There I was, minding my own business, quietly reading the AFR at lunch when I came across a column by Chris Bowen that I agreed with. And not just a little, and not just a lot, but 100%. I cannot even believe this long-dead idea has been resurrected and brought to life by the Harper Review. My advice is to bring out the garlic, the silver bullet or whatever else it takes, and despatch this back into the nether worlds from whence it came.

This is the post but it is locked away inside the AFR, but the title tells you all you need to know: Government must steer clear of effects test recommendation. How it got through the Harper process you will have to ask them. One quote from the story:

Former ACCC chairman Graeme Samuel described the directions recommended as ‘bewildering’. Expensive and extended processes will no doubt ensue if the effects test is introduced.

An effects test is always sold as a friend to small business. It isn’t. But what it does do is make the economy run far less efficiently with no benefit to anyone at all. Why throw sand into the crankcase? This is stupid policy which no one should go anywhere near.