Bruce Bilson was endlessly optimistic. If he found himself on the top deck of the Titanic, Mr Bilson would have been grateful for the great view of the iceberg. So, what happened to the (former) Small Business Minister?

Suddenly, against all expectations, there was no room in Malcolm Turnbull’s ministry for the man whose glass was always more than half-full. It seems that a lot of the blame is the failure of Bilson, despite his endlessly sunny disposition, to get Cabinet acceptance of more than one of the recommendations stemming from the Harper Review – a ‘roots-and-all’ analysis of Australia’s existing competition law.

 

Image: Alex Ellinghausen/Fairfax

The Harper Review of Australia’s competition policies was highly ambitious. Alexandra Merritt, Senior Fellow at Melbourne University described it as having higher aims than Paul Keating’s Hilmer Inquiry over 20 years ago.

You can read the findings and recommendations here.

It was all looking good. However despite getting the review done in under 12 months, the reform process stagnated -  and only one of the 56 recommendations was accepted. With the Abbott Government terrified of any type of reform, it’s easy to assume that the blockages could not have been overcome. It’s not a great outcome for a process that was supposed to redefine the way business was conducted in modern Australia.

Clearly fellow Cabinet Minister (and now PM) Malcolm Turnbull saw a problem with the way Bilson argued his corner, because in yesterdays shuffle, Bilson has been sent packing to the backbench.

 

 

His placed is filled by the impressive Kelly O’Dwyer, who has been parachuted into the Cabinet through a dream portfolio of Small Business Minister while keeping her previous role as Assistant Treasurer. O’Dwyer has performed extremely well under Hockey, and we can see her and newly-annointed Treasurer, Scott Morrison having the potential to hit the reset button on the Australian economy in a big way.

The main opportunity for the Small Business Minister will be to get the new cabinet across the Harper Review’s recommendations, and to act quickly on the reforms it promotes. There’s really no time for another review – especially with an election only 12 months away,