Responsibility for water regulation could be moved away from the ACCC.

A new review of Australia's national competition policy called for the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) to be stripped of some of its regulatory functions, including price regulation and related advisory roles of the ACCC under the Water Act 2007.

The Harper Competition Review made 56 recommendations to improve competition in Australia, including arguing that regulatory functions should be transferred from the ACCC, the Australian Energy Regulator and the National Competition Council (NCC) and moved into a single national Access and Pricing Regulator.

The Harper Review found that along with the ACCC’s role under the Water Act, its powers under the National Access Regime and the functions currently performed by the Australian Energy Regulator under the National Electricity Law, the National Gas Law and the National Energy Retail Law, should all be put into a single location.

The proposed Access and Pricing Regulator would be formed as a five-member board including two Australian Government-appointed members, two State and Territory-nominated members and an Australian Government-appointed Chair, if it was undertaken.

The ACCC says it supports some suggestion of the Harper Review, but also has a few issues.

“Apart from the increased overheads from having to run two organisations rather than one, there would be very real costs for businesses in having to deal with two regulators, who may have conflicting views,” ACCC chairman Rod Sims warned.

“Breaking up the ACCC would also go against the international trend, which is towards agency consolidation”.

“That said, we recognise that these are issues for government to consider,” Mr Sims said.