There have been State-based NCP inquiries in the barley industry. There were different outcomes in other States. Recent developments suggest that there is a chance of backsliding on plans for the deregulation of the barley industry in Victoria and South Australia. This is more than a little ironic because the NCC has just published a glossy extolling its contribution to improved marketing performance and greater choice from competition in the barley industry. The NCP is the latest fashion in the constant evolution of arrangements for economic policy formation.
Institutions come and go according to their performance, economic circumstances and whim.
The political impact of changes to the ownership and operation of infrastructure was certainly underestimated. In the event, the initial application of the NCP coincided with depressed economic conditions, particularly in the agricultural sector. The NCP was influential in changes to the dairy industry because it put pressure on individual States to think of their own interests rather than be locked into marketing arrangements that had outlived their usefulness. Reversing the burden of proof is potentially the major influence of NCP on agricultural marketing. However, experience in the dairy industry and the grains industries demonstrate that NCP has not reduced the intrusion of politics into marketing decision-making.