What it does
The Competition Policy Reform (Victoria) Act 1995 (the Act) is framework legislation whose sole substantive function is to import, with necessary textual modifications, the Commonwealth’s competition law as a law of Victoria. Section 1 states the purpose bluntly: “to apply certain laws of the Commonwealth relating to competition policy as laws of Victoria.”
The vehicle is the “Competition Code text” defined in s 4(1). That text comprises three elements: (a) the Schedule version of Part IV (the substantive prohibitions on restrictive trade practices now found in the Competition and Consumer Act 2010 (Cth) (CCA) Sch 1); (b) the remainder of the CCA (excluding ss 2A, 5, 6 and 172) insofar as those provisions would relate to the Schedule version if it replaced the original Part IV; and (c) all regulations made under the CCA that relate to those provisions. Section 4(2) then mandates two classes of modification: first, any changes necessary to make the imported provisions “fit” the Schedule version; second, the deliberate expansion of the term “corporation” to “persons who are not corporations”. The result is a mirrored but freestanding body of law that applies to natural persons, unincorporated associations and the Crown (when carrying on business).
Once the text is fixed, s 5(1) applies it “as a law of Victoria”. Section 6 then regulates future Commonwealth amendments. A modification does not take effect in Victoria for at least two months unless the Governor in Council accelerates its operation by Gazette order. The Governor may also exclude a modification entirely by a further order made within the two-month window. These mechanisms preserve a degree of state sovereignty while still pursuing national uniformity.
Parts 3–7 flesh out the machinery. Part 3 supplies citation rules intended to allow any reference to “the Competition Code” in an instrument to be read as referring to the Codes of all participating jurisdictions collectively (s 11). Part 4 applies the Code to the Crown in right of Victoria and every other participating jurisdiction, but only “so far as the Crown carries on a business” (ss 13–14). Section 15 contains a detailed list of governmental activities that are deemed to be business (taxation, licensing, intra-Crown transactions, compulsory acquisition of primary produce). The Crown itself enjoys immunity from pecuniary penalties and criminal prosecution (s 16), though its authorities do not.