I am pleased to announce the appointments of the Hon Justice John Mansfield AM as the part-time President of the Australian Competition Tribunal and Dr Darryn Abraham and Professor Kevin Davis as part-time members, each for five years.
The Australian Competition Tribunal is an independent statutory tribunal that hears applications for authorisation of company mergers and acquisitions which would otherwise be prohibited under the Competition and Consumer Act 2010 (CCA). The Tribunal also considers appeals on certain Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) decisions, including decisions to grant or refuse merger clearances, reviews of decisions under Part IIIA of the CCA (national access regime), and other authorisation decisions made by the ACCC.
Justice Mansfield has been a Judge of the Federal Court since 1996 and has held the position of Deputy President of the Tribunal since 2008. Justice Mansfield graduated from the University of Adelaide with Honours and was admitted as a practitioner in 1969. Justice Mansfield was appointed Queen's Counsel for South Australia in 1985 and Queen's Counsel for the Northern Territory in 1988. He has been the President of the South Australian Law Society, President of the Law Council of Australia, Chairman of the Legal Aid Committee for the Law Council of Australia, Chairman of the SA Legal Services Commission and Chairman of the Third Party Premiums Committee (South Australia). During 1991-1993, Justice Mansfield held the role as Counsel assisting the Commissioner, and later was Commissioner of the Royal Commission into the State Bank of South Australia.
Dr Abraham is currently the director of the economics consulting firm Acacia CRE Ltd. He has previously worked as a consultant for Access Economics, a Lecturer at the Australian National University and as a Senior Research Officer at the Commonwealth Treasury. He received his PhD from the Australian National University.
Professor Davis is currently a Professor of Finance at the University of Melbourne and Research Director at the Australian Centre for Financial Studies. Professor Davis is also currently a Senior Fellow at the Financial Services Institute of Australia, a Fellow with the Finance and Treasury Association and Fellow with the Australian Mutuals Institute.
The Australian Competition Tribunal now consists of a part-time President, three Deputy Presidents and nine part-time members.
23 August 2011