By Shane Crocker

The Australian Competition Policy Review (also known as the Harper Review) was released on 31 March 2015.

The “Review of Competition Policy” was announced by Prime Minister Tony Abbott and the Minister for Small Business Bruce Billson on 4 December 2013.

The review was produced by a hand-picked panel of four conservative/ pro-business members headed by Professor Ian Harper. The basic aim of the Harper Review is to liberalise the Australian economy and workplace along laissez faire lines. Amongst its recommendations are:

• Scrapping overtime/ weekend/ public holiday penalty rates.
• Scrapping all public holidays except three days, Christmas Day, Good Friday, and Easter Sunday. (Anzac Day can still be observed but the day will be just a normal working day).
• Reintroduction of individual work contracts.
• Deregulating the sale of alcohol. Alcohol to be sold openly by anyone, without need of a liquor licence.
• Deregulating the sale of pharmaceuticals. No requirement for a trained and accredited pharmacist to dispense medicine.
• Deregulation of shipping and transport.
• Introduction of school vouchers.
• Raising the GST to 15%.
• Encouragement of “Disruptive technologies, especially digital technologies”.
• And many other fancies of the Right-wing /big business wish list.

On the day he assumed office as Australian Prime Minister on September 15 2015, Malcolm Turnbull said “Disruption is our friend” and urged Australians to “embrace disruption”.

Among these disruptive technologies Mr Turnbull praised Uber: “Australia’s retail trading hours could be radically overhauled, and ride-share services such as Uber more readily welcomed into the country, after the Turnbull government said it will launch an “enthusiastic response” to the Harper review of Australia’s competition laws”.

From December 2014 through to June 2015 the Queensland Transport had devoted 6000 hours on “enforcement activities” targeting Uber drivers with $1.7 million in fines all paid by Uber. Queensland Transport has not enforced the law regarding illegal taxi services or issued any new fines since June 2015. There now appears to be a “see no evil, hear no evil” policy in place with regards to illegal ride sharing in Queensland.

This year saw the world launch of a new app based service: “Ohlala, An Uber For Escorts, Launches In Berlin, Plans Global Rollout” (techcrunch.com Aug 10, 2015). Unlike Tinder and Grindr, which are dating apps, Ohlala is a “paid dating app”. In other words Ohlala could be an app for prostitution.

Despite their plans for “Global Rollout”, Ohlala would be in breach of the Queensland Prostitution Act 1999, which states:

There are two forms of legal sex work in Queensland:
Private work (sole operators) – where a single sex worker works alone – is legal in Queensland, but it is an offence to publicly solicit for the purposes of prostitution.
Sex work conducted in a licensed brothel is legal in Queensland.
Any other form of sex work is illegal in Queensland. This includes unlicensed brothels or parlours, street workers, two sex workers sharing one premises (even if the workers both work alone in split shifts), and out-calls provided by a licensed brothel.
A licensed brothel is a brothel that is licenced and regulated by The Queensland Prostitution Licensing Authority.

The Prostitution Act 1999 and the Prostitution Licensing Authority were a result of recommendations of the Fitzgerald Inquiry into police corruption in Queensland.
Prostitution is regulated in Queensland to prevent corruption and pimping. It is a criminal offense in Queensland (and every other Australian state and territory) to run a pimping operation. Pimping is an arrangement where a third party (i.e. a pimp) arranges and provides introductions for prostitutes and the proceeds are split between the prostitute and the pimp at an agreed rate.

By this definition Ohlala could be seen by many as a pimping operation.

It would be legally impossible for Ohlala to operate in Queensland without a significant roll-back of some of Fitzgerald’s key reforms, something that neither major political party in Queensland is likely to allow. However, these so-called “disruptive technologies” that the federal government is encouraging and state governments are turning a blind eye to are being emboldened to set up their business here with impunity. While Uber feel they can get away with what they are doing, Ohlala will also, and it won’t be long before Ohlala is also operating in every Australian capital city.

Implementing all the recommendations of the Harper Review to establish the laissez faire dream in Australia would require a revolution in all of Australia’s federal, state and territory laws on everything from taxis, transport, liquor licensing, real estate, and shipping to prostitution.

What I predict will actually happen is that federal and state governments will cherry pick what they like out of the Harper Review and quietly disregard what they think is politically unpalatable. In the mean time we will see more horror stories about houses being wrecked with Airbnb, whole local industries destroyed, passengers being assaulted with Uber and sex workers put at extreme risk with pimping apps like Ohlala, while governments at every level pander to the multinational corporations that run these apps, and justify it all to the public with exciting, glossy language such as “Disruptive technologies”.