Key Documents
The Australian Government is seeking stakeholder views on the exposure draft of the Treasury Laws Amendment (Fairer for Families and Farmers) Bill 2024: Industry Codes (Penalties and Other Amendments).
This legislation will make the required amendments to the Competition and Consumer Act 2010 (CCA) to implement the government’s respective responses to the Food and Grocery Code of Conduct and Franchising Code of Conduct reviews.
The legislation will:
- allow higher maximum penalties for breaches of the Food and Grocery Code of Conduct
- introduce higher infringement notice penalties for alleged breaches of the Food and Grocery Code of Conduct and Franchising Code of Conduct
- clarify the ability for industry codes prescribed under the CCA to confer functions and powers on persons and bodies.
It will also align infringement notice penalties for alleged breaches of other industry codes prescribed under the CCA to those proposed for alleged breaches of the Franchising Code of Conduct.
The proposed reforms will strengthen and clarify the penalty regime for industry codes prescribed under the CCA and better enable industry codes to protect market participants from poor behaviour.
There is a separate consultation on the new mandatory Food and Grocery Code of Conduct.
The government will consult on the new Franchising Code of Conduct.
Responding
You can submit responses to this consultation up until 04 October 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