An increase in new operators has encouraged the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) to relax regulation of east coast and southern port grain terminals. In a succession of announcements, the ACCC released draft determinations to exempt Queensland Bulk Terminals and GrainCorp in Brisbane, Newcastle Agri Terminal and Qube in Newcastle, GrainCorp and Quattro (Qube/Noble) in Port Kem-bla, Emerald's Melbourne Port Terminal and GrainCorp in Geelong, from several sec- tions of the Wheat Code. The code came into effect on 30 September 2014 under ACCC administration and regulates bulk wheat port terminal service providers, to ensure that exporters have fair and transparent access to terminals. In each of the above cases, the ACCC said there was sufficient intra-port and/ or inter-port competition, as well as spare capacity, to justify freeing the operators from code obligations to provide non-discriminatory access, resolve access disputes through prescribed processes, get ACCC approval for capacity allocation systems and publish certain information.
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