Australian Competition Tribunal Appointments

November 15, 1999

NO.075

AUSTRALIAN COMPETITION TRIBUNAL APPOINTMENTS

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

Competition Tribunal:

The Hon Justice John von Doussa, of Adelaide, has been appointed as President; and

The Hon Justice Peter Hely, of Sydney, has been appointed as a Deputy President.

The new President and Deputy President are both judges of the Federal Court of

Australia.

The appointments, which carry terms of five years, follow the retirement of the former

President, the Hon John Lockhart, AO from the Federal Court and the Tribunal to become an

Executive Director with the Asian Development Bank in Manila.

Justice von Doussa was appointed a Deputy President of the Tribunal in 1996 and has

been acting as President of the Tribunal since July 1999. He has been a judge of the

Federal Court of Australia since 1988, and prior to that served from 1986 as a judge of

the Supreme Court of South Australia.

Justice Hely was appointed to the Federal Court in 1998 from the Sydney Bar.

Background

The Tribunal has existed since 1966 and was known as the Trade Practices Tribunal

before 1995. It primarily functions as an appeal body for adjudication decisions made by

the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission under the Trade Practices Act 1974.

In addition, it has power to make declarations in relation to offshore mergers, conduct

inquiries in relation to a Ministerial reference made under the International Liner

Shipping provisions (Part X) of the Act and hear appeals from decisions of the Minister or

National Competition Council in relation to the access to services provisions of the Act.

The appointment of Justice Hely restores to three the number of presidential members

appointed to the Tribunal. Presidential members must be a judge of a federal court, not

being the High Court or the court of an external Territory. All members of the Tribunal

serve on a part-time basis.

In addition to these two new presidential member appointments, the Tribunal comprises:

Deputy President:

Hon Justice Goldberg, of Melbourne.

Members:

Dr Barry Aldrich, of Sydney; Mr Robin Davey, of Batemans Bay; Professor

Ronald Duncan, of Canberra; Mr Grant Latta, of Melbourne; Dr Malcolm Messenger, of

Adelaide; Associate Professor David Round, of Adelaide; Ms Margaret Starrs, of Melbourne;

and Mr Michael Waller, of Melbourne.

CANBERRA

15 November 1999

For further information contact Niki Savva (02) 6277 7340