Report No. 38

Government Business Enterprises and Commonwealth Administrative Law, 1995

Summary of the report

The report was transmitted to the Government on 23 February 1995, and tabled in the Parliament on 30 March 1995.

Rather than setting out specific recommendations, the report set out general principles to assist the Government to determine how the Commonwealth's administrative law package should apply to Government Business Enterprises ('GBEs'). The report set out:

criteria for identifying a GBE, for the purpose of applying Commonwealth administrative law statutes to GBEs;
the current application of Commonwealth administrative law statutes to GBEs; and
principles for determining the application of the administrative law package to GBEs.

In summary, the Council considered that Commonwealth administrative law statutes should ordinarily apply to bodies that are government-controlled, including GBEs. It also considered that GBEs should be exempt from the operation of those statutes, in relation to their commercial activities, undertaken in a market where there is real competition.

Response to the report

There has been no Government response to date