The Australian Competition Commission - Assignment Example

Name: Tutor: Title: Date: Question 1 The Fair Work Commission The Fair Work Commission is a national tribunal that was formed to guide relations in the workplace. This is a body that is independent and it carries out a wide range of functions. This commission started its operations in the year 2009 1st July. This is a tribunal that took over all the functions of the Fair Work Australia (Stewart 2011). Other commissions that have been integrated into this tribunal include the industrial relations commission and the Australian fair pay commission. It was formed under the Fair Work Act of 2009 in Australia. Its creation was aimed at regulating the labour market in Australia by putting the needs and interests of employees into consideration. The Act that led to the creation of this independent tribunal has a new system that ensures regulation in an attempt to create regulated industrial relations in the country. The states in Australia have discretion to hand over some industrial relations to the commonwealth. However, if a state decides not to do so, all the employees are usually covered by the national Fair Work Act. This Fair Work Commission is responsible for ensuring that employees work under the right working conditions without getting oppression from the employers. This has been made possible through formulation of certain policies. Since the formation of this commission, all the states in Australia have referred all their powers to Commonwealth with the exception of Western Australia. The role of fair work commission in regulating the Australian labour market The major function of the Fair Work Commission is to regulate the labour market in Australia through the policies it formulates. It ensures that these policies are adhered to by each institution in the country. It regulates and oversees that each employee works under favourable working conditions. It is through its roles and functions that the Fair Work Commission has managed to regulate labour market in Australia. This paper looks at all the roles of the Fair Work Commission in Australia ion relation to its labour market (Stewart 2011). One of the roles of this commission is to set the minimum wages of employees in this country. The tribunal has come up with the minimum amount of money that an employee can be paired in each organization, industry as well as department. Therefore, each organization must adhere to the net minimum wage set by this tribunal. This is in a bid to prevent cases where employees are underpaid. With this policy, this tribunal helps in regulating the labour market. It has the role of improving employment conditions of all employees in Australia. Fixing of minimum wage is important because all departments or industries in the labour market know the range within which wages lie. The other role in regulation of labour market by the Fair Work Commission is to resolve disputes. Disputes are bound to be present in any working environment between employees and the management or with the employer. This includes handling any claims of employees. This is an important role especially in the event where accidents occur in the workplace and an employee gets injuries. The commission ensures that such disputes are settled and that such claims are settled through compensation. When accidents occur in the workplace, an employee has the right to file and claim for compensation. In case of other work related disputes, the commission ensures that it helps in settling them. Another major role played by the Fair Work Commission to the labour market is to carry out industrial action. Industrial action is essential especially where employees feel that the employers are oppressing them in any way. It is for this reason that they have an industrial court to listen and act to their complaints (Teicher, Holland & Gough 2013). The commission is responsible for carrying out industrial action when necessary on behalf of employees. With this role, an employee is sure to be well represented in the industrial court when necessary. The Fair Work Commission plays an important role in termination of employment or employment contracts. It approves enterprise agreements for employees. In cases where an employer breaches a contract, this commission terminates the employment or the contract. This has been an important role because employees do not take advantage to breach contracts. However, if an employee faces an unfair dismissal, the Fair Work Commission handles such a claim. It looks out into the interests of the labour market through the workers. Thus, if a worker gets his or her employment contract terminated or dismissed in the wrong way, this tribunal handles the case. Such a worker may end up getting eth employment back based on the circumstances. This tribunal also has a role in enterprise bargaining (Teicher, Holland & Gough 2013). This could be collecting bargaining under the Act whereby the terms of employment are regulated. This is a mechanism where workers, their employers and parties representing them get to express their goals surrounding the quality of work. There were regulations put in place in July 1st 2010. These regulations put more emphasis on enterprise bargaining different from the individual arrangements. This also entails the good faith bargaining where each party that is involved in the bargaining must act in good faith. The Fair Work Act sets out certain guidelines regarding good faith bargaining. There are consequences for any party that does not adhere to the requirements of good faith. The Act marks a great change regarding the bargaining arrangements in Australia. With these changes, bargaining is carried out collectively on the basis of an enterprise level. This is done in contrast to individual agreements carried out by the Howard government. The National Employment Standards have certain minimum conditions together with modern awards. They have safety net which include about then minimum conditions. They include a maximum working week, annual leave, long service leave and public holidays where workers have a right and obligation to the minimum conditions. The other minimum conditions include community service leave, compassionate leave or personal leave, fair work information statement, parental leave and related entitlements and notice of termination and redundancy pay (Stewart 2011). All these minimum conditions are well stipulated and they cannot be changed in a way not to favour the workers. Question 3 Commonwealth constitution and its regulation to communication and transport in Australia This paper looks at the extent of the powers of Commonwealth under the constitution of Australia in regard to infrastructure laws and regulations. This includes laws relating to communication, transport and energy by the Commonwealth under the constitution in Australia (Livermore, 2011). The Commonwealth constitution is instrumental in setting the framework. This framework is essential in regulating infrastructure in the economy of Australia. The constitution has various powers and other provisions that give it the ability to make such frameworks related to communication and transport in Australia. The framework is essential because it helps in regulating the infrastructure industry in Australia such that it operates smoothly with no hick ups. Regulating the industry will impact on Australian economy positively. That means that it has helped in the growth of the economy. Therefore, it is important to have the frameworks complied with by the relevant parties. The paper addresses certain sections in the constitution that allow the Commonwealth to make laws related to communication and transport in the economy of Australia. The constitution of Australia gives the Commonwealth substantial powers over regulation of transport and communication in the economy. However, that is not to mean that the powers are unlimited. The Commonwealth has power over communication and transport in Australia. It uses constitutional tools for regulating national economic. The question is if Commonwealth has the ability to enact national laws that are aimed at regulating transport and communication. It is known that the economy growth in Australia is facing inefficient and inadequate communication and transport to compete with other countries in the international front. There has been pressure on the Commonwealth to improve the economy of Australia by putting more emphasis on the infrastructure. Another reason why there is pressure on the Commonwealth regarding the issue of transport and communication in relation to the economy of the nation is the deep pockets. Commonwealth has substantial authority to deal with these issues though it does not contest with the expectations. The Australian constitution has vested some laws to the Commonwealth and it uses these laws to regulate large parts of communication and transport sectors. With these issues in mind, this paper aims at looking into details the scope of the major constitutional tools used by Commonwealth for the economic regulation of the nation. The four major tools include the power of corporations, commerce power, communication power and overseas trade power (Livermore, 2011). The Australian constitution gives the Commonwealth the communication powers which allow it to make laws. It makes laws that touch on telephonic, radio and other such services. However, the High court has not given guidelines regarding the internet. However the phrase other such services is broad enough. The main issue about payments under communication and transport function is to fund these road programs. Commonwealth has the role of providing funds for four programs including the national highway, recovery for roads, black spots and roads that are of national importance. Under the Financial Assistance, Commonwealth provides some financial assistance to the local government for improving or constructing roads in the nation. When transport and communication links are improved, the economy of a nation grows. This is because the country opens up to other countries internationally and this encourages foreign trade. With this in mind, Commonwealth plays an important role in improving these links so that it helps in growing the economy of Australia over time. Another way through which the economy of a country grows from improved communication and transport is that it creates job opportunities. Creation of job opportunities means that fewer people will be left without jobs. This will improve the living standards of citizens which in turn grows the economy. Transport is made efficient and fast with improved transport networks. This speeds up business activities so that ventures make profits. These profits are essential in growing the economy of Australia. Communication networks are equally essential. It is for this reason that Commonwealth is working towards setting up the framework of communication with an aim to improve the economy. Communication frameworks must be set because they are essential for the growth of businesses. This is an important tool especially with the changes in technology and each business is striving to keep up with the changes. Communication networks are essential in marketing as well as communicating with clients and supplies. The Commonwealth constitution is essential in setting up the framework for regulating communications (Cunningham, 2010). If this is not done, it might end up causing a downfall in the economy of the nation. This constitution plays an important role in setting up these regulations based on the powers given to the Commonwealth constitution. The framework policies by the Commonwealth constitution has influenced infrastructure. This reflects how Commonwealth is involved in policy making and setting the framework. It has influenced economic development through such frameworks in the infrastructure industry. Commonwealth is slowly moving away from providing infrastructure directly to using such policies like setting up frameworks (Cunningham, 2010). It has sold some industries under the transport industry including the Qantas. It has also privatized national rail in Australia. The framework policies set by the Commonwealth constitution seem to work on the infrastructure industry. This is evident though the growth in the economy of Australia upon administering the framework policies. However, Commonwealth develops the framework polices guided by the constitution. As stated above, the powers vested by the Australian constitution guide the Commonwealth as it comes up with these policies. In conclusion, the powers of the Commonwealth constitution are considerable concerning economic infrastructure. However, it is important to note that these powers are also limited in respect to the fact that this constitution does not posses the authority generally over some industries like water, transport and energy. This means that the legislative cooperation with the states is an essential feature when dealing with national infrastructure. This happens regardless of the fact that the scope of powers of the Commonwealth is expanding. The Australian federation for communication and transport frameworks provision is essential because clearly, it has improved the economy of Australia by a huge percentage. Question 7 The Australian Consumer Law The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission is a tribunal that promotes fair competition and fair trade in the business world. With this commission, the market in Australia is fair enough to benefit all stakeholders including consumers, business enterprises and the community (Corones 2013). This is a commission that also regulates the national infrastructure services in eth country. This tribunal is responsible for various activities in the Australian market relating to consumers and businesses especially on competition matters. However, the primary role of the commission is to make sure that all individuals and business enterprises adhere to the set laws. It ensures that they comply with all the fair trading, consumer protective laws and the Australian competition laws and policies. To be specific, it ensures they comply with the Competition and Consumer Act of 2010. The Australian consumer Law is a national law that applies to all the states in this country. This is the standard law that protects consumers in Australia. Under this law, all consumers are protected and have the same expectations. The same applies to businesses in this country because they have the same obligations and responsibilities regardless of where they operate in Australia. The Australian consumer Law is applied to the Commonwealth. It is usually applied in such a manner that each state in Australia operates under similar provisions. The law gets support from consumer laws from specific industries at the Commonwealth level as well as state and territory level where need be. The Australian Consumer Law covers several issues which include protecting the consumer from misleading information, deceptive behavior and unfair terms used in consumer contracts and unconscionable behavior. It offers protection against some practices that are deemed to be wrong and unfair (Corones 2013). These practices include pyramid selling, unsolicited sell of goods and services and constituent pricing. The law also acts as a national law for ensuring delivery and sale of safety products for consumers. Safe product entails products that are manufactured suing the right chemical ingredients as well as products free from any harmful chemicals. Safety of products also entails selling goods that have not expired. The chapter 2 of this Australian Consumer Law stipulates certain standards for venture conduct. It does not allow any misleading behavior or deceptive behavior in business. It is against the law for any venture to make statements that may mislead or are deceptive. Failure to disclose information, opinions, promise and predictions is also deemed misleading and deceptive. The same law is also against unconscionable behavior towards a consumer or a business venture. The consumer law in Australia does not allow for unfair contract terms and such contracts are deemed void. The Australian Competition commission The competition policy in Australian dates from 1906 during the first Federal Law. The legislation changed after the interpretation of the powers of Commonwealth in the year 1910. The policy stems itself from the Trade Practices of 1965. This policy has since gone through fine tuning. There is need to have they national competition policy in Australia there were major microeconomic reforms in Australia in the 1990s. These reforms were evident of the need of having an effective policy that regulates competition of businesses in Australia (Miller & Australia 2013).The competition commission has a major role in controlling the level of competition in the business world. If competition is not controlled, businesses tend to overdo it ad they end up engaging in unfair competition. Unfair competition narrows down to oppressing the consumer in the long run because enterprises tend to mislead consumers all in a bid to beat its opponents and competitors. This Act is a legislative weapon for ensuring that consumers get good deals from the competition existing between businesses. However, some businesses in this country are immune to this Act like state public sector ventures, Commonwealth ventures and other areas in the private sector. Importance of national competition policy since 1995 The national competition policy plays an important role to the economy of Australia. The policy has been in place since 1995 and its benefits have continued to be reaped over the years. However, the policy has undergone some reforms in a bid to keep up with the trends in terms of economic growth as well as other changes in the legislation of Australia. However, the one thing that has not changed is the roles and importance of this policy to Australia. The importance of this national policy has been explained in details below. The national competition policy is important because it helps in protecting the rights of consumers in Australia. The policy advocates for fair competition in the business world. This is important for the welfare of a consumer because with fair competition, consumers get the right information that does not deceive. This policy is very essential for the consumers. In a case where there is unfair competition, consumers get deceived and they get low quality services and products. Another importance of the national competition policy is that it ensures that manufacturers and enterprises produce and offer quality products and services (Miller & Australia 2013). This is because with quality services and products, they are able to increase their sales and profits in the long run. Therefore, this national policy is also aimed at regulating the kind of products produced and services offered in the competitive market. It provides the right competitive environment because fair competition entails satisfying a consumer. Another importance of the national competition policy is that it benefits the market through the traders and businesses. This is because this policy regulates competition and ensures that traders and businesses comply with laws and policies set by the policy. These regulations require that businesses compete amongst each other in a fair and just way. This is important to businesses because they get a fair platform for competing with their competitors. The policy applies to all the states in Australia so that there is fairness despite the location from where a business operates. There are some legal consequences to the law breakers of this policy. The punishment depends on the crime under the policy. References Corones, G. S. (2013), The Australian consumer law, Lawbook Company. Australia, C (2011), Australian competition and consumer legislation, CCH Australia Limited. Teicher,J. Holland, P & Gough, R.(2013), Australian workplace relations, Cambridge University Press. Stewart, A. (2011), Stewart’s guide to employment law, Federation Press. Medalla, E. (2005), Competition policy in the East Asia Pacific Region, Routlegde. Livermore, J. (2011), Transport law in Australia, Kluwer Law International. Cunningham, S. (2010), The media and communications in Australia, ReadHowYouWant.com. Miller, R. V & Australia. (2013). Miller’s Australian Competition and consumer Law annotated. Thomson Reuters (professional) Australia. Read More