In announcing his merger changes, Treasurer Jim Chalmers pointed to the package as a balanced set of reforms that is intended to result in a “faster, stronger and simpler” clearance process. It’s too early to be certain, but that may well overstate what will be delivered.

Australian Competition and Consumer Commission chairwoman Gina Cass-Gottlieb should be pleased with the reform package, which gives the ACCC the essential features of the regime it is seeking: a mandatory process with more administrative discretion, a shift in focus from hard evidence to economic theory, limited transparency and constrained rights of review, alongside the promise of filing fees, allowing the ACCC to recover $50,000 to $100,000 per filing.