Mr. Vincent Jennings:

The CSNA has 27 different deals. While some of these are for products, more are for services such as insurance, rateable valuations and other services for which one can organise collectively.

I am pleased the Chairman teed me up on one of the issues in the report. This association and other associations should be allowed to negotiate with suppliers. Competition law currently prevents us from doing so. I am not knocking trade unions but they have negotiating rights which we do not have. Our members are continually dealing with ever larger companies which tell them what terms and conditions will apply if they want to sell newspapers or another product. We must do what these companies say and pay for goods in the way they say. They crack the whip and will cut off a retailer or refuse to provide a product if the retailer does not act in the manner prescribed. If, as is the case in Australia, the associations were allowed to secure negotiating licences, we would be able to represent our members, although I accept we should not be allowed to organise boycotts and so on.

Senator Reilly will be aware of the difficulties that ensued in terms of Chinese walls and so on when the medical profession tried to organise collectively. It is a significant problem that the small guy cannot be represented and must deal with a monolith. It may not be the State but it will be large supplier. Some kind of level playing pitch is needed because the small guy is always crushed.