In very positive news, the ACCC has released a draft determination proposing not to grant authorisation to CoMSEQ, on behalf of itself and its eleven member councils to establish a Special Purpose Vehicle to aggregate and acquire the councils’ residual waste, enter into waste supply agreements and procure the development of up to three regional waste facilities within SEQ.
The ACCC has not been able to be satisfied in relation to the claimed public benefits, and considers the magnitude of these benefits is uncertain, particularly because it is not satisfied that environmental benefits are likely to be material once transport emissions and other potential negative environmental impacts are taken into account.
The Applicants have also not established the likelihood and magnitude of the claimed greener energy or energy security benefits.
The ACCC also considers the proposal is likely to result in public detriment by materially reducing the contestability of a substantial volume of Residual Waste in SEQ for a long period, leading to increasing barriers to entry and reducing future competitive options.
On balance, the ACCC is not satisfied that the proposed conduct is likely to result in a public benefit that would outweigh the likely detriment, and therefore proposes not to grant authorisation.
The ACCC invites submissions in relation to this draft determination, by 4 September 2026, before making its final decision.
Please send your submission asap using the ACCC submissions webform.
We have prepared sample responses to this welcome draft determination, and the ACCC needs to hear from you in support.
For short submissions, you can provide a free text submission of up to 2,000 characters (a few paragraphs) for publication on the public register, or for longer submissions, please upload your submission in a document.
We have prepared sample responses to this welcome draft determination, and the ACCC needs to hear from you in support.
For short submissions, you can provide a free text submission of up to 2,000 characters (a few paragraphs) for publication on the public register, or for longer submissions, please upload your submission in a document.
These will open as google docs, which you can either download or copy and paste the content where you need it.
Short form sample submission (free text submission)
Long form sample submission (to be sent as an attachment)
If you can reword your submissions based on these samples to enable them to be counted as different individual responses, that would be great. Otherwise send as is.
It will only take about five or ten minutes. Your name will appear on the public register, your email and phone won't.
If you wish to delve deeper, and see what our Scenic Rim Regional Council have submitted in support of the application, and what other councils, industry, community and environmental groups submitted to influence the ACCC decision you can read the entire application history on the ACCC website here.
It will only take about five or ten minutes. Your name will appear on the public register, your email and phone won't.
If you wish to delve deeper, and see what our Scenic Rim Regional Council have submitted in support of the application, and what other councils, industry, community and environmental groups submitted to influence the ACCC decision you can read the entire application history on the ACCC website here.
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