The ACCC announced Thursday that it proposes to authorise VANA to negotiate with Tatts and Intralot on behalf of its members.
The proposed ten year authorisation covers collective negotiations with Tattersall’s Sweeps Pty Ltd (Tatts), Intralot Australia Pty Ltd (Intralot) and any other public lottery provider who may become licensed to operate a public lottery in Victoria in the future.
VANA represents around 460 newsagents in Victoria, many of which are lottery agents selling Tatts and Intralot products. At present, Tatts and Intralot are the only licenced lottery providers in Victoria. Both have exclusive licences to operate until 2016.
“Collective negotiation can allow members of a collective bargaining group to have more effective input into contracts and deliver agreements that are better tailored to their needs,” ACCC Commissioner Jill Walker said.
The ACCC has previously authorised the Lottery Agents Association of Victoria to collectively bargain with Tatts and Intralot on behalf of its members, as well as similar collective bargaining arrangements in New South Wales, the Australian Capital Territory, Queensland and Tasmania.
As with these previous authorisations, the ACCC is not proposing to authorise VANA to collective negotiate on issues relating to the impact on existing lottery agents when new lottery agents are proposed, due to concerns that this may raise barriers to entry for new lottery agents.
I thought all lotteries agents (in VIC) are members of the LAAV (regardless of their specific industry) and isn’t it the LAAV who is the one negotiating on our behalf as lotteries agents as they have the numbers. VANA getting involved to me is a red herring (and a dangerous one at that) not all Newsagents are in VANA and certainly no where near all lotteries agents are members of VANA nor could they be. With respect to what I think VANA is trying to do I believe they should stick to their area of expertise and negotiate on our behalf with Newsagency business (publishers and magazine distributors for example) seems to be enough there to keep them busy. My big fear is that with another group now negotiating with Tatts and Intralot this will simply muddy the waters and give them another excuse not to act fairly in addressing our concerns. I am afraid I can not see this as a positive move for us.
Michelle I agree, I don’t understand why VANA is competitive. I’ve not seen a statement explaining.
Are the afore mentioned 460 newsagencies all VANA members, or is this the total number of authorised newsagencies in Victoria ?
Michelle, they did the same thing up here in Qld. Applied to the ACCC to negotiate on our behalf, was accepted, then took 12 to 18 months for Qld newsagents to get the same commission as NSW VIC agents. It’s a backward step in my opinion. They need to concentrate on their original mandate (mags & news) before they expand into lotto. They are doing this out of survival to keep themselves relevant.
KMc it’s the number in the ACCC press release. I suspect that VANA had to claim this number to them. I think it represent member numbers.
There are no authorised newsagencies in Victoria.