As the ACCC’s grocery price hearings started, the ACCC Chairman Graeme Samuel gave a wide-ranging speech in Brisbane on 3 April.
Rather than a formal presentation on regulation (see this speech by ACCC Commissioner King), Samuel gave a forthright view of the ACCC’s expanding role in what he described as an "exhilirating time" under the new Government including:
- draft legislation for criminal penalties for cartel conduct;
- draft legislation on component pricing;
- predatory pricing amendments to section 46 of the Trade Practices Act;
- petrol prices (it is not collusion if prices go down, it is competition);
- a description of the real time pricing monitoring of 4000 petrol retailers;
- the grocery prices inquiry;
- ACCC enforcement processes;
- telecommunications competition.
He said the ACCC now had nearly 700 staff.
