New Bill ineffective to speed up Part IIIA declaration process

In February this year we provided an outline of the proposed amendments to the National Access Regime in Part IIIA of the Trade Practices Act 1974 (Cth). Those changes are contained in the Trade Practices Amendment (Infrastructure Access) Bill 2009. Since our last update, the Senate Economics Legislation Committee has recommended the Bill be passed.

The reforms are advanced by the Government as being designed to speed up the Part IIIA declaration process and decrease costs for participants in that process. This Update looks at some of the potential implications of the Bill.