Big business is now worried about anti-competitive behaviour

A “cross-sector alliance” lead by the Master Builders Association and the Minerals Council of Australia, but also including “small and big business, farmers and gas producers” is vehemently opposing Labor’s “closing loopholes” industrial relations bill.

This is obviously not because it might make it harder to engage in sham contracting or other ways of undermining pay and conditions (something the building industry really pioneered in this country). Nope, these guys are worried about the threat this legislation poses to competition. Via The Australian:

Tony Burke’s industrial relations shake-up could drive up housing, grocery and transport costs under a legislative ‘flaw’ legal experts and business leaders claim would enable anti-competitive behaviour, price fixing and monopoly conduct.

“The impact on inflation and the cost of living will be devastating,” Minerals Council of Australia chief executive Tania Constable said. “The bill opens the door to price fixing and monopoly conduct across entire supply chains — this will increase the cost of everything that relies on a supply chain, starting with every item of every supermarket shelf.”

We’re sure this is a sincere concern for the good of a nation struggling through a cost-of-living crisis, and we look forward to the alliance finding the time to turn its attention to the following industries:

Aviation

God, it’s going to be SO mad when it hears about this. In fact it’s hard to believe it didn’t, give how much it’s dominated the news lately. Qantas engaged in anti-competitive behaviour at airports, accused of deliberately cancelling flights between key capital cities to stifle competition. It’s also been accused of price gouging that’s forcing up inflation. Not only that, of course, it spreads through the supply chain, adding to the costs of every business that uses domestic aviation.

Supermarkets

Constable’s concern for the costs of “every item of every supermarket shelf” is particularly poignant: earlier this year, we got the news that Australia’s two giant supermarkets, Coles and Woolworths, were enjoying surging profits — disproportionately compared with their international counterparts — during a cost-of-living crisis. Once again, this kind of profiteering is in turn making inflation worse.

So why was our duopoly doing better than international equivalents? On account of it being a duopoly: “In Europe they have competition; Australia has very little,” governance expert Vas Kolesnikoff told Guardian Australia at the time.

This followed years in which the big duo have been accused of throwing their considerable weight around, squeezing suppliers and intimidating them out of selling to competitors. And imagine the effect on smaller retailers that have to compete with these behemoths, while both are also wage thieves to the tune of tens of millions of dollars.

Gas

The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) has been examining the lack of competition in east coast gas supply for years, and reported in 2022 on the anti-competitive nature of gas supply: “Competition between producers is ineffective and has had an adverse effect on the ability of [commercial and industrial] users to procure gas on competitive terms.”

The report caused consternation for suggesting a 2023 gas shortfall, something the ACCC repeated in 2023.

The Albanese government’s imposition of a price cap to rein in surging prices caused predictable hysteria, late last year. Man, if only the alliance had been around to give its input on that debate.