Open pharmacies, taxis to market: report

PAUL OSBORNE
SEPTEMBER 22, 2014
AAP
THE federal government is facing pressure to remove limits on who can run a pharmacy or taxi service and where they operate.
THE call to deregulate a number of business sectors was included in a draft report by Ian Harper, who is undertaking the biggest review of competition policy in two decades.
The community pharmacy agreement, which ensures all pharmacies are run by qualified pharmacists and places restrictions where they operate, is set to expire in July 2015.
The Harper report said it was not clear the restrictions “ensure the quality of advice” provided to consumers.
“Such restrictions limit the ability of consumers to choose where to obtain pharmacy services and limit the ability of suppliers to meet consumers demands,” the report says.
The government could find other ways to ensure pharmacies met safety, access and standard of care requirements without the need to limit competition.
Professor Harper also recommended that taxi regulation be overhauled.
Regulations limiting the number of taxi licences and preventing other services from competing with taxis had raised costs for consumers and hindered new transport services from emerging, he concluded.
“States and territories should remove regulations that restrict competition in the taxi industry, including from services that compete with taxis, except where it would not be in the public interest,” the report said.
Parallel import restrictions on such items as books should be removed unless it can be shown that such limits are in the public interest.
The report also proposed that the states cede some of their regulatory powers to a new national body called the Access and Pricing Regulator and that decisions on all mergers – formal and informal – be made by the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission.
The final report is due by the end of the year.