Commonwealth bill

Competition and Consumer Amendment (Responding to Exceptional Circumstances) Bill 2026

CTHRoyal AssentMetadata only

Zoe only has APH summary and progress metadata for this Bill. Deep analysis is withheld until official Bill text or explanatory material is available.

Jurisdiction

Commonwealth

Collection

bill

Parliamentary Progress

Origin: Senate

IntroducedFirst ReadingSecond ReadingCommitteePassed HousePassed SenatePassed BothRoyal Assent

Plain English Summary

6/10 complexity

What this Bill does (mechanically)

Creates a new power for the Commonwealth Minister to make an “exceptional circumstances declaration” that identifies a national emergency or other exceptional situation. (A declaration is a formal decision that triggers special rules.)
Gives the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) new powers to: 1) authorise conduct that would otherwise breach the Competition and Consumer Act 2010 (CCA), and 2) issue statutory exemptions from the competition rules, when that conduct is in the public interest and helps respond to the declared exceptional circumstances.
Increases the maximum civil penalties for breaches of the Oil Code of Conduct.
Makes related changes to the CCA and to the National Emergency Declaration Act 2020 so the new declaration, authorisation and exemption powers sit alongside existing emergency law frameworks.

Who is affected

Businesses across affected sectors: firms that might need to cooperate (for example, on logistics, joint procurement, information sharing or temporary allocation of scarce inputs) during an exceptional circumstance will be the primary actors affected.
The ACCC: gains discretionary authorisation and exemption powers and must assess and (where appropriate) approve or exempt otherwise-prohibited conduct.
The Minister: gains a new formal power to declare exceptional circumstances, which activates the ACCC’s new discretion.

JSON API

Source excerpts

Direct links to excerpts of the current source text in Competition and Consumer Amendment (Responding to Exceptional Circumstances) Bill 2026.

retrieval-0001

Document excerpt 1

Competition and Consumer Amendment (Responding to Exceptional Circumstances) Bill 2026

Source: https://www.aph.gov.au/Parliamentary_Business/Bills_Legislation/Bills_Search_Results/Result?bId=s1493

APH summary

Summary

Amends the Competition and Consumer Act 2010 to: enable the minister to make an exemptional circumstance declaration; enable the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission to authorise and exempt conduct from competition law that is in the public interest and assists in the response to those exceptional circumstances; and increase the maximum penalties for breaches of the Oil Code of Conduct. Also makes consequential amendments to the Competition and Consumer Act 2010 and National Emergency Declaration Act 2020.

Parliamentary progress

Progress

Senate

Introduced and read a first time

13 May 2026

Second reading moved

13 May 2026

Second reading debate

13 May 2026

Second reading debate

14 May 2026

Second reading agreed to

14 May 2026

Committee of the Whole debate

Amendment details: 1 Australian Greens agreed to

14 May 2026

Third reading agreed to

14 May 2026

Official APH document links

First reading: https://parlinfo.aph.gov.au/parlInfo/search/display/display.w3p;query=Id%3A%22legislation%2Fbills%2Fs1493_first-senate%2F0000%22;rec=0
Third reading: https://parlinfo.aph.gov.au/parlInfo/search/display/display.w3p;query=Id:%22legislation/bills/s1493_third-senate/0000%22
Explanatory memorandum: https://parlinfo.aph.gov.au/parlInfo/search/display/display.w3p;query=Id%3A%22legislation%2Fems%2Fs1493_ems_73602a77-426e-4fa3-aa0a-2bfc4f7156df%22
All second reading speeches: https://www.aph.gov.au/Parliamentary_Business/Bills_Legislation/Bills_Search_Results/Result/Second_Reading_Speeches?BillId=s1493
Minister's second reading speech: https://parlinfo.aph.gov.au/parlInfo/search/display/display.w3p;query=Id%3A%22chamber%2Fhansards%2F29219%2F0027%22
CANAVAN, Sen Matthew: https://www.aph.gov.au/Senators_and_Members/Parliamentarian?MPID=245212
MCKIM, Sen Nick: https://www.aph.gov.au/Senators_and_Members/Parliamentarian?MPID=JKM
CANAVAN, Sen Matthew: https://www.aph.gov.au/Senators_and_Members/Parliamentarian?MPID=245212
CANAVAN, Sen Matthew: https://www.aph.gov.au/Senators_and_Members/Parliamentarian?MPID=245212

Source text

Sourced from the Federal Register of Legislation (legislation.gov.au), CC BY 4.0.