strategy
MINERALS COUNCIL OF AUSTRALIA
SUBMISSION TO COMPETITION POLICY REVIEW
JUNE 2014
Contents
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY............................................................................................ 1
1. INTRODUCTION ................................................................................................. 4
2. COMPETITION POLICY AND INTERNATIONAL COMPETITIVENESS:
A CRITICAL LENS............................................................................................... 8
3. TWO DECADES AFTER HILMER:
TAKING STOCK OF MICROECONOMIC REFORM ......................................... 11
4. INFRASTRUCTURE ACCESS:
EXISTING FRAMEWORKS, PERSISTENT CHALLENGES.............................. 17
2
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
Introduction
Australia’s economy has undergone a major transformation over the past 20 years with improved economic performance off the back of sustained economic reform begun in the 1980s and rapid economic growth in emerging Asian economies (most notably China).
The minerals industry has been both a beneficiary of reforms that have made the economy more open and flexible and a driver of Australia’s improved economic performance. The Millennium Mining
Boom represents a decade-long structural adjustment with mining now a permanently larger part of
Australia’s economy.
•
•
The resources industry as a whole (including oil and gas) accounted for around 18 per cent of
Australia’s nominal GDP in 2011-12, double the share in 2003-04.
There has been an equally dramatic shift in the composition of Australia’s exports. Minerals exports (excluding oil and gas) currently account for around 80 per cent of resources exports,
50 per cent of total Australian exports and roughly 10 per cent of nominal GDP.
The gains from Australia’s new resources economy are large and enduring, including from higher incomes, increased exports, better paying jobs and increased taxes and royalties.
But with mining investment set to decline from
SUBMISSION TO COMPETITION POLICY REVIEW
JUNE 2014
Contents
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY............................................................................................ 1
1. INTRODUCTION ................................................................................................. 4
2. COMPETITION POLICY AND INTERNATIONAL COMPETITIVENESS:
A CRITICAL LENS............................................................................................... 8
3. TWO DECADES AFTER HILMER:
TAKING STOCK OF MICROECONOMIC REFORM ......................................... 11
4. INFRASTRUCTURE ACCESS:
EXISTING FRAMEWORKS, PERSISTENT CHALLENGES.............................. 17
2
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
Introduction
Australia’s economy has undergone a major transformation over the past 20 years with improved economic performance off the back of sustained economic reform begun in the 1980s and rapid economic growth in emerging Asian economies (most notably China).
The minerals industry has been both a beneficiary of reforms that have made the economy more open and flexible and a driver of Australia’s improved economic performance. The Millennium Mining
Boom represents a decade-long structural adjustment with mining now a permanently larger part of
Australia’s economy.
•
•
The resources industry as a whole (including oil and gas) accounted for around 18 per cent of
Australia’s nominal GDP in 2011-12, double the share in 2003-04.
There has been an equally dramatic shift in the composition of Australia’s exports. Minerals exports (excluding oil and gas) currently account for around 80 per cent of resources exports,
50 per cent of total Australian exports and roughly 10 per cent of nominal GDP.
The gains from Australia’s new resources economy are large and enduring, including from higher incomes, increased exports, better paying jobs and increased taxes and royalties.
But with mining investment set to decline from