Day four of the Dick Pratt cartel confessional and Australia’s fourth richest man is getting quite a hammering in the press.

The Age was late on the case but gave it an enormous eight column splash today, whereas The Australian took its foot right off the pedal, although John Durie produced the toughest comment piece.

News Ltd’s Terry McCrann has been to Pratt’s Raheen mansion plenty of times but was still quite strong, although he stopped well short of pointing out the obvious – that he’s a liar and cheat who can’t be trusted.

One issue which no-one has yet explored is the dithering of Peter Costello’s promise to lock-up cartel crooks and the size of Dick Pratt’s donations to the Liberal Party.

Costello is very close to ACCC chairman Graeme Samuel who is genuinely passionate about stamping out cartel behaviour. So when Samuel launched his big jihad on cartels in 2003-04, Costello promised to change the law but then never delivered. Did number one Liberal donor Dick Pratt influence this?

It just goes to show, once again, how consumers don’t have a political constituency in Australia. Union boss and prime ministerial wannabe Bill Shorten lauds Pratt for employing 9000 people, the Liberals love him for the business success and donations, yet no one stands up for the poor old consumer.

Whilst Cadbury Schweppes has already sued Amcor for $120 million, at the end of the day the duopoly will remain intact so they will reach a commercial settlement. Both Amcor and Visy will have to improve terms with their customers but the likes of Nestle and Foster’s simply can’t tell either duopolist to get stuffed because there is no realistic alternative.

This is where Australia really needs to follow the US example of forced divestiture laws. Pratt and Amcor broke the law and proved that they were not fit to enjoy such a lucrative duopoly. They should be forced to sell box making capacity to create a genuine third force in the market – the obvious party being Carter Holt Harvey which triggered the whole scandal in the first placed when the “Amcor Five” supposedly nicked customer information for the Kiwi-based company.

But if Peter Costello can’t even introduce jail terms for market riggers – what hope is there for forced divestiture laws?

The Australian economy is sadly characterised by huge corporates with excessive market power. Telstra, Woolies, Coles, Westfield, News Ltd and the big four banks are at the heart of it and we’d all be a lot better off if they faced more competition.

Today’s Mayne Report videoblog is from the dining room of the All Nations hotel in Richmond where Dick Pratt and Amcor’s Russell Jones did their dirty deals over lunch.