Sydney International Airport [2000] ACompT 1

EXPLANATORY SUMMARY The Tribunal has prepared a brief summary to accompany the reasons for its decision. It must of course be emphasised that the only authoritative pronouncement of the Tribunal's reasons is that contained in the published reasons for decision. This summary is intended to assist in understanding the principal conclusions reached by the Tribunal, but it is necessarily incomplete. The matter before the Tribunal was a review of the decision of the Treasurer of the Commonwealth of Australia on 30 June 1997 whereby, pursuant to s 44H of the Trade Practices Act 1974 (Cth), he declared: "(1) … the service provided through the use of the freight aprons and hard stands to load and unload international aircraft at Sydney International Airport; (2) … the service provided by the use of an area at Sydney International Airport to: store equipment used to load/unload international aircraft; and to transfer freight from the loading/unloading equipment to/from trucks at the airport;" That decision was re‑considered by the Tribunal. The Tribunal has concluded that those services should be declared and has determined that the declaration be effective for five years from today's date. Before the Tribunal can make the declaration it must be satisfied of the matters set out in s 44H(4) of the Trade Practices Act. The Tribunal is satisfied that: (a) increased access to the services would promote competition in at least one market, other than the market for the services, namely the market for ramp handling services at Sydney International Airport; (b) that it would be uneconomical for anyone to develop another facility, namely an international airport, to provide the services; (c) the facility, namely Sydney International Airport, is of national significance having regard to the size of the facility and the importance of the facility to constitutional trade and commerce and the national economy; (d) access to the services can be provided without undue risk to human health or safety; (e) access to the services is not already the subject of an effective access regime; (f) increased access to the services would not be contrary to the public interest. The full text of the Tribunal's reasons for decision, delivered on 1 March 2000 is available at http://www.austlii.edu.au/au/cases/cth/AcompT/