"Promoting Competition, Protecting Consumers and Supporting a Productive Economy in an Era of Extraordinary Change"

The 50th anniversary of the Competition and Consumer Act 2010 (Cth), formerly called the Trade Practices Act 1974 (Cth), in 2024 marked a milestone in Australia’s legal and economic landscape. Reflecting upon the Act’s legacy of effectiveness, resilience and adaptability, the conference will consider the challenges of the next chapters of Australia’s competition and consumer law.

Over the past half-century, the Competition and Consumer Act has undergone a series of transformations to meet evolving markets, emerging business practices, and changing consumer expectations. Grounded in a principle-based legislative foundation, purposive judicial interpretation, and deliberative policy-informed amendments, the Act’s effectiveness, resilience and adaptability have been its hallmarks.

These hallmarks are the essential tools needed to ensure the Act’s dynamic navigation of an era of extraordinary change - an era driven by technological and environmental transformations and marked by complex, interconnected social and economic challenges - including rising cost of living, the transition to net zero, the rise of digital platforms and artificial intelligence, and the ever-present threat of scams.

“Spotlight on Competition and Consumer Law” features a Keynote Address by the Hon Justice Jacqueline Gleeson, High Court of Australia, and a plenary address from the Hon Jim Chalmers MP, Federal Treasurer. Attendees will also hear from the Hon John Middleton AM KC, retired FCA and Senior Advisor at DLA Piper, and the Hon Justice Michael O’Bryan, President of the Australian Competition Tribunal, and the Hon Justice Sarah Derrington AM FAAL, Deputy President of the Australian Competition Tribunal.

Speakers will examine the new merger control regime, the progress towards reforms in digital platform services, and the supermarket and retail sector - and the proactive approaches needed to ensure the Act remains an effective instrument for promoting competition and fair trading, consumer protection, and efficient markets.

Date: Friday, 21 March 2025.
Time: 1.00pm - 5.00pm
Place: Federal Court of Australia, 184 Phillip St, Sydney, 2000.
Cost: $350 per ticket.

Join us afterward for a reception with drinks and canapes.

At the completion of this seminar you could earn 3 CPD points. If this educational activity extends your knowledge and skills in areas that are relevant to your practice needs of professional development, then you should claim one (1) “unit” for each hour of attendance, refreshment breaks not included.

Keynote Address

The Hon Justice Jacqueline Gleeson

The Hon Justice Jacqueline Sarah Gleeson was appointed to the High Court of Australia in March 2021. At the time of her appointment, she was a judge of the Federal Court of Australia, having been appointed to that position in April 2014. She has Bachelor of Arts, Bachelor of Laws and Master of Laws degrees from the University of Sydney. She was admitted as a solicitor in 1989 and practised as an employed solicitor at Bush Burke & Company in Sydney from 1990 to mid-1991. She then practised as a barrister from mid-1991, leaving the Bar at the end of 2000. From 2001 to 2003, she was General Counsel at the Australian Broadcasting Authority. From 2004 to 2006, she was a Senior Executive Lawyer with the Australian Government Solicitor. She returned to the Bar in 2007 and was made Senior Counsel in 2012. Her Honour is an Honorary Bencher of the Honourable Society of the Middle Temple.

Plenary Address

The Hon Dr Jim Chalmers MP

The Hon Dr Jim Chalmers MP is the Treasurer of Australia. He has been the Member for Rankin in the House of Representatives since 2013. He served as Shadow Treasurer from 2019 to 2022, and Shadow Minister for Finance from 2016 to 2019. Prior to his election to Parliament, he was the Executive Director of the Chifley Research Centre and Chief of Staff to the Deputy Prime Minister and Treasurer. He has a PhD in political science and international relations from the Australian National University and a first-class honours degree in public policy from Griffith University and is a qualified company director.

Panel

The Hon John Eric Middleton AM KC

The Hon John Eric Middleton AM KC, a renown former judge, is a Senior Advisor to DLA Piper. Appointed as a Justice of the Federal Court of Australia in 2006, he served for 16 years until his retirement in 2022. He was appointed a Deputy President of the Australian Competition Tribunal in 2009 and President in 2016. He was a presidential member of the Administrative Appeals Tribunal in 2010 and served as a part-time Commissioner of the Australian Law Reform Commission from 2012 until 2022.

He graduated from the University of Melbourne with a Bachelor of Laws (First Class Honours) and from the University of Oxford as Bachelor of Civil Law (First Class Honours). He was the Winter Williams Scholar (University of Oxford (1976)). He was admitted to practise as a barrister and solicitor of the Supreme Court of Victoria in 1976. After serving as Associate to Sir Ninian Stephen, then Justice of the High Court of Australia, he was called to the Bar in 1979 where he practised predominantly in Constitutional and Administrative Law, Resources Law and Commercial Law.

He was appointed one of Her Majesty’s Counsel for the State of Victoria in 1991 and subsequently became Chairman of the Victorian Bar Council. His extra curial activities include being a former Council Member of The University of Melbourne, a member of The American Law Institute, a Fellow of the Australian Academy of Law, Member of the Editorial Board of The Journal of the Intellectual Property Society of Australia and New Zealand, a member of the Australian Centre for International Commercial Arbitration Advisory Board and Judicial Liaison Committee and President of the Oxford Society in Victoria. He was awarded the Centenary Medal in 2003 for services as a former Chairman, Bar Council, to the community and to education.

The Hon Justice Michael O’Bryan

Justice Michael O’Bryan is a judge of the Federal Court of Australia, having been appointed on 26 February 2019. His Honour is also the President of the Australian Competition Tribunal, having been appointed as a Deputy President on 12 December 2019 and as President on 26 March 2023.

After graduating from the University of Melbourne in 1985 (with an LLB (Hons) and BSc), Justice O’Bryan was admitted to practice as a barrister and solicitor of the Supreme Court of Victoria in 1987. He practised as a solicitor in London between 1988 and 1990 in the field of European competition law, and became a partner of the Australian law firm Minter Ellison in 1992 practising in the fields of competition and consumer law, corporate law and administrative law. He was called to the Victorian Bar in 2002 and was appointed Senior Counsel in 2011. As a barrister, he practised in the areas of competition and consumer law, corporate law, class actions, administrative and constitutional law.

Justice O’Bryan was a member of the panel appointed by the Commonwealth Government in 2014 to conduct a review of Australia’s competition laws and policy (now known as the Harper Review), which resulted in the enactment of the Competition and Consumer (Competition Policy Review) Act 2017.

The Hon Justice Sarah Derrington AM

Justice Sarah Derrington was appointed to the Federal Court of Australia on 10 January 2018. She is the Deputy President of the Australian Competition Tribunal.

Justice Sarah Derrington was educated at the University of Queensland, from where she holds a BA (in French and German), an LLB (Hons), an LLM, and a PhD in the field of marine insurance law. In 1990, she was admitted to the Bar in Queensland and as a Barrister & Solicitor of the Supreme Court of the ACT. Immediately prior to her appointment to the Court, she was the Dean of Law at the University of Queensland.

Justice Sarah Derrington has been a member of the Admiralty Rules Committee since 2006 and, in 2024 was appointed Chair of the United Nations Coordination Committee for Australia (UNCCA). She is the Past President of the Maritime Law Association of Australian and New Zealand (MLAANZ) and, from 2012-2017 served on the Board of the Australian Maritime Safety Authority (AMSA). From 2012-2023 Justice Sarah Derrington was a member of the Council of the Australian Maritime College (AMC), and from 2015-2024 served as a member of the Council of the Australian National Maritime Museum (ANMM). She was elected a Fellow of the Academy of Law in 2009, of the Nautical Institute in 2013, and of the Queensland Academy of Arts and Sciences in 2018. In 2021, she was made an Honorary Bencher of Gray's Inn. From 9 January 2018 to 9 January 2023, she was the President of the Australian Law Reform Commission. In 2022 she was appointed a Member of the Order of Australia in the Queen’s Birthday Honour’s List.

whitlam.org