The Treasurer, Mr Peter Costello, today announced two appointments to the Australian Competition Tribunal:
- The Hon Justice John von Doussa, of Adelaide, has been appointed as President; and
- The Hon Justice Peter Hely, of Sydney, has been appointed as a Deputy President.
The new President and Deputy President are both judges of the Federal Court of Australia.
The appointments, which carry terms of five years, follow the retirement of the former President, the Hon John Lockhart, AO from the Federal Court and the Tribunal to become an Executive Director with the Asian Development Bank in Manila.
Justice von Doussa was appointed a Deputy President of the Tribunal in 1996 and has been acting as President of the Tribunal since July 1999. He has been a judge of the Federal Court of Australia since 1988, and prior to that served from 1986 as a judge of the Supreme Court of South Australia.
Justice Hely was appointed to the Federal Court in 1998 from the Sydney Bar.
Background
The Tribunal has existed since 1966 and was known as the Trade Practices Tribunal before 1995. It primarily functions as an appeal body for adjudication decisions made by the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission under the Trade Practices Act 1974. In addition, it has power to make declarations in relation to offshore mergers, conduct inquiries in relation to a Ministerial reference made under the International Liner Shipping provisions (Part X) of the Act and hear appeals from decisions of the Minister or National Competition Council in relation to the access to services provisions of the Act.
The appointment of Justice Hely restores to three the number of presidential members appointed to the Tribunal. Presidential members must be a judge of a federal court, not being the High Court or the court of an external Territory. All members of the Tribunal serve on a part-time basis.
In addition to these two new presidential member appointments, the Tribunal comprises:
| Deputy President: | Hon Justice Goldberg, of Melbourne. |
| Members: | Dr Barry Aldrich, of Sydney; Mr Robin Davey, of Batemans Bay; Professor Ronald Duncan, of Canberra; Mr Grant Latta, of Melbourne; Dr Malcolm Messenger, of Adelaide; Associate Professor David Round, of Adelaide; Ms Margaret Starrs, of Melbourne; and Mr Michael Waller, of Melbourne. |
CANBERRA
15 November 1999
For further information contact Niki Savva (02) 6277 7340