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ARTICLE · 11 NOVEMBER 2014

The Harper Review offers conditional support for access regime but with a new regulator

Corrs Chambers Westgarth
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The Draft Report recommends the creation of a separate national access and pricing regulator to oversee all industries.

AustraliaAntitrust/Competition Law
Thomas Jones (Formerly With Corrs Chambers Westgarth)
Thomas Jones (Formerly With Corrs Chambers Westgarth)
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The National Access Regime in Part IIIA of the Competition and Consumer Act 2010 (CCA) (the Regime) provides a legal framework by which third parties can obtain access to natural monopoly infrastructure in order to compete more effectively in upstream and downstream markets.

The Regime was enacted in 1995 as part of a wave of microeconomic reform and incorporated the recommendations of the Hilmer Report on national competition policy. The future role of the Regime is now being considered by the Harper Review panel (the Panel) despite a recent lengthy and detailed review by the Productivity Commission (PC) 1 .

The government's Terms of Reference asked the Panel to consider whether the Regime was achieving its stated goals. In responding, the Panel's Draft Report focuses on three issues:

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