ACCC grants authorisation to central Queensland regional councils
The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission has issued a determination granting authorisation* to the Rockhampton, Gladstone, Central Highlands and Isaac Regional Councils to allow them to conduct a joint tender for provision of waste, recyclables and ancillary waste services.
The joint tender is designed to aggregate a significant volume of waste and recyclables that will encourage competition for the relevant contracts, particularly in rural areas.
In the past, waste and recyclables service companies have been reluctant to tender for rural based contracts due to the low volume and the prohibitive transport costs. The joint tender is designed to mitigate these factors and in doing so provide better services and lower costs to rural residents.
The joint tender is likely to result in the introduction of best practice kerbside recycling in the Council areas. Past experiences indicate that this will significantly improve collection amounts with resulting environmental benefits and cost savings through the diversion of waste from landfill.
"The proposed conduct is likely to provide recycling services of a standard experienced in metropolitan areas to rural communities that are currently not adequately serviced," ACCC Chairman, Mr Graeme Samuel said.
The ACCC’s determination will be available from the ACCC website.
*Authorisation provides protection from court action for conduct or arrangements that might otherwise raise concerns under the competition provisions of the Trade Practices Act 1974. Authorisation is granted where the ACCC is satisfied that the benefit to the public from the conduct outweighs any public detriment. A party to whom authorisation had been granted may also apply to the ACCC for a minor variation of that authorisation.
