Hello there. It's great to see you again. This is Mlex's podcast, albeit a special edition to mark the publication of our latest special report. I'm James Panicki, Emlex's Asia Pacific Senior Editor,

and this week it's off to Australia,

where our Sydney-based senior reporter, Laurel Henning,

has spent time with the chair of the Australian Competition

and Consumer Commission, Gina Kaskotleap.

The top competition official has been in the role since March 2022, after a long career as

an antitrust lawyer. And it has been an action-packed first year for Cascotlib as the

competition regulator continues its review of digital platforms and juggles several highly

contentious lawsuits. There's also the ACC's criminal cartel enforcement campaign,

although things on that front now appear to be back on track after a shaky start.

And to discuss the special report, I'm joined now by Laurel Henning.

Laurel, let's maybe start with a personal and then move on to the technical.

Firstly, what kind of person is the relatively new chair of the A-Triple-C? How do others describe

Gina Cascot-Lebe? And what was your interview like? Thanks, James. Well, when Gina

Cascott-Lebe was appointed as the head of the A-T-C last year when she was taking

on that role, I did speak with a few of her peers at that time, and there was definitely

a common theme among the comments that came back to me. The words were calm, meticulous,

and that is definitely the atmosphere in the room when we were having our conversation recently.

Cascott Lieber is a very calm person. She's very measured, very considered.

And I think that's really an approach that she brings to her role at the head of the ACCC.

We discussed her family background, the fact that no other family member before her had studied law, that she,

you know, her father was a doctor, her uncle, a well-known politician in the Goff Whitlam government,

...