Shouts from the desert

You could hardly avoid knowing this morning, but last night Senator Joyce crossed the floor to vote against changes to the Trade Practices Act that would have reduced the ACCC's powers over anti-competitive mergers.

There are those from the Labor and Green end of the spectrum who had hoped that Senator Joyce would be their saviour on particular issues (the Barnaby Left). The Barnaby Left were obviously disappointed at Senator Joyce's decision to support the sale of Telstra, and nicknamed him "backdown Barnaby", and other perjoratives suggesting the Senator had no backbone. His actions last night should put paid to that.

Senator Joyce never said that he was going to be a Labor senator in the ranks of the Government - but he did state that he would take his responsibility to the people as a Senator seriously and would not merely rubber-stamp the Government's legislation. Last night he proved that.

In this case, Senator Joyce voted against particular amendments on the grounds that they were of such importance that they needed to be introduced and considered separately rather than together with a bunch of other amendments.

The particular amendments Senator Joyce voted against have two dominant effects. The first is that it puts a time limit of 40 days on the time the ACCC can take to approve of an anti-competitive merger or acquisition - if the merger or acquisition is not approved within that time, it is taken to be approved. Secondly, once refused, the applicant for approval can make an application to the Australian Competition Tribunal (ACT). The ACT can take 3 months to approve it or disapprove of it.

Currently, the ACCC makes the decision one way or another. The decision can then be appealed to the ACT. That makes it sound like a small change, but the difference is that under the proposed rules only the applicant gets to initiate the ACT process - under the current rules, anybody with a sufficient interest in the matter can initiate the appeal process. That is a significant matter since under the proposed rules those opposing a merger or acquisition will have to stop it twice, but those favouring it have to succeed on only one of two chances. That makes it much easier to get approval.

There is no doubt that the proposed rules would lead to more anti-competitive mergers and acquisitions. This is something that serves big business, but is destructive to the small businesses that the Liberal Party claims as its core constituency.

Senator Joyce got it right here - the changes do appear to go too far and more caution is warranted.