Dr Oliver Hartwich: Dismantling the competition myth

Ask anyone in Australia’s competition law community what transformed the economy, and you will hear a familiar story. Australia was once a cartelised, complacent place where businesses divided up markets and consumers paid the price. Then came the Trade Practices Act in 1974, and competition law forced firms to compete.

This is not a fringe view. Peter Costello, in his foreword to a book marking the Act’s twenty-fifth anniversary, called it “one of the most important pieces of economic legislation in Australia.” He credited it with creating “a new culture of competition in the Australian economy.”

Dr Eric Crampton: Disappointment in attempt to improve competition laws

The coalition agreements that formed the government promised an important change to the Commerce Act.

The Commerce Commission has always been able to take on traditional cartel arrangements: secret agreements where businesses divvy up a market, restrict output, and raise prices. Those arrangements are rightly subject to heavy monetary penalties.

But cartels are not the only way competition gets blocked.

Dr Eric Crampton: The misguided fuss over ‘2 million more’ houses for Auckland

Right now, Auckland Council’s zoning allows people to build about a million shops selling tasty pies.

Tomorrow, someone could buy or lease a commercially-zoned site near you and turn it into a shop selling pies. The shoe store could turn into a pie shop. So could the butcher’s. The barber shop too.

It would be possible to buy up every storefront in your local village centre and have nothing but pie shops. Zoning would usually allow it.

Dr Eric Crampton: Funding flaw means poorer communities pay more at the pharmacy

Think for a moment about how some pharmacy services are funded. Or rather, not really funded.

It underlies a lot of the angst about changes in regulations around pharmacy ownership and the agreements that let pharmacies dispense funded medicines.

For a long time, the implicit deal worked like this. It wasn’t spelled out this way and perhaps was not even intentional. But it is how it worked.

Mike's Minute: Are banks behaving badly or not?

Regular listeners will be aware of my ongoing angst over banks and whether or not they are legit players in our marketplace.

The Reserve Bank this week, in one final stab this year, will most likely cut the cash rate, again, which will leave it at 2.25%.

The Co-operative Bank last week claimed they are the only ones who have fully passed on the cash rate cuts so far.

Bob Edlin: Occupational licensing might not provide the protection that is claimed.....

Occupational licensing might not provide the protection that is claimed – and might widen income inequalities, too

People overseas who are considering moving to New Zealand are advised by our immigration authorities to check if they need occupational registration for their jobs.

Dr Eric Crampton: Please legalise new supermarkets

Jaw-dropping bit from the Grocery Regulator, in interview at Interest.co.nz:

“What we've been told by these players is when they come and they want to open up a large store in New Zealand, the cost to get a spade in the ground is double that of Australia,” he says in a new episode of the Of Interest podcast.

Point of Order: Buzz from the Beehive - 24/7/24

Online lotteries for charitable purposes are among the beneficiaries of govt’s assault on red tape

A raft of measures designed to make it easier to do business, or to encourage greater competition, or to run lotteries on-line for charitable purposes, has been posted on the government’s official website in the past 24 hours.

Dr Eric Crampton: Despair - construction consenting edition

Kainga Ora is the government's house building agency. It's been building a lot of social housing.

Kainga Ora has its own (but independent) consenting authority, Consentium.

It's a neat idea. Rather than have to deal with building consents across each different territorial authority, Kainga Ora can run building consents, inspections, and Code of Compliance Certificates through Consentium.

Eric Crampton: Grocery legislation decreases competition, not the reverse

The Government says it wants competition in the supermarket sector. But national and local regulation, including a clause in the Grocery Industry Competition Bill going through Parliament, make it more difficult for other players to enter the market.

There’s a special kind of mental contortion that seems required in politics. A politician has to be able to hold mutually inconsistent beliefs in their head and not notice they don’t really work well together.