Competitive streak: Gina Cass-Gottlieb's mission at the ACCC
Australia's competition chief wants to improve the regulator's poor court record on mergers, and better protect consumers in a time of soaring living costs.
Over a glittering career spanning 25 years, Gina Cass-Gottlieb built a reputation as one of the country's top competition lawyers. She acted for everyone from the world's largest brewer, Anheuser-Busch InBev, to Westpac, and was known as the award-winning counsel of choice for the top end of town to get mergers and acquisition deals over the regulatory finish line.
Now, as the chair of the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission, she is sitting on the other side of the fence. She has the power to make or break the biggest deals in the country, a power the the regulator has been exercising lately, kyboshing ANZ's plans to acquire Suncorp Bank and knocking back Telstra and TPG Telecom's network sharing deal.
Cass-Gottlieb's predecessor at the regulator Rod Sims had a famously dismal record in competition lawsuits, failing to convince the courts to stop key deals including the TPG-Vodafone merger and Pacific National's acquisition of Aurizon's Acacia Ridge Terminal.
When we meet in the ACCC's offices in Sydney to discuss her plans for the year ahead, it seems clear she is determined for her tenure to play out differently. Her approach is described by peers as forensic, meticulous and evidence driven.
