LONDON: The competition watchdog has signalled the Barnett Government is closer to meeting concerns around plans to sell Fremantle Port amid a national row over the long-term benefits of privatisation.
Australian Competition and Consumer Commission chairman Rod Sims met Treasurer Mike Nahan in Sydney yesterday to discuss the port sale. Mr Sims, who earlier this year voiced strong reservations about the planned terms of the sale of the port, said he now believed there was a way through the competition issues. “We are now having very constructive engagement with the WA Government so we have certainly been very pleased with the way they have reacted to our concerns,” he said. “I have to say of today the response has been very good.”
Mr Sims had previously warned the Government’s plan to give first right of refusal to the Fremantle Port buyer over a new outer harbour risked creating a new private monopoly. The ACCC has the power to block a buyer taking control of an asset on competition grounds.
Dr Nahan said the port sale would not proceed without ACCC endorsement and he was confident of working together to come up with an acceptable model. “A range of safeguards will be put in place to protect port users on the key issues of access and pricing,” Dr Nahan said. On Tuesday, Mr Sims stirred controversy after he said he was on the verge of becoming an opponent of privatisation because it created lightly regulated monopolies that hurt productivity. But Mr Sims said yesterday that many of his comments had been made “rhetorically”. “I was more just wanting to send a warning shot,” he said.
