20 October 2004

Productivity Commission report released

Commerce Minister Margaret Wilson today welcomed the draft report by the Australian Productivity Commission on Australian and New Zealand competition and consumer protection regimes.

“The report has focused on areas where the competition and consumer protection regimes materially impede the development of a single economic market,” Margaret Wilson said.

”In terms of competition issues, the Commission has proposed a number of diverse options for reform,” Margaret Wilson said. “These range from having one Australasian test to address competition issues to maintaining two separate competition authorities with enhanced cooperation”.

Today’s report stems from a research study by the Productivity Commission, announced by Margaret Wilson and Australian Treasurer Peter Costello in June. The Commission will host discussions on the draft report with interested parties. These will be held in Auckland on 4 November and in Wellington on 5 November.

“The Commission has also called for written submissions, to be received by 19 November. I urge all those interested in this study to become involved,” Margaret Wilson said.
The Commission’s final report will be released in December. The outcomes of the study will not be binding on either government.

Copies of the report can be obtained from the Australian Productivity Commission http://www.pc.gov.au/

ENDS

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Gordon Campbell: On the Sony cyber attack

Given the layers of meta-irony involved, the saga of the Sony cyber attack seemed at the outset more like a snarky European art film than a popcorn entry at the multiplex.

Yet now with (a) President Barack Obama weighing in on the side of artistic freedom and calling for the US to make a ‘proportionate response’quickly followed by (b) North Korea’s entire Internet service going down, and with both these events being followed by (c) Sony deciding to backtrack and release The Interview film that had made it a target for the dastardly North Koreans in the first place, then ay caramba…the whole world will now be watching how this affair pans out. More>>