The House of Representatives Standing Committee on Economics has inquired into promoting economic dynamism, competition and business formation, with particular reference to:

• The extent to which economic barriers—such as regulatory costs and barriers to finance, infrastructure, suppliers, customers and workers—contribute to rising market concentration and slowing business formation rates in Australia.
• The extent to which businesses consolidating their market power has undermined productivity, stifled wages, made markets more fragile and led to higher mark-ups.
• How Australia could lower economic barriers to competition and business formation, further limit anti-competitive behaviour.

The Committee acknowledges that many of the issues and reform ideas suggested in this inquiry are also being considered through initiatives such as the Government’s Competition Review, the review into the Food and Grocery Code of Conduct, the Aviation White Paper, and the continuous program of inquiries that the ACCC conducts into various competition issues (including its current inquiry into prices and competition in the supermarket sector).

As this inquiry report shows, competition and business dynamism is of central importance to productivity and, by extension, the future prosperity and wellbeing of Australians. Accordingly, the Committee lends its support both to these bodies of work and to a continuing future focus by government on competition policy reform.