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 31/12/05 - ITC (Integrated Tree Cropping ) climbs up the value tree - Philip Hopkins - Business Age on Saturday

22/12/05 - $427 million penalty asked - Samuel has put his reputation on the line by launching Australia's
largest-ever price-fixing case, a $427 million action against Richard Pratt
and his Visy packaging group - Rod Myer

19/12/05 - Neighbours warned to act on illegal logging - Greg Roberts

14/12/05 - Regional Victoria expected to feel DSE job cuts - ABC online

13/12/05 - Victorian court recognises native title - AAP

9/12/05 - Watchdog moves on cardboard cartel - Leonie Wood. The Age - Business

ITC climbs up the value tree

■Negotiation of a seven-year sales deal with Sojitz Corporation of Japan for woodchip exports from Albany.

■Successful commissioning of the Southwood mill in Tasmania

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$427 million penalty asked
By Rod Myer - our highlights
December 22, 2005
Samuel has put his reputation on the line by launching Australia's
largest-ever price-fixing case, a $427 million action against Richard Pratt
and his Visy packaging group.

Mr Samuel has signalled that cartel busting will be the hallmark of his
reign as Australian Competition and Consumer Commission chairman.

In taking on Visy he has gone to the stratosphere, aiming to claim up to
$427 million in penalties, more than 10 times the largest amount won from
corporate Australia in a trade practices case.

If the ACCC case holds up, it will be a major victory for Mr Samuel and his
pledge to rid Australia of collusive behaviour in business. If he loses, he
will be seen as having overreached himself badly.

The Visy claim is built on a series of alleged contraventions of the Trade
Practices Act by three Visy companies as well as personal claims against Mr
Pratt, chief executive Harry Debney and former Visy general manager Rod
Carrol.

The largest penalty before this action was a fine of $35 million levied
against a group of companies, ABB, Schneider Electric, Wilson Transformer,
AW Tyree and Alstrom, which had fixed transformer prices and tenders for
some years.

Second in line was the $26 million extracted by the ACCC in 2001 from three
vitamin producing companies, Roche, BASF and Aventis Animal Nutrition, which
were caught price fixing. That case was launched after two of their parent
companies were fined a total of $US725 million ($A974.5 million) by US
regulators for price fixing.

In the 1990s a group of ready-mixed concrete companies in Queensland were
fined $20 million for price fixing.

Each ACCC chairman has developed his own style and agenda. Mr Samuel's
predecessor, Alan Fels, was famed for his media campaigns aimed at deterring
would-be offenders. Mr Samuel has hitched his star to cartel busting.

Last September he described cartels as "a silent extortion that in many
instances do far more damage . than many of the worst consumer scams. They
steal billions of dollars both here and abroad from business . taxpayers and
ultimately from you and me as consumers."

So far the campaign has yielded some notable successes since Mr Samuel took
over as ACCC chairman in 2003. Earlier this year eight companies and
individuals were fined $23.3 million for price fixing in the petrol industry
around Ballarat. Last year George Weston was fined $1.5 million for
attempting to fix prices.

Aside from the Visy case, six other actions are in motion covering the
air-conditioning, industrial gem, timber, petrol and abalone industries.

Had the Visy prosecution taken place a few months later the company could
have been up for even more stringent fines. Legislation before the Senate
will, if passed, see two other options added to the current maximum fine of
$10 million per occurrence. It will then be possible to fine a company the
total amount of the economic extortion deemed to have been gained in the
price fixing or 10 per cent of its turnover.

On top of that, legislation will soon be introduced to make collusion a
criminal act for company executives. That would mean jail terms for those
found guilty and will create a whole new layer of deterrence against price
fixing.

Ironically for Visy, its alleged partner in price fixing, Amcor, has
received immunity from prosecution because the company went to the ACCC
confessing to what was happening. Former Amcor managing director Russell
Jones lost his job over the issue but neither the company nor any
individuals involved will suffer any penalties if they keep co-operating
with Mr Samuel.

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 ABC online Wednesday, 14 December 2005. 14:49 (AEDT) Highlights added

The Department of Sustainability and Environment (DSE) has announced 70 job cuts to its land stewardship and biodiversity group.

The union representing DSE employees, the Community and Public Sector Union, says most of the jobs lost are based in Melbourne.

But the union's Karen Batt says the cuts will have a severe impact on teams working in regional Victoria.

"The impact that it's going to have on regional Victoria is quite severe - if you lose the knowledge and the expertise of the staff in this area, how are we going to have the staff in the field being able to deliver the services that regional Victorians rely on very heavily," she said.

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13th Dec 05 - AAP

Native title has officially been recognised for the first time in Victoria with a court ruling giving five Aboriginal tribes land use rights by the banks of a river in the state's west.

The Federal Court, at a special hearing in Little Desert National Park near Dimboola in western Victoria, settled three claims totalling more than 9,500 square km - about four per cent of the state - lodged between 1995 and 1999.

But the settlement gave the claimants only about two per cent of the land originally claimed.

It recognised the Wotjobaluk, Jaadwa, Jadawadjali, Wergaia and Jupagalk people's non-exclusive rights to hunt, fish, gather and camp in Crown land covering 269 sq km of land along the banks of the Wimmera River.

The determination found native title did not exist in the rest of the claim area, but in a broader agreement package the state government has recognised the claimants' "close cultural ties" to a larger area.

The native title-holders will also be granted freehold title to three parcels of culturally sensitive crown land totalling 45 hectares.

Federal Court Justice Ron Merkel ruled it was "appropriate" under the Native Title Act to make the orders negotiated between the stakeholders, whom he commended for resolving the issue through mediation and consensus.

He said the orders had special significance because they appeared to constitute the first protection of native title on Australia's entire south-eastern seaboard.

Justice Merkel said the case demonstrated that the evolution of traditional laws and customs did not necessarily "wash away" Aboriginal people's connection with and claim to land.

Kaylene Clarke, deputy chairwoman of the Barengi Gadjin Land Council, the organisation established to manage the claimants' interests, welcomed the decision as a momentous historical occasion.

"Our mob have been working towards this day for over 10 years," she said.

"It now allows us to move forward and make a better future for our people."

The National Native Title Tribunal said the determination marked a turning point as it had been made with the consent of all 400-plus stakeholders - including state, federal and local governments, farmers, utilities and fishing, forestry and mining permit holders.

The tribunal has mediated negotiations since the Victorian government and Aboriginal representatives reached an in-principle agreement to settle the claims more than three years ago.

Tribunal member Professor Doug Williamson QC said it was an enormous challenge for such a large number of parties with different interests and perspectives to reach an agreement.

"Through the experience and outcomes gained as a result of these consent determinations and other agreements, we hope native title claims in other parts of Victoria will now be able proceed more smoothly and be resolved more quickly," he said.

Sixteen active native title claims are yet to be settled in Victoria.

Victorian Attorney-General Rob Hulls said the decision was proof of the Victorian government's commitment to settling native title claims without litigation.

"This decision, made with the agreement of all parties, should demonstrate to all Victorians Indigenous claims to land are not a source of division or a threat to the community," Mr Hulls said at the hearing today.

The package, which includes $2.6 million in state government funding over five years, sets out how native title holders will co-exist with other crown land users.

It establishes a consultation process with the state government about future developments, and gives the holders an advisory role in the management of some national parks and wilderness areas.

- AAP

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By Leonie Wood. The Age - Business
December 9, 2005

THE Australian Competition and Consumer Commission is about to launch legal action against some of the biggest players in the $1.8 billion packaging industry, alleging they colluded over several years to fix prices for cardboard boxes.

The ACCC's planned legal action was revealed in a closed-door hearing before Justice Ron Merkel in the Federal Court, but Justice Merkel refused the ACCC's request to keep its plans secret.

The move comes one year after packaging group Amcor dumped its chief executive, Russell Jones, and the head of its Australasian business, Peter Sutton, amid revelations that Amcor had admitted to cartel behaviour.

At the same time, the New Zealand Commerce Commission launched its own investigation into Amcor, Richard Pratt's Visy Industries and Auckland-based Carter Holt Harvey.

Four months later, Visy directed Rod Carroll, its general manager in charge of the corrugated box business, to take extended leave.

The commission's chairman, Graeme Samuel, has vowed to wipe out cartels that he believes operate in several industries, fixing prices to the detriment of consumers.

In court last week, the ACCC argued that if its imminent plans to launch legal actions against cardboard box makers were widely known, they would attract intense media interest "because of the profile of the people involved" and as a result "people who are co-operating with the ACCC in its investigation may be unwilling to co-operate".

It is not yet clear who will be the target of the ACCC's court action. Counsel for the commission, Norman O'Bryan, SC, was about to reveal the names of the potential defendants in court last week, but the judge cut him off.

The regulator's legal action is expected to be issued within days. The ACCC last night declined to comment.

Companies that are found to have colluded to fix prices in breach of the Trade Practices Act face penalties of up to $10 million for each breach, and individuals can be penalised up to $500,000.

Amcor last year obtained draconian orders from the court allowing it to raid the homes of five former senior executives who had earlier quit the company to start their own consultancy.

While reviewing material seized in the raids, Amcor's lawyers found six CDs containing conversations between a former Amcor employee and other employees.

Amcor handed the CDs and other material to the ACCC, which then launched an investigation into the industry. The ACCC later told the Federal Court that the conversations related to "a market-sharing arrangement or a price-fixing arrangement in which it appeared that Amcor had been involved".

The ACCC last week told Justice Merkel that after reviewing the documents "and certain other information" the regulator realised "that it was a serious matter under section 45 of the act".

Section 45 bans businesses from entering into contracts, arrangements or understandings that are intended to fix, maintain or control prices.

The judge has cleared the way for the regulator to use certain documents handed to it last year by Amcor.

It also told the court that on November 29 it made an in-principle decision to begin legal action.

Mr O'Bryan, SC, for the ACCC told Justice Merkel on December 1 that the regulator's investigation "is almost complete, but still continuing".

"The investigation remains highly confidential, like many investigations, this one more than most because it is an extremely large industry," he said. "And it is thought highly undesirable that any publicity should be given to the proceeding before it is issued."

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