Watchdog defends cartel 'dobbing' law

MELBOURNE - The head of Australia's consumer watchdog is defending incoming laws to regulate criminal cartels, amid claims they promote dobbing and are un-Australian.

Australian Competition and Consumer Commission chief Graeme Samuel said the new laws, which commence on July 24, would mean people who participate in illegal cartels would no longer be able to buy their way out of jail.

Under the ACCC's new powers, cartel participants who contact the organisation to report the behaviour will be given immunity from prosecution.

"Someone said to me ... 'that's very un-Australian, isn't it, encouraging business people to dob on their mates?"' Samuel told Sky News.

"My response was to say no, it is far more un-Australian to be stealing from your fellow Australians' money through the operation of a cartel.

"And that's what a cartel is, it is simple theft," he said.

The new laws mean company executives can face up to 10 years' jail if found guilty of serious cartel conduct, in line with other types of theft.

"We put people in jail for evading tax - that is, stealing from the Australian community through the tax office," Samuel said.

"We put people in jail for stealing from the social welfare departments, but we don't put business people in jail for stealing from consumers by rigging prices, by rigging bids," he said.

Samuel also reiterated his concern with the growing market power of Australia's big four banks.

"As their dominance is increasing so we have a greater degree of concentration of financial power, of lending power, in those four major banks."

He said there was not the intense competition that consumers as borrowers wanted.

But the ACCC chief also said he was cynical of a so-called "people's bank" advocated by some economists, because the bank would create artificial competition.

"You've got to ask yourself what is it doing, where does the artificiality come in?" he said. "Is it through political influence, is it through engaging in non-commercial arrangements?

"Is that the best way of dealing with competition, or do we rather look at restoring the competitive dynamic in its true intense form into the financial market?" he said.

- AAP