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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1996 Week 4 Hansard (16 April) . . Page.. 890 ..

MS FOLLETT (continuing):

In looking at competition, the committee was particularly concerned at the notion of public benefit from the introduction of competition policy, and many of our inquiries were directed to teasing out what is the public benefit of all of this activity. The Competition and Consumer Commission has formalised many of the public benefits that it would expect to see out of this competition activity and the public benefits that they have defined include things like:

fostering business efficiency, especially when this results in improved international competitiveness;

industry rationalisation resulting in more efficient allocation of resources and in lower or contained unit production costs;

expansion of employment or prevention of unemployment in efficient industries or employment growth in particular regions;

promotion of industry cost saving resulting in contained or lower prices at all levels in the supply chain;

promotion of competition in industry;

promotion of equitable dealing in the market;

growth in export markets;

development of import replacements;

economic development, for example of natural resources through encouraging exploration, research and capital investment;

assistance to efficient small business, for example guidance on costing and pricing or marketing initiatives which promote competitiveness;

industry harmony;

improvement in the quality and safety of goods and services and expansion of consumer choice; and

supply of better information to consumers and business to permit informed choices in their dealings.

I believe that all of us could agree that those are indeed public benefits. There are benefits to employment; there are benefits to consumers; there are benefits to the regional nature of much of Australia. I doubt whether any of us would take issue with those public benefits.

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