ACCC’s Rod Sims, AO, wants more help for small business against unfair contracts

Rod Sims, appointed an ­Officer of the Order of Australia as he prepares to step down as ACCC head, wants tougher protection for small business. Other recipients include Alison Watkins, John Wylie and Gina Rinehart.

Rod Sims has been appointed an Officer of the Order of Australia. ‘If we help small business, we help the economy,’ he says. Picture: Chris Pavlich / The Australian

Australian Competition & Consumer Commission chairman Rod Sims has called for tougher laws to protect small business against unfair contracts.

As he prepared to step down after 11 years as head of the ACCC, Mr Sims, who was appointed an ­Officer of the Order of Australia (AO) in the Australia Day honours, is concerned about the unfair practices that face small businesses across Australia.

“There are big changes that we need to make to the (competition) law to help small businesses,” he said. “There needs to be changes, particularly making unfair contract terms illegal.

“If we can get an unfair practices provision in the law it could help small business a lot. If we help small business, we help the economy.”

Mr Sims, who was awarded an AO for his distinguished service to public administration in economic policy and regulatory roles, was one of several leading people in business and public policy who were awarded honours in the annual Australia Day awards.

Others included Melbourne-based investment banker and philanthropist John Wylie, who was appointed a Companion of the Order of Australia (AC), the highest honour for eminent service to the community through leadership in the sporting, cultural, philanthropic and business sectors.

Gina Rinehart, chairwoman of iron ore companies Roy Hill and Hancock Prospecting, was awarded an AO for her services to the mining sector, to the community through philanthropic initiatives and to sport as a patron.

Mrs Rinehart, who is also executive chairwoman of pastoral company S. Kidman and Co, has been a longtime supporter of Olympic sport, including swimming, volleyball and rowing, and of charities including the Royal Flying Doctor Service, Cambodian Children’s Fund, NAIDOC week, St Vincent’s Curran Foundation, Special Air Services Resources Trust and St Hilda’s Anglican School for Girls in Perth.

Former News Limited chief executive John Hartigan was also awarded an AO for his services to the media industry, Indigenous welfare and sport.

Graham and Louise Tuckwell received a rare husband-and-wife honour, with both getting an AO.

Mr Tuckwell, the founder of Gold Bullion Securities Australia and ETF Securities, was awarded an AO for distinguished service to the community through philanthropic support of educational scholarships and to business.

Ms Tuckwell received an AO for her service to the community through philanthropic support of education scholarships.

They donated considerable money to establish the Tuckwell Scholarship Program at the Australian National University in 2013 and helped fund the Tuckwell Scholars House at the university.

Former Coca-Cola Amatil chief executive Alison Watkins, was appointed a Member of the Order of Australia (AM) for significant service to business through leadership with a range of roles including being a member of the Reserve Bank board, and former chief executive of GrainCorp.

Ms Watkins is currently chancellor of the University of Tasmania and a non executive director of CSL and Wesfarmers.

Alison Watkins. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Gary Ramage

Former ASX chairman Rick Holliday-Smith was awarded an AM for services to business through a range of roles and organisations including as chairman of Cochlear, the ASX and the Sydney Futures Exchange, and former directorships of Austraclear, Servcorp, Snowy Hydro and St George Bank.

Mr Holliday-Smith is currently chairman of QBiotics and has been patron of the Macquarie University Foundation since 2012.

Mr Sims, despite having run the ACCC since 2011, believes there is much to be done to improve consumer and competition law in Australia.

“Small business suffers a lot from unfair contracts,” he said.

“There are a lot of standard term contracts which they have to enter into.”

This included small businesses being vulnerable to increases in charges to them and other terms whereby big companies could avoid liability. “When it comes to unfair contract terms, small business suffers more than consumers do,” he said.

Looking back on his time as ACCC chairman, Mr Sims is particularly proud of increasing the emphasis on consumer law as ­opposed to an initial emphasis on enforcing competition law. “Companies now have to take a lot more notice of consumer law,” he said.

These days, he says, companies are much more wary of violating consumer laws as a result of a combination of significantly increased penalties and reputational damage.

“That has been a big change,” he said. “The government has now aligned the penalties you can get under both consumer and competition law.

“The Australian business community has a lot more respect for consumer law than it did 11 years ago. When I became chair, if we got a $1m penalty (for a breach of consumer law) it was felt to be pretty big.

“Then we got it up to $3.6m against Optus and then $10m against Telstra. In 2021 we had a $50m penalty against Telstra and $125m against VW. When I joined the agency, it was all about competition law and consumer law was the poor cousin.”

Mr Sims predicts that recent changes of the law will result in penalties of more than $100m for companies which have broken the consumer law.

“The imposition of $100m penalties for breaches of consumer law is going to become more commonplace,” he said.

“This will really help greater adherence to the law.”

Mr Sims is also proud of the ACCC’s work in taking action against search engine Google, as well as the commission’s inquiry into the power of digital platforms and the development of a bargaining code between media organisations and digital platforms.

He said the exercise had meant another $200m a year going into the Australian media sector.

“It’s very satisfying to see all of that happen and to see more journalists being hired right across the sector,” he said.

Mr Sims said he was also still concerned about the monopoly powers held by some assets which had been privatised such as Sydney Airport.

He said the ACCC had been able to help shape government policy on privatisations, but he was still unhappy with how governments had sought to raise the maximum revenue from selling off assets by removing or reducing controls over their ability to price their products.

“Governments have privatised assets to maximise the proceeds of the sale,” he said.

“To do that, they’ve chopped off competition.

“They have privatised monopolies without any regulation.

“Ports and airports are the classic. It has cost consumers a lot of money.

“The ACCC has very much tried to change the mindset about that and I think we have done that.

“(Some) privatisations that would have gone ahead didn’t or went ahead in different ways.”

Mr Sims was particularly critical of the lack of regulation around the sale of Sydney Airport in 2000.

He said Sydney Airport was subject to price regulation when it was owned by the federal government.

“They deliberately took that off (price regulation) when they sold it so they could get a huge price,” he said.

“And, of course, they did get a huge price which knocked everyone’s socks off.

“Macquarie Bank bought it ­because they could see they could price at whatever level they ­wanted.

“They did and they made a motza out of it.”