Competition policy might not be at the top of the preferred dinner party conversation for many but it is very important to Australia’s future and deserves more attention.

At the ACCC Competition Summit last week I had the opportunity to make the case and speak to policy challenges and priorities.  

Why it matters always 

Competition is one of the strongest ways through which productivity gains reach households: it challenges firms to innovate and adopt technology, reallocates activity to better performers, and makes firms compete to pass gains on through lower prices, better quality and better service. 

It creates opportunity, enlivens economic dynamism, builds trust in markets and social license, and fundamentally underpins higher living standards.  

That’s why our first Progress 2050 goal is for Australian businesses to be among the most competitive and dynamic in the world.

But competition policy is not a universal remedy. It cannot solve for every supply disruption or planning failure. Not every concentrated market is a problem, and not every high price signals a lack of competition. 

The test is whether market power is durable, whether challengers can get in, and importantly whether a practical fix would improve outcomes.

Why it matters especially now 

There is a lot at stake right now. Business dynamism is in a poor state in Australia, and we are being confronted with big and fast moving transitions – AI, digital, data, climate and energy transition, population ageing and global headwinds.  

How we maintain effective competition is an important focus, when the structures we allow to form now will be lasting.  

What the ACCC is up to

New tools are being tested: a focus on excessive pricing among the big retailers, a new mandatory merger regime, and new unfair trading rules for digital subscriptions. The big questions are whether outcomes are improving, whether decisions are faster and more predictable – and keeping pace with the risks, and whether costs are proportionate to the risks.

How we’ll judge progress

Not by counting cases or fines, but by whether markets stay contestable: can good ideas enter and scale, can customers switch, and do firms have to keep improving to win?

For CEDA, success means Australian businesses moving closer to the global frontier, more jobs and better products at fair prices, and Australians keeping their faith in markets. This last point is the responsibility not just of regulators but businesses themselves.