Competition Policy & Small Business

In a number of important parts of the economy, such as the grocery, media, and possibly electricity sectors, there is insufficient competition to ensure that everyone gets a fair deal. A good example of this is the fact that Coles and Woolworths now control about 80% of all supermarkets. Together they exert significant and often harmful control over farmers and food processors, not to mention smaller competitors. The Greens believe this is not in the national interest and want to enhance the power of the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission to prevent the formation of monopolies through "creeping acquisitions" and to divest monopolies and oligopolies of assets if they are abusing their market power. 

The Greens also strong supporters of small businesses. Not only do they provide almost half of all employment but they tend to be more innovative than larger firms. Unfortunately, not only do small businesses frequently struggle to compete with the market power of large businesses, but they also bear disproportionate administrative costs of tax collection and regulations. We support small businesses getting a tax cut of 25% from the Government's mining tax package instead of big businesses having their corporate tax rate cut from 30 to 29%.