments have indicated the year (calendar or financial) in which the review would commence or conclude, while some have detailed the month and year; Review complete — the date the review was completed; and Review/Reform progress — a summary of the review status or the outcome of the review. • • • The compendium is a guide to review programs and their progress, and does not replace the legislation review timetables or annual reports produced by each government. 2 Introduction What is legislation competition? that restricts While there is almost no regulatory activity that is neutral in its implications for competition, the types of regulation which impact on competition most directly are those which restrict entry to markets and those which restrict competitive conduct by participants in markets.2 Legislation affecting competition may directly or indirectly: • • • • • • • govern the entry and exit of firms or individuals into or out of markets; control prices or production levels; restrict the quality, level or location of goods and services available; restrict advertising and promotional activities; restrict price or type of inputs used in the production process; be likely to confer significant costs on businesses; or provide advantages to some firms over others by, for example, sheltering some activities from the pressures of competition. Legislation is defined broadly in the CPA to include Acts, enactments, Ordinances or regulations. The terms of reference for reviews The CPA provides guidance on the matters that should be taken into account in undertaking a review of anti-competitive legislation. Without limiting the terms of reference, a review should: • • • • clarify the objectives of the legislation; identify the nature of the restriction on competition; analyse the likely effect of the restriction on competition and on the economy generally; assess and balance the costs and benefits of the restriction; and 2 Hilmer, F., Rayner, M. and Taperell, G. (The Independent Committee of Inquiry into a National Competition Policy) 1993, National Competition Policy, AGPS, Canberra. p. 191. 3 Legislation Review Compendium • consider alternative means of achieving the same result including nonlegislative approaches.3 National reviews In some cases, particular legislation will have a national dimension or effect on competition (or both), and a national rather than a State based review may be appropriate. National reviews of similar legislation may be proposed where some or all jurisdictions agree on terms of reference. The COAG Committee on Regulatory Reform (CRR) facilitates identification of possible national reviews and agreement by jurisdictions on review arrangements. Several governments identified legislation which they considered would be suitable for review on a national basis in their June 1996 schedules. In a few instances, there has been subsequent agreement among governments to national processes. However, for the most part, it has proven difficult for governments to establish national review processes. As a consequence, governments have either rescheduled reviews which they originally identified for national consideration within their own timetable, or are in the process of doing so. Using the compendium To assist readers in using the compendium, for each jurisdiction, the legislation scheduled for review is arranged alphabetically. The government agencies responsible for administering the legislation are listed in the tables in abbreviated form, with a key to the abbreviations included in the introduction to each jurisdiction’s chapter. For information about specific reviews, users should contact the relevant jurisdiction’s competition policy unit. Contact details are provided in Appendix B of this compendium. If you have questions about competition policy and legislation review you are welcome to contact the Council through its Secretariat located in Melbourne. The telephone number of the Secretariat is (03) 9285 7474. 3 See CPA subclause 5(9). Clause 5 is reproduced at Appendix A of this compendium. 4