Farmers have welcomed new merger reforms amid supermarket pricing scandals and the cost of living crisis, but warn more work must be done to fix entrenched competition problems impacting families.
On Thursday the House of Representatives passed new merger and acquisition laws in a move to improve competition and productivity across the Australian economy.
NSW Farmers Business, Economics and Trade Committee chair John Lowe said the reforms would mark a positive step forward in addressing the nation’s competition problems, but there was still more to be done to protect consumers in the marketplace.
“These laws will be a big step forward for Australia’s competition reform, and it’s our hope they can be put in force to stop big businesses from entrenching their market power by stealth and forming harmful oligopolies in the future,” Mr Lowe said.
“However, farmers and families have already paid the price of extreme market concentration within our supermarket sector – not to mention our dairy and meat processing sectors – and broader reforms are needed to address the market power problems that already exist.”
Opening markets up to competition by addressing unfair trading practices, expanding the right to repair to agricultural equipment, and introducing divestiture powers were among the measures Mr Lowe said would complement merger and acquisition reforms and aid a more effective crackdown on anticompetitive behaviour.
“More sweeping reforms would go a long way towards undoing the damage of mergers past, and building a fairer economy for the future,” Mr Lowe said.
“There is no silver bullet solution to our market power woes, and we need to be able to draw on a range of tools to regulate businesses in a way that’s fair for everyone in the supply chain.
“These laws are certainly the start of positive change on competition, but they won’t be the end to all our problems.”
