Reddit reviews Allan Fels: A Portrait of Power

i seem to have recollections of the ACCC being way more badass in the past and for some reason have memories (accurate or not) of them being largely neutered under John Howard. And now maybe they are flexing their power again?

My recollections may be entirely wrong tho, it's just the vibe of my feelings towards the ACCC...?

Edit:

This sort of thing seems to be what was niggling at my memory:

http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2002/05/10/1021002392371.html
There seemed to be a pretty big campaign by a lot of business folks to try and bring down Allan Fels (Head of the ACCC at the time)
http://nla.gov.au/nla.obj-157271942/view

Edit 2:
http://www.abc.net.au/austory/transcripts/s659714.htm
This transcript of an Australian Story gives a bit of an overview of Allan Fels and his time at the ACCC.
Basically under Fels the ACCC had a much bigger profile and there was a lot of pressure from business lobbies and sometimes also from the Govt at the time upon the ACCC.
After Fels left it seemed to become a lot more low profile and, seemingly, a lot less aggressive/vocal...

Also this book blurb on Fels sums up a fair bit of the "vibe" around Fels and the ACCC at the time:

> There's one certainty about Allan Fels-- People either love him or loathe him. For much of big business, he was an ogre who made their lives a misery. For consumers, however, he was a modern-day Robin Hood, fighting their battles with business and politicians. As Chairman of the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission, Fels should have spent a quiet career behind a desk in Canberra. But, armed with his regulatory powers and a canny exploitation of the media, Allan Fels made an indelible mark on Australia. The Australian Financial Review voted him the third most powerful person in Australia, behind Prime Minister, John Howard, and Treasurer, Peter Costello. Yet behind the headline-hunting Fels lies a story of power in contemporary Australia: how the nation developed a competitive culture: how big business lobbied to corral him: and how politicians became envious of his media prowess. While Allan Fels projected an image of part tough regulator, part a somewhat eccentric academic, in reality he is quietly religious with a self-deprecating sense of humour. Leading journalist Fred Brenchley deftly weaves the compelling inside story of the forces that cut short Allan Fels' career as Australia's competition czar.
https://www.amazon.es/Allan-Fels-inside-Story-Business/dp/1740310705

Hence why I felt perhaps, with hazy recollection, that the ACCC had been 'neutered' under Howard, but wasn't really neutered per se, just the guy who made it what it was at the time was no longer at the helm. You certainly wouldn't refer to any ACCC head since as the "third most powerful person in Australia".