Trade Practices Act 1965

Replaced the Australian Industries Preservation Act 1906. This followed a review by the Commonwealth government of overseas legislation, including that of the US and UK and a number of targetted reviews, including the Royal Commission on Restrictive Trade Practices (WA) 1958 and the Royal Commissioner on Prices an Restrictive Trade Practices (Tasmania) 1965.

An Act to preserve Competition in Australian Trade and Commerce to the extent required by the Public Interest

The full text of the legislation (as originally enacted) is available in PDF form at ComLaw. The Act was divided into X parts:

• Part I Preliminary (sections 1-8)
• Part II Constitution of the Trade Practices Tribunal (Sections 9-22)
• Part III The Commissioner, the Registrar of the Tribunal and other Officers (Sections 23-34)
• Part IV Examinable Agreements and Practices (Sections 35-39)
• Part V Registration of certain Agreements (Sections 40-45)
• Part VI Examination of Agreements and Practices by the Tribunal (Sections 46-66)
• Part VII Enforcement of Orders of Tribunal (Sections 67-69)
• Part VIII Provisions relating to the Tribunal
• Part IX Collusive Tendering and Collusive Bidding (Sections 85-87)
• Part X Civil Remedies (Sections 88-90)
• Part XI Interpretative Provisions (Sections 91-96)
• Part XII Miscellaneous (Sections 97-106)

The Act was amended by the Trade Practices Act 1966 (Act 39 of 1966) and the Trade Practices Act 1967 (Act 30 of 1966).

Maureen Brunt, 'The Trade Practices Bill: Legislation in Search of an Objective' (1965) 41 Economic Record 357

JE Richardson, 'The Trade Practices Bill: The Legal Framework' (1965) 41 Economic Record 341

J Hutton and JP Nieuwenhuysen, 'The Trade Practices Bill: The Tribunal and Australian Economic Policy' (1965) 41 Economic Record 341

Geoffrey Walker, 'The Trade Practices Bill: Reasonableness of prices as a test of legality in price-fixing cases' (1965) 41 Economic Record 401

In 1973, described by Senator Murphy as "one of the most ineffectual pieces of legislation passed by this Parliament" (Commonwealth Senate, Parliamentary Debates, Lionel Murphy (27 September 1973) 1013)