The federal government is unveiling a major overhaul of merger laws today ... with the aim of speeding up and streamlining the process for low-risk corporate takeovers to boost competition and protect consumers.

But Treasurer Jim Chalmers wants more transparency in the process and plans to supercharge the power of the competition watchdog to ensure big takeovers don't result in monopolies where big companies swallow up smaller businesses .. where competition is stymied and consumers lose out.