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During the Senate Inquiry into 'milk price wars' in 2011, Senator Nick Xenophon accused the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) of being 'less effective than a toothless Chihuahua'. This follows the ACCC's lack of action regarding the reported abuse of market power of Australia's supermarket duopoly, where an extensive inquiry into the competitiveness of retail prices in 2008 found grocery retailing to be 'workably competitive' despite numerous claims to the contrary. How can farmers' submissions to the inquiry that cite market abuse be reconciled with the ACCC's finding that all is well in the food supply chain? Following an in-depth examination of 53 farmer submissions to the inquiry, we conclude that the findings of the ACCC are commensurate with the neoliberal economisation of the political sphere, where commercial entities 'legitimately' govern beyond their corporate boundaries, often using disciplinary measures that were once exclusive to governments. We argue that such clear structural inequalities between farmers and major corporations is reason to re-regulate markets and reinsert a stronger role for government to 'level the playing field'. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In 2005-06 the Australian government announced the establishment of 65 Family Relationship Centres (FRCs) - a 'gateway' service assisting separating couples to reach agreement about child custodial arrangements without recourse to courts. The use of a multi-round competitive contracting regime for the purpose of selecting service providers gave rise to a number of tensions amongst not-for-profit organisations (NFPOs) which, to a degree, compromised the full realisation of stated public policy aims. Reporting on fieldwork conducted with a sample of FRC operators, industry representatives and key government officials this article evaluates the extent to which the case of FRCs conforms to critiques commonly aired in the social policy literature that attribute various forms of policy failure and/or social capital depletion to the competitive contracting of human services within quasi-markets. Although the competitive selection process imposed significant costs on the NFPOs involved, the program also exhibited substantial collaborative and collegial behaviours between government and NFPOs, thus diverging from the critique usually portrayed in the literature. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The author discusses the purpose of lessening competition which includes the divergence of law in New Zealand and Australia. He discusses the Commerce Act 1986 which is based on Trade Practices Act 1974 of Australia also known as Consumer and Competition Act 2010. The federal court of Australia in the case Universal Music Australia Pty Limited v Australian Competition and Consumer Commission ruled that one may have the purpose of lessening competition even though it was impossible to achieve.

The article focuses on the impact of the Competition Policy Reform Act 1996 on conveyancing reservation and solicitors' practices. It discusses market boundaries, residential conveyancing markets and the cost/benefit analysis involved in the Queensland conveyancing reservation under the competition law. It concludes that lowering the entry barriers does not necessarily improve the quality of conveyancing services for consumers but will provide nonlawyer conveyancers access to markets.

There is a growing policy focus in Australian higher education on quantitative research performance assessment. However, most of the analysis has addressed aggregate performance at the institutional level, an approach inconsistent with recent policy emphasis on diversity among universities and one that ignores performance variations across disciplines. Using averaged and all available data for 2000-2004, cluster analysis is used to classify Australian Commerce Faculties into groups that exhibit similar research performance, measured by publication, PhD completion and secured competitive research grant funding. We also use factor analysis to generate full-multidimensional rankings within the resulting two or three clusters. It is found that in terms of total research output, with the exception of Adelaide all the Group of 8 (Go8) members plus University of Technology, Sydney and Griffith always belong to 'Clusters A'. However, when research performance is expressed in per academic staff terms, an additional 11 universities join this same cluster. Our results additionally show that eight Australian faculties of Commerce not only possess low total research output but their per capita performance is also poor. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines Australia’s implementation of a national regulatory framework to support the development of robust and mature water markets. To date, competition in water markets and water trading have been inhibited by disparate State-based regulation as well as State-based limitations on trading outside of regions. State-based monopolisation of water infrastructure has also been a significant impediment. The transfer of sovereignty over water to the central Commonwealth government has enhanced the capacity of the regulatory framework to better contribute to building efficient water markets. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The article examines the legal issues that prevent employers from exercising freedom of contract and allows employees to trade, work freely, and benefit from labor. It refers to common law systems of Great Britain and Australia dealing with the doctrine of restraint of trade and restricted competition. Legal experts inform that enforcing employment restraints under evolving employment laws are unreasonable, and need to be evaluated when considering the growth of information-driven industries.

By putting the vocabulary of aspiration in the mouths of criminals, and by situating them in the suburbs, Underbelly suggests that ruthless, murderous competition may not be incompatible with the Australian Dream. Exposing a generation's denial of the criminal elements behind ecstasy's fetishized status, it problematizes celebratory accounts of club culture, and suggests dark externalities for the 'night-time economy' of our inner cities. As well as connecting country, suburb and city in repressed criminality, by virtue of its casting choices at the very least, the series blurs the lines between ordinariness, celebrity and infamy. It is in these unresolved tensions that Underbelly constitutes a televisual history of Australia's present that countervails the official pieties of the ordinary that characterized the Howard years. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In a government-funded research project into the implications of digitization for book publishing in Australia, the researchers tested for the presence of global issues and trends. With a focus specifically upon book publishing to the exclusion of newspaper and journal publishing these included: revenue trends; competition; outsourcing; potential benefits of digital publishing; critical success factors for digital publishing; supply chain issues; value chain issues, business models and expectations for the future. An online survey and follow-up interviews found that technologies such the Internet and the World Wide Web, along with those for production and rights management were playing a significant role in book publishing. However, the major focus among book publishers was on business and organizational issues. There was widespread realization of the need to respond to competition from inside and outside the industry, including competition for the leisure time of users, with direct implications for value chains and business models. Key organizational changes identified included changes in structures and strategies, in human resource practices, and in cultures. The main benefits anticipated from digital technologies were in the areas of new niche markets, repackaging and repurposing of existing content, consumer-generated content and the enhancement of value chains. It is therefore, imprudent to only consider the impact of emerging technology as the fundamental in the ongoing development of digitization in book publishing, as other considerations such as demographics, social and economic factors are also essential ingredients. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Australian governments in recent years have invested substantially in innovation and research commercialisation with the aim of enhancing international economic competitiveness, making research findings more readily available to research users, and supporting economic and social development. Although there have been a number of evaluations of Australia's research commercialisation, judgements about the performance of universities are somewhat contradictory and to date there has been little effort to take account of the views of key staff directly involved in research commercialisation processes. Using data from two separate national surveys, this article reports on the perceptions of technology transfer specialists and science and technology academics who hold industry research funding about both the success of university efforts and the effectiveness of government programs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article argues that the key strength of the competition state as an explanatory model of the motivations behind state transformation is its acknowledgement of the role of 'non-rational' factors, specifically, the roles of discourse and path-dependence, in shaping state responses to globalisation. The empirical case of state engagement in policy consultancy within the Australian context is explored as one expression of this 'transformationalist' response to the imperatives of globalisation. The findings of this case study suggest that the competition state model attributes a greater degree of strategy and reflexivity on the part of state actors, than is borne out in practice. This is because the competition state model does not account for the role played by 'competitiveness', both as a discourse and as an institutionally-embedded political commitment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Independent regulatory agencies, faced with multiple and often conflicting demands from regulatory stakeholders, yet operating at arm's length from government, may be under considerable pressure to demonstrate the legitimacy of their decisions and the regime they administer. This article considers how regulators employ presentational strategies to establish and maintain their legitimacy by documenting the findings of a comparative study of two independent agencies responsible for the regulation of trade practices in their respective jurisdictions: the UK Office of Fair Trading and the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission. Its findings demonstrate that presentational activities may be an important means by which regulators give concrete expression to their obligations of transparency, promote the effectiveness of the regime they administer, and publicly demonstrate how their work serves the community. The mass media is relied upon by both agencies as the primary vehicle through which they seek to communicate to their targeted audiences and the public at large, actively seeking to manage the ambivalence that infuses the regulatory enterprise. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

For economists, the main test of a microeconomic policy change is its effect on efficiency: gains minus losses, equally weighted. However, it is standard economics that individuals value losses more than gains. Moreover, imposing large, uncompensated and uninsurable policy-induced losses would be widely regarded as unfair, when they are merely collateral damage from policy action. The article argues the case for adjusting the calculation of efficiency to take account of this ‘unfairness’ and discusses how it could be done. The context is the relatively recent acceptance in Australia of competition, if planned and regulated, as being generally socially beneficial. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article critically appraises the potential of corporate compliance systems to influence corporate behavior. The authors differentiate between the adoption of formal compliance management systems and the way compliance is managed in practice in business organizations by reference to scholarly literature and analysis of survey responses from 999 large Australian businesses about their implementation of competition and consumer protection law compliance systems. Their analysis shows that at least some elements of compliance systems can translate into good management of compliance in practice. But management commitment to compliance values, managerial oversight and planning, and organizational resources are just as important. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

High neonatal mortality is one of the most salient ‘facts’ about firm performance in the industrial organisation literature. We model firm survival and examine the relative influence of firm, industry and macroeconomic factors on survival for new vis-à-vis incumbent firms in Australia. In particular, we focus on how the intensity of innovation in each industry relates to firm survival. Our results imply that while new firms thrive in risky and innovative industries, they are also more susceptible to business cycle effects such as changes in the rate of growth of industry profits and the availability of equity finance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Electricity generation contributes some 35 per cent of Australia's total greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. So far, these emissions have not been taken into account when generation firms bid their availability into the National Electricity Market. Given the increasing emphasis on GHG emissions, change is required through the use of appropriate generation technologies and/or emissions trading or abatement. An Australian Emissions Trading Scheme is likely to start in 2010. Thus, the electricity generation sector will need to move from what has been an essentially private (i.e. production) cost structure to a social cost approach. This article focuses on appropriate technological choices (e.g. 'cleaner coal', gas, hydro, renewables and nuclear) in electricity generation that would help reduce the sector's GHG emissions. It suggests that: strategies based on appropriate technology selection can give a generation firm a competitive edge through time under market rules in the face of increasing environmental costs; with appropriate technological choices (and generation plant mix), a social cost-credit approach to electricity generation may ultimately lead to electricity costs that are not as markedly different from current private costs as the simple imposition of a carbon cost per tonne on the existing system would suggest; and while nuclear power may be a viable way of containing GHGs in electricity generation, this option remains controversial when social costs such as accidents and the handling of nuclear waste are considered. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Despite widespread adoption of Porter's Industrial Cluster Theory as a policy development framework by federal and state governments over the past decade, Australia remains significantly below the OECD average in terms of its industries' economic contributions to real wealth creation ( Brown 2000 ; OECD 1998 ). The major cause cited for this relatively poor performance has been inability of key government officials to implement effective industry policy that simultaneously avoids de facto protectionism and distortion of competition. This article provides an insight into the key policy decisions undertaken by the Tasmanian state government that coincided with development of an internationally successful shipbuilding industry in that state. As such, this article provides a reflection on policy initiatives that may be valuable for government officials elsewhere. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article talks about Australian schools' need for market competitiveness. Full competition between schools in Australia still does not exist because structural diversity in the school sector is more apparent than real. Strategies to increase competition are discussed, which include funding issues and human resources management.

This article discusses whether at a theoretical level the large and growing role of the vertically integrated supermarket chains raises a buyer-power concern because of potential harm to other retailers, suppliers, and/or consumers. Even if this is possible, whether it is a real concern depends on whether provision exists to constrain the exercise of that power through market responses, such as entry, or through regulatory provisions, such as those contained in the Trade Practices Act. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article contributes to emergent scholarship that questions neoliberal discourses in agricultural policy, through a case study that challenges assumptions about the role of “the market” in explaining the recent expansion of Australian beef exports. Australia is the world’s largest beef exporter and its beef exports more than doubled between the mid-1980s and the turn of the 21st century. This expansion, however, can be explained through a particular conjunction of political conditions, which are unlikely to be repeated with equal force in the current decade. Specifically, recent growth hinged upon a combination of (1) rapid growth of Japanese and Korean beef consumption in the early 1990s; (2) the operation of the US “cattle cycle” in the mid-1990s; and (3) the privileged position of Australian beef during this period, vis-à-vis Latin American competition, because of concerns over foot and mouth disease. However, because of their adherence to neoliberal assumptions about the supposed inevitability of trade liberalization, agricultural economists have mistaken these specific circumstances for a general condition in which Australian beef exports will continue growing. This deceptive envisaging of the bounty from liberalization leads not only to false expectations among industry participants, but encourages politics in which industry growth is fallaciously prioritized. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In recent years, heated debate has arisen concerning the media practices of Australia's competition and consumer regulator (“the ACCC”), with a number of industry leaders asserting that the ACCC engages in “trial by media.” The public disquiet surrounding the ACCC's use of the media was so significant that the Australian Parliament established an independent committee of inquiry (“the Dawson Inquiry”) to investigate (amongst other things) whether Australian competition legislation “provides adequate protection for the commercial affairs and reputation of individuals and corporations.” In its report, the Dawson Inquiry observed that widespread misgivings about the ACCC's media practices had emerged from the submissions that it had received. In its recommendations to the Australian Parliament, the Dawson Inquiry recommended that the ACCC should develop a media code of conduct to govern its use of the media, particularly in relation to enforcement proceedings. In making these recommendations, the Dawson Inquiry drew from a hitherto unpublished research study conducted in 2002 that sought to identify the extent to which the ACCC engages in “trial by media.” This article documents the design, methodological bases, and findings of that study in order to facilitate broader dissemination of the research findings upon which the Dawson Inquiry's policy recommendations concerning the ACCC's use of the media were based. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article investigates the benchmark for the building industry from the 1920s to the early 1970s in North America and Australia. During the 1930s and 1940s, the editors of Fortune ran a series of articles on the subject of the building industry, publishing an early collection as a book and a later group as a special issue in 1946. The following year they summarized their point of view in a catchphrase that caught the temper of the time. House building, they argued, was incidentally corrupt and inherently inefficient. In 1947 the building industry contained innumerable businesses. It was ruthlessly competitive. It consisted of all sorts of enterprises, of all sizes, operating methods and degrees of vertical integration. During the 1920s the achievements of the auto industry caught the popular imagination. The assembly-line production of cars raised productivity and reinforced a virtuous circle of declining costs, growing demand, larger production runs and further improvements in productivity. By the mid-1920s this method had become an ideal and was viewed as the benchmark against which house building was to be judged. Through the 1960s, innumerable discussions made this comparison explicit and in others it was an implied point of reference. This way of thinking has persisted, but from the 1970s has been called into question, first by the expansion of flexible methods in the mass production industries and then by an academic literature that has tried to tease out the logic of these developments.

Examines how the emergence of neo-liberalism in rural policy has affected the Central Wheatbelt of Western Australia. Overview of the foundations and spatial dimensions of neo-liberalism; Increase focus on competition and entrepreneurialism in regional development; Impact of government policies on the spatial pattern of economic planning.

The article focuses on the need for international co-operation in both cartel and merger control. Developing country responses show that virtually all of them that are active in competition law enforcement have entered into co-operation agreements with one or more other jurisdictions. Australia reported on a tripartite agreement between it, Canada and New Zealand. The Competition Committee's February 2000 Report to Council on implementation of the Hard Core Cartel Recommendation stated that the main barrier to law enforcement co-operation are national laws that ban the sharing of "confidential information."

Contemporary public sector reforms in Australia have been dominated by efficiency, productivity and contestability considerations captured in the National Competition Policy (NCP). Both in the reform process in general and in the NCP processes in particular, the lack of priority attributed to non-economic concerns such as co-ordination, equity, representation, political accountability, consultation and distributive outcomes has been a serious omission. The idea of public interest, once central to democratic public administration, has re-emerged to challenge the perceived excesses of economic rationalism as the unifying idea of reform. In this article it is argued that substantive situational manifestations of public interest can be used to complement rather than undermine the efficiency, productivity and contestability objectives of public sector reform. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The food manufacturing industry in Australia reflects a very competitive marketplace, one in which sales promotion is extensively used. Some would argue that this activity is actually a prerequisite to doing business-just because it is such a competitive environment. Although much is understood about the purpose of promotional activity, less is known about what in reality occurs at an aggregate level, and what the potential implications of promotional behaviour may be in years to come. Indeed, a concern over the potential impact of the overuse of price-based promotions saw the development of a review of marketing practice in the food manufacturing industry. One hundred and fifty-eight senior managers responsible for promotional budgets were surveyed to identify their behaviour and beliefs about sales promotion. Interestingly, after examining their claimed objectives, actual techniques and the measurement tools utilized, a number of discrepancies became evident. Managers frequently use a range of techniques, most commonly product sampling, point of purchase displays, free product and cut prices, with the key objectives of attracting new customers, improving brand awareness and stimulating sales. The techniques and objectives employed supported the claimed role of sales promotion as a tool to enhance brand/market position, although priced-based promotions, which are more associated with competitive retaliation, were also commonly used. Despite claiming to be conscious of the potential damage to brand equity if price-based promotions are used excessively, little research was employed to test this. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The Australian supermarket industry has gone through a number of significant structural changes over the past forty years. Most of these changes have been driven by a series of radical innovations, which have dramatically changed the competitive positions of the retailers. At each phase there has usually been one major supermarket chain that has taken the initiative and used innovation as the key driver to secure a competitive advantage. It has been the interplay between innovation and strategy that has shaped the supermarket industry. This interplay explains the past, but equally provides knowledge and insight for those retailers who wish to dominate the future. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

In this study a parametric approach employing a flexible translog functional model is used to estimate economies of scale and scope in the four major Australian banks (ANZ, NAB, CBA and WESTPAC). Two hypotheses are tested to determine whether bank economies of scale have changed and also whether economies of scope were exhausted following financial deregulation. The analysis reveals that there is evidence for a continuing difference in banks' economies of scale as a result of deregulation. The empirical evidence also suggests that economies of scope were not exhausted by financial deregulation. In addition, there is continuing evidence of considerable economies of scope in the four major banks. In other words, Australian banks have not fully embraced deregulation and adjusted their joint production in a cost efficient manner. Findings in this study indicate that further deregulation would create a more competitive and efficient banking environment in Australia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents information on the report of the Australian Financial System Inquiry, which was established in May 1996, under the chairmanship of Stan Wallis, in relation to balancing regulation and the evolution of the markets. The Wallis Report is in many respects a path-breaking document which will have a major positive impact on the evolution of a more efficient financial system in Australia. This achievement will follow directly from the Report endorsing and facilitating the institutional structures and evolutionary path being dictated by current market trends. It would be surprising, however, if a Report of this type, produced in this time frame, did not show some signs of the multiple personality disorder that is commonly associated with numerous authors and divergent views. In the case of the Wallis Report, problems of this type are most starkly displayed by its conservative stance on the relative roles of market discipline and regulation in providing efficiency. The single most important aspect of the Report is its explicit embrace of the competitive and regulatory implications of a single financial services marketplace.

The article presents information on the report of the Australian Financial System Inquiry, which was established in May 1996, under the chairmanship of Stan Wallis. The Wallis Report (Financial System Inquiry 1997) is far from comprehensive in its coverage of the problems in the financial system, but this characteristic was only to be expected given the short time allowed to the Committee. Another problem with the strict deadline imposed on the Committee is that it had to rely heavily on material from submissions to bolster its arguments. It did not have time to do its own research. However, in spite of these short-comings, it makes some significant recommendations. It will be useful to recognize some of these points before moving on to my major points of difference with the Report which arise largely in the prudential area. Another way of looking at this problem is to note that deposit accounts must be subsidized out of the income earned from other products. Until recently, housing mortgages were a major source of this cross-subsidy. This created a competitive opportunity for the independent mortgage providers who could undercut deposit-taking institutions..

Focuses on the National Energy Market (NEM), which aims to promote competition within the Australian power and gasoline markets. Improvement of the inter-state transmission links to enable electricity to be traded between states; Encouragement of a more competitive environment for transmission within the NEM; Lack of concern of the government over global warming.