Competitive neutrality is the principle that a public sector business or agency should not have a competitive advantage (or disadvantage) over the private sector solely due to their government ownership. Public sector businesses should compete with private sector businesses on an equal (competitively neutral) basis.
Public sector businesses may have competitive advantages over private sector businesses. For example, some public sector businesses may:
- be exempt from taxes and charges
- have access to less expensive funds because of direct or indirect government guarantees
- be exempt from complying with certain regulations and procedures.
In Queensland, the principle of competitive neutrality is applied to relevant state and local government businesses (see ‘State and local government businesses’ below). There are some differences in the way in which the principle is applied for state and local government entities respectively.
We advise government agencies about complying with the principle of competitive neutrality. We also receive, investigate and report on complaints about the alleged failures of government agencies to comply with the principle of competitive neutrality.
If you have a complaint about competitive neutrality, we encourage you to review the material below and to contact us to discuss your concerns.
State government businesses
Under Part 4 of the Queensland Competition Authority Act 1997 (Qld) (QCA Act), the principle of competitive neutrality applies to significant business activities carried out by Queensland government agencies.
A significant business activity is a business activity that:
- the Minister decides is a significant business activity (in accordance with Part 4 of the QCA Act) — a list of all businesses that have been declared by the Treasurer as significant business activities is available
- is carried out by a government-owned corporation (GOC) — a list of GOCs can be found on the Queensland Treasury website.
We can only investigate competitive neutrality complaints that are made against state government businesses that are on the list of significant business activities.
Local government businesses
Under the Local Government Act 2009 (Qld) and Local Government Regulation 2012 (Qld), the competitive neutrality complaints process applies to a business activity, carried out by a business entity, to which the competitive neutrality principle applies — that is, a business activity of a local government carried out in competition with the private sector.
For complaints concerning the Brisbane City Council, the equivalent applicable legislation, however, is the City of Brisbane Act 2010 (Qld) and the City of Brisbane Regulation 2012 (Qld).
If you have a complaint against a local government business, we encourage you to first contact the relevant local government to discuss your concerns. All local governments in Queensland are required to have a process in place for resolving competitive neutrality complaints, including a process for resolving and clarifying a matter before a formal complaint is made.
We also encourage to you to contact us to discuss your concerns before lodging a formal complaint.
The Minister has approved a guideline that sets out the process for dealing with competitive neutrality complaints relating to state government agencies. This is the guideline published under sections 43 and 258 of the QCA Act.
Guideline – Competitive Neutrality and Queensland Government Business Activities
The legislation and government policies regarding competitive neutrality that currently apply are:
- Queensland Competitive Authority Act 1997 (Qld) — see Part 4
- Local Government Act 2009 (Qld) — see Chapter 3, Part 2, Division 2
- Local Government Regulation 2012 (Qld) — see Chapter 3, Part 2
- City of Brisbane Act 2010 (Qld) — see Chapter 3, Part 3, Division 2
- City of Brisbane Regulation 2012 (Qld) — see Chapter 3, Part 2
- National Competition Policy and Queensland Local Government – A Queensland Government Policy Statement
The principle of competitive neutrality applies to significant business activities carried out by state government agencies, being businesses declared by the Minister to be significant business activities or GOCs.
A list of all business that have been declared by the Treasurer as significant business activities is below.
A list of Queensland GOCs is available on the Queensland Treasury website.
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Title | Document | |
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| 17 September 2024 | Significant business activities declared under the QCA Act | pdf, 193.60 Kb |