Bulletin

Issue: October 2005

News

Competition and collusion in business

What are the business implications of the recently privatised Telstra? How do you design competition policy for tele-communications, the internet - and for energy sectors such as electricity and gas? And as concern over escalating petrol prices demonstrates, what are the best methods for assessing industry competition in the 21st century?

These were just some of the themes as world-ranking academics and experts in Australian competition policy gathered at La Trobe University in late September for the Industry Economics Conference. The conference was sponsored by La Trobe University, the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC), CRA International, the Productivity Commission and the University of Melbourne. It was opened by La Trobe Vice-Chancellor, Professor Michael Osborne.

Dr David Prentice, from the La Trobe University School of Business, who organised the conference, says a highlight was a special panel session dealing with economic issues flowing from the privatisation of Telstra.