CCI on the attack over competition

The need to deregulate shopping hours and liquor licensing have been placed at the top of a long list of Western Australia’s failings when it comes to providing a competitive environment for commerce, according to the state’s peak business body.

The Chamber of Commerce and Industry WA this week launched a renewed attack on the state’s performance in meeting national competition reforms with a policy aimed to restart debate.

Competition policy, CCIWA argues, has been largely overlooked as the state has boomed.

Apart from energy, few changes have occurred in recent years.

According to CCIWA, the state’s poor performance in pursuing competitive reforms was primarily due to a lack of will on all sides of politics.

“Western Australia is now a different place and we simply have to move forward,” CCIWA chief executive John Langoulant said in a statement.

“We are hoping the opposition and the minor parties will see that this is in the state’s interest and that they will help and not hinder the process.”

Ideologically, CCIWA has pursued a long-term agenda of deregulation, a policy that has proved costly at times with small retailers taking offence at its stance on the full deregulation of trading hours.

More recently, larger retailers have also quit the chamber following the failed referendum, several choosing to join a national industry body to achieve their objectives.

Despite this, CCIWA remains committed to its original line, claiming the state needed changes more than any other – perhaps reflecting the strain caused by the current economic boom.

“The archaic trading hours situation is a classic case in point,” Mr Langoulant said.

“We are the only state that hasn’t modernised and the illogicality of it is becoming more stark.

“Some people say we had a referendum on this and the question was settled, but there have been considerable developments in WA since then, including changes in terms of the retail players, which throw the whole referendum result into question.”

A major change since the referendum was the takeover of former WA retail giant Foodland Associated Ltd which was acquired by Sydney-based Metcash Ltd, which operates through the IGA banner, in a deal where a significant number of stores were bought by national supermarket giant, Woolworths Ltd.

Other areas of concern, according to CCIWA are: potato marketing controls; fuel pricing regulations; a complex and overlapping food standards framework; the closed water industry; inefficiencies in the transport sector; infrastructure provision; and the next stage of energy sector reform.