The Australian Conversion: How the Case for Cartel Criminalisation Was Made

Abstract

The phenomenon of cartel criminalisation provides a window on dynamics in society at large. In particular, it exemplifies the political risk that governments face in wrestling with conflicting economic and social imperatives. This article uses the experience in Australia to demonstrate how the political risk inherent in cartel criminalisation may be overcome. Alive to public ambivalence over neoliberal market-based reforms, the Australian competition authority and government downplayed the economic rationale for cartel criminalisation and capitalised instead on the public's need for certainty and security in the social order. This was done by playing up the role of the government as protecto..