Samuel stands on 'tough love' and points to challenges

In his final address to the National Press Club, Australian Competition and Consumer Commission chairman Graeme Samuel said he leaves the agency in good shape after eight years as chairman.

Mr Samuel spoke of the heightened work rate, with law enforcement activity at levels as high as it has been during the last 20 years.  He also forecast competition and consumer challenges ranging from increasingly complex media mergers to a new telecommunications landscape.

He said the ACCC should not exercise any of its powers in an anti-competitive fashion – that is, assist any sector of business, be it big or small business, to avoid the disciplines of competition.

Mr Samuel said the ACCC did not subscribe to calls to include in the Competition and Consumer Act provisions designed to protect some business sectors from the sometimes hard disciplines of competition in a market economy.

"That's the 'tough love' the ACCC is charged with applying to the Australian economy, for the benefit of the Australian community as a whole," Mr Samuel said, in his last major speech before he leaves the competition and consumer regulator on 31 July.

Speaking on the ACCC's record and challenges, Mr Samuel said he was proud of his colleagues' achievements, with a portfolio of responsibilities which both state and federal governments had enlarged over his eight year term. "This is a measure of the trust in the ACCC – that governments of both levels and political persuasions have seen fit to expand our remit."

But the ACCC's most visible work had been in law enforcement.

"We are obtaining high penalties - with $38 million paid by Visy and seven airlines paying $46.5 million for price fixing, with the ACCC in court against eight more."

The ACCC has also increased its focus on achieving effective outcomes through efficient alternatives to litigation. Mr Samuel gave as examples court-enforceable outcomes negotiated in telecommunications, over advertising and warranties, and in groceries, to remove lease clauses hampering competitors' entry into shopping centres.

Mr Samuel said the ACCC was recognised internationally for its competition law enforcement, consistently named in the top five competition authorities. The ACCC's  leadership role in the International Consumer Protection Enforcement Network is also widely acclaimed.

Merger analysis was getting increasingly complex and challenging.  "One of the significant challenges I see for competition regulators globally over the next decade will be the need to review and revise constantly their approaches to evolving media markets," Mr Samuel said.

In his view, the 'old-media' sector was becoming increasingly concentrated but there was potential competition from new media.

"Content control is paramount. We might have a series of pipes to distribute content to consumers. But if the compelling content is controlled by too few media players, they will have a stranglehold over the competitive landscape."

On the National Broadband Network, Mr Samuel said the ACCC's challenge was to play our role in setting in concrete lasting foundations for vigorous telecommunications competition – in concrete, not in quicksand.

"In all these ways and others, the highly professional and rigorous work of the ACCC is increasingly relevant to the daily lives of all Australians. I retire from this office satisfied that I leave the ACCC a better organisation than it was when I arrived, and confident that, at the conclusion of his term of office, my successor will be able to say exactly the same thing."