“Under section 50 of the Trade Practices Act a merger will only be stopped if it substantially lessens competition in a market. That test is simply too high and is allowing the ACCC to approve upwards of 97 per cent of mergers,” Senator Joyce said. “On mergers the ACCC has effectively become a rubber stamp and while Mr Samuel may protest loudly that he looks very closely at mergers the harsh reality is that the test he needs to apply under the Trade Practices Act to stop mergers is almost impossible to prove.

 

“Very few mergers have ever been stopped under section 50 of the Trade Practices Act. That explains why Australia has some of the most concentrated markets in the world where consumers face less and less choice, but higher and higher prices. 

 

“So while the Chinese authorities have just used their new competition laws to stop Coca-Cola from buying a Chinese juice company, our competition laws are powerless to stop the Chinese Government as a major foreign buyer of our mineral resources from taking control of a leading Australian supplier of those resources.

 

“The Chinese have recognised that competition can be damaged by takeovers and are using their competition laws to stop that. Australia should be doing the same. In our case we have a weak Trade Practices Act and even the best intentions of our ACCC can’t stop mergers because the test for doing so is just too high.

 

“We need a new test to stop companies with a substantial market share from destroying competition or taking a controlling interest in an Australian company for the purposes of undermining that company’s ability to compete in Australia’s best interest. We need to strengthen our Trade Practices Act to protect competition and ensure that Australian companies are not controlled by foreign interests that want to stop those Australian companies from competing in global markets in the interests of all Australians.”