Key Documents
Treasury released the exposure draft of Treasury Laws Amendment Bill 2024: Acquisitions.
This legislation will deliver the Australian Government’s reforms to merger rules and processes announced on 10 April 2024.
The government’s reform proposes a faster, stronger and simpler system which better targets anti‑competitive transactions to improve consumer and business outcomes.
The exposure draft was informed by previous consultation which ran from November 2023 to January 2024.
Consultation will inform the finalisation of the draft legislation to enable government consideration.
Framework
The exposure draft sets out the framework of this new system including:
- notification and timelines
- definition of acquisitions
- test to be applied for considering competition impacts and substantial public benefits
- procedural safeguards.
Stakeholder engagement
Alongside inviting submissions, the Competition Review Taskforce in Treasury will also engage in targeted stakeholder engagement.
Future consultation
Treasury will consult on the notification thresholds, fees and regulations including the ACCC’s public register and associated transparency safeguards later this year.
Responding
You can submit responses to this consultation up until 13 August 2024. Interested parties are invited to comment on this consultation.
While submissions may be lodged electronically or by post, electronic lodgement is preferred. For accessibility reasons, please submit responses sent via email in a Word or RTF format. An additional PDF version may also be submitted.
All information (including name and address details) contained in submissions will be made available to the public on the Treasury website unless you indicate that you would like all or part of your submission to remain in confidence. Automatically generated confidentiality statements in emails do not suffice for this purpose. Respondents who would like part of their submission to remain in confidence should provide this information marked as such in a separate attachment.
Legal requirements, such as those imposed by the Freedom of Information Act 1982, may affect the confidentiality of your submission.
View our submission guidelines for further information.
How To Respond
Post
Address written submissions to:
Treasury
Langton Cres
Parkes ACT 2600