NO.031

AUSTRALIAN COMPETITION AND CONSUMER COMMISSION APPOINTMENTS

The Treasurer, Mr Peter Costello, today announced ten appointments to the Australian

Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC). These appointments boost the number

of persons holding appointments on the Commission to twenty in total –

more than ever before.

• Mr Ross Jones and Mr John Martin have been appointed as full-time members

  for five-year terms.

• Ms Teresa Handicott, Ms Rhonda Smith, Mr Don Watt, Mr Warwick Wilkinson

  AM and Professor Doug Williamson, QC have been appointed as part-time members

  for three-year terms.

• Also appointed as part-time members, were Mr

  Graham Scott (until 1 April 2001), Mr Andrew Reeves (until 31

  December 2001) and Mr Paul Baxter (until 30 June 1999).

Mr Jones, of Sydney, is a Senior Lecturer in Economics and the Director

of Undergraduate Program at the School of Finance and Economics at the University

of Technology, Sydney. He is an examiner for the NSW Board of Studies Higher

School Certificate Economics and an adviser to the syllabus committee. He has

also provided consultancy services to the ACCC and its predecessors for the

past ten years. His five-year appointment will commence on 14 June 1999.

Mr Martin, of Canberra, is the Executive Director of the Australian

Chamber of Commerce and Industry, where he was responsible for making representations

to Government on business regulation policies, particularly as they affected

small and medium enterprises. Prior to that, he held positions in the Department

of Industry, Technology and Commerce, the Department of the Treasury, the United

Nations and the Papua New Guinea Administration. With his impressive business

credentials, Mr Martin’s appointment fulfils the Government’s commitment

to appointing a person with a small business background to the ACCC. His five-year

appointment will commence on 7 June 1999.

Ms Handicott, of Brisbane, is a partner with the legal firm of Corrs

Chambers Westgarth. She was first appointed as a part-time member of the Trade

Practices Commission in 1994 and was subsequent appointed to the ACCC when

it was formed in 1995. Since 1987, she has practiced exclusively in the areas

of commercial and corporate law, particularly mergers and acquisitions, capital

raisings and securities industry law.

Ms Smith, of Melbourne, is a consultant economist and a Senior Lecturer

in Economics at the University of Melbourne. She recently completed a three

year term as a full-time member of the ACCC. Since 1988, she has acted as an

expert witness and advisor in major trade practices litigation, and has been

a consultant for the Trade Practices Commission, the Prices Surveillance Authority

and the private sector.

Mr Watt, of Perth, is a Barrister and Company Director and Chairman

of the Legal Practices Board of Western Australia. He was initially appointed

as part-time member of the ACCC in 1995.

Mr Wilkinson AM, of Sydney, was initially appointed as part-time member

of the ACCC in 1995. He has held office as the President of the Australian

Council of Professions and Chairman of the Pharmacy Board of NSW and of the

Ambulance Services Board of NSW.

Professor Williamson, QC, of Melbourne, is the Director (Professorial

Fellow) of the Centre for Energy and Resources Law at the University of Melbourne.

He is a member (part-time) of the National Native Title Tribunal (fulfilling

mediation and arbitration roles) and the Deputy Chairman (part-time) of the

National Electricity Tribunal. Previously, he was a practicing barrister, specialising

in commercial, trade practices and competition law and energy and resources

law. Professor Williamson’s distinguished legal career with his mediation

qualifications will greatly assist the Commission in resolving access arbitration

disputes.

The three other part-time appointments have been made under an arrangement

with the States and Territories which entitles each jurisdiction to nominate

their principal independent pricing regulator for part-time appointment to

the ACCC. These regulators come together on a regular basis as members of the

ACCC’s Energy Division. Western Australia and the Northern Territory have

not yet nominated persons under this arrangement. Their appointments to the

ACCC are set to expire on the same date as their State or Territory office

expires.

Mr Scott, of Adelaide, is the South Australian Independent Pricing and

Access Regulator and was previously a Senior Lecturer in Economics at the University

of Adelaide. This the first occasion on which a person has been appointed on

the nomination of South Australia

Mr Reeves, of Hobart, has been re-appointed as the Commissioner of the

Tasmanian Government Prices Oversight Commission. He was initially appointed

as part-time member of the ACCC in 1996.

Mr Baxter, of Canberra, has had his part-time term as the Australian

Capital Territory Independent pricing and Regulatory Commissioner extended.

He is a member of the Independent Audit Group of the Murray-Darling Basin Ministerial

Council (part-time) and a partner of PriceWaterhouseCoopers. He was initially

appointed as part-time member of the ACCC in 1998.

Associate members of the ACCC are engaged on a part-time basis and supplement

the skills and experience available to the ACCC. At the conclusion of this

round of appointments there are 6 full-time member and 14 part-time members

(including 6 nominated by a State or a Territory).

CANBERRA

4 June 1999