The Trade Practices Act that the Whitlam government passed in 1974 was one of Gough Whitlam's outstanding achievements, former competition czars said on Tuesday.
The Trade Practices Act was "far reaching and has stood the test of time," former Australian Competition and Consumer Commission chairman Professor Allan Fels said, adding: "It is one of the great pieces of legislation by the Whitlam government."
The competition law "has had a powerful beneficial impact on business behaviour," said Fels, who led the ACCC and its predecessor, the Trade Practices Commission, between 1991 and 2003.
"The structure of the then-legislation remains fully intact. It is a very well formulated piece of legislation which adopts a middle road between The United States and European approaches, and suits the smaller Australian economy well."
Bob Baxt, who chaired the ACCC's predecessor, the Trade Practices Commission, between 1988 and 1991, said the Trade Practices Act and its 2010 successor, the Competition and Consumer Act, were still "the most important and significant commercial legislation we have in this country - they have changed the way business is done".
Graeme Samuel, who led the ACCC between 2003 and 2011, said the Trade Practices Act introduced by Whitlam's Attorney General, Lionel Murphy, "was probably the most important economic reform undertaken by an Australian government in the 1970s.
"It paved the way for business and the community to understand and accept the fundamental benefits of a competitive, open market economy."
Bank of America Merrill Lynch economist Saul Eslake said the Australian economy struggled during Whitlam's term as Prime Minister, "but so did almost every other 'advanced' economy at the time, reflecting a myriad of global economic shocks, including the trebling of oil prices in 1973-74, the ensuing global recession, and the breakdown of the post-war system of fixed exchange rates.
"Some of the seeds of Australia's poor economic performance under the Whitlam Government were sown by the Gorton and McMahon Governments – especially their refusal to sanction a revaluation of the Australian dollar during a period when commodity prices were rising rapidly and Australia was running a current account surplus.
"Many of the Whitlam Government's decisions made a bad situation worse – especially its wages policies and (until 1975) its fiscal policies.
" There were however a few very inspired economic policy decisions – in particular the revaluations of the Australian dollar soon after coming to office, the 25 per cent tariff cut, and the creation of the Industries Assistance Commission."
