From the business apologists at the AFR:
Competition regulator Rod Sims has plenty of work to do to improve relations with business judging from a survey of leaders from a range of industries undertaken as part of an annual report card.
…The most damning criticism was in relation to the ACCC’s openness and transparency in its dealings with business.
Three selected quotes sum up the frustration and anger among business leaders.
One said: “We are seen as guilty until proven innocent, which means we’re operating against a backdrop of suspicion.”
Another said: “Their combative stance means that they keep everything close to their chest making it harder to know which way to jump. This has a negative impact on both resourcing and developing better relationships between our two organisations, which would surely be a win/win.”
A third said: “They never open up to us about their true intent, or let us know the real content they’re after or their timelines.”
The comments about the ACCC and its performance were compiled by ORC International in one-on-one interviews earlier this year. It was the first business stakeholder research conducted by the ACCC.
One business person summed up the problems associated with meeting ACCC demands for information with the following comment: “The costs to us are huge, millions of dollars in legal fees, internal resources and senior people tied up for days at a time”.
There are people in business who believe the ACCC’s staff lack commercial acumen.
One business leader said: “They are way too slow to get to a decision, they need to be more commercially-minded”.
Excellent. What a shame more Australian regulators aren’t hated by business. It might mean that they are actually doing their job. Regulators are not there to make businesses happy, on the contrary. The happiest business in the world is the one with no competition and monopoly pricing. Regulators are there to protect markets.
This article says lot more about the waywardness of Chanticleer and the AFR than it does the ACCC.
