The Council is not aware of any material impediments to the operation of Part IIIA arising during 2019-20.

As mentioned in previous reports, while the Council was in the main supportive of the 2017 amendments to the declaration criteria under the National Access Regime, it is also cognisant that the amendments to Part IIIA have not been reflected in the NGL, the principles for certifying an access regime as effective,[1] and potentially some other State or Territory access regimes modelled on the original Part IIIA provisions.[2]

As discussed in the section below titled “implications for the future operation of Part IIIA”, the Council will continue to advocate that similar amendments should be made in other regimes to follow the amendments to Part IIIA. This will prevent the potential for divergence to arise in the approach to access regulation across regimes or industries in the future.

[1] While clause 6(3)(a) principles in the CPA still apply at present (as the CPA has not been replaced by the IGA), the Council has stated in its Certification of State and Territory Access Regime Guide that it will interpret the clause 6(3)(a) principles in the CPA in a manner consistent with the amended declaration criteria as far as possible, while recognising the differences in wording.

[2] The Queensland access regime is an exception. In March 2018 the Queensland Government amended the Queensland Competition Authority Act 1997 (Qld) (QCA Act) to ensure that the ‘access criteria’ in s 76 of the QCA Act, which govern access to services in Part 5 of the QCA Act, are consistent with the amended declaration criteria in Part IIIA.