Andrew Leigh

Trevor Smith, 1931-2026
Condolence Speech

House of Representatives,
Parliament House

Wednesday, 16 September 2026

I rise to pay tribute to Trevor William Edward Smith, who died peacefully at home on 21 August, aged 94, just a few weeks short of his 95th birthday. Trevor was born in London in 1931 and grew up in central London during the Blitz. As a boy, he would report back to air raid wardens on which houses had been damaged. He later served in the air force in Britain and married his beloved Dorothy when he was just 20.

When the family decided to emigrate, they considered Canada but chose Australia partly because the boat schedules worked better. They were among the many 10-pound Poms who made this country home. Trevor worked in communications at Woomera then moved to Canberra in the early 1960s, in time to watch the lake fill. He and Dorothy became Australian citizens here. His career later included a secondment to the US navy, working in Maine and California.

On returning to Canberra, he helped install the sound and vision systems in this building.

As a retiree, Trevor was active in COTA, SCOA and Probus. He made handmade cards, painted garden gnomes, practised photography in his own darkroom and took his children to Canberra Airport simply to watch the planes. Trevor played tennis, racquetball, table tennis and, above all, squash. A left-hander, he was a regular on the ACT masters team and quite possibly the oldest player at the Dickson courts. His daughter Janice joked that by the end he was not terribly mobile around the court, but he still had a wicked drop shot. Remarkably, Trevor was still playing squash until a fortnight before his death.

The Hon Andrew Leigh MP
Assistant Minister for Productivity, Competition, Charities and Treasury
Member for Fenner

The Hon Justice Mary Genevieve Gaudron KC
Condolence Speech

House of Representatives,
Parliament House

Tuesday, 15 September 2026

It is a pleasure to follow my friend and colleague the member for Berowra in rising to pay tribute to the Hon. Justice Mary Genevieve Gaudron KC, former Justice of the High Court of Australia. I came to know Justice Gaudron when I worked as associate to Justice Michael Kirby from 1997 to 1998. She was generous, confident, warm and funny. She took an interest in the associates and treated us with kindness.

Justice Gaudron was born in Moree in 1943. She won a scholarship to the University of Sydney and graduated with the University Medal. She was the first female part-time student to receive the medal. She was admitted to the New South Wales bar in 1968. In 1972, she became the first woman appointed to the New South Wales Bar Council. She appeared for the Commonwealth before the arbitration commission in the equal pay case. In 1974, aged 31, she became a deputy president of the commission. She later regarded the equal pay case and the maternity leave case as among the highlights of her career. The latter helped establish a general federal award standard of up to 52 weeks' unpaid maternity leave. Her concern with equality was constant throughout her professional life.

In 1981, Justice Gaudron became Solicitor-General for New South Wales. She was the first woman to hold that office in any Australian state. Soon afterwards, she became the first woman in New South Wales to be appointed Queen's Counsel. As Solicitor-General, she appeared frequently before the High Court, including in the Tasmanian dam case. The Australian Law Journal described her advocacy as 'outstanding and ingenious'.

In 1987, at the age of 44, Justice Gaudron was appointed to the High Court of Australia. She was the first woman to serve on the court and the only woman to serve on the court during its first century. Naomi Sharp SC, one of Justice Gaudron's former associates, remembers her ‘truly incredible intellect’, her ‘elegant, persuasive and relentlessly logical’ reasoning and her leading role in the court's Chapter III jurisprudence. She also recalls Justice Gaudron's ‘strength of character’, her steadfast integrity and her belief that ‘we are always diminished’ by the absence of equality.

The Hon Andrew Leigh MP 
Assistant Minister for Productivity, Competition, Charities and Treasury 

The little rules that keep Australians stuck

Published in The New Daily

14 September 2026

Picture a young worker in her twenties. She works in childcare, hairdressing, disability support or aged care. She likes her job, but the pay is modest and her costs keep rising.

Then a better job comes up. More money. A shorter commute. Maybe a roster that means she actually gets to see her family.

There’s just one catch.

Buried in the employment contract she signed on day one is a non-compete clause. It says she cannot work for a rival for a period after leaving.

Would it stand up in court? She has no idea. Would her employer really sue? Probably not. But a letter from a lawyer is enough to make most people nervous.

So she stays put.

This is how small rules can have big consequences.

The Hon Jim Chalmers MP
Treasurer

The Hon Daniel Mulino MP
Assistant Treasurer and Minister for Financial Services

The Hon Andrew Leigh MP
Assistant Minister for Productivity, Competition, Charities and Treasury

Legislation to strengthen the tax system passes the Parliament

Thursday, 10 September 2026

The Albanese Labor Government’s legislation to protect taxpayers and ensure foreign residents pay a fair share of tax has passed the Parliament.

This will bring the Capital Gains Tax (CGT) treatment of foreign residents more into line with the treatment of Australians and ensure they pay tax on Australian real property.

The legislation also strengthens the tax system by putting in place stronger penalties for misconduct, providing certainty and clarity for investors as well as support for renewable energy, improving the new merger system, and supporting charitable giving by expanding deductible gift recipient status and reforming giving funds.

The Treasury Laws Amendment (Strengthening Accountability for Tax Adviser Misconduct and other Measures) Bill 2026 addresses issues raised by the PwC tax leaks scandal, and recommendations from an earlier review of the Tax Practitioners Board (TPB), through amendments to the Tax Agent Services Act.

The Hon Andrew Leigh MP
Assistant Minister for Productivity, Competition, Charities and Treasury
Member for Fenner

Bridie Lee and Ryan Riethmuller

House of Representatives, 
Parliament House 

Thursday, 10 September 2026

On the morning of 27 August, five members of the Canberra Bilbys Triathlon Club were riding on Gungahlin Drive when a car struck the group. Bridie Lee, 32, died at the scene. Ryan Riethmuller, 39, was critically injured and died in hospital seven days later. I thank the first responders, including parliamentary security guard Ralph Whitten.

Bridie had come to Canberra from Western Australia in 2022 to join the Australian Bureau of Statistics. She leaves her parents, John and Carolyn, her brother David and her sister Amy. At the ABS, Bridie worked on health statistics. Bindi Kindermann said, Bridie brought ‘warmth, kindness and genuine care to every interaction.' Her ABS colleagues called her 'a ray of sunshine, incredibly intelligent, adaptable and positive'. She volunteered across the graduate program, mentored new graduates and threw herself into social events. Bindi remembers mornings chatting with Bridie in the kitchen as she made her 'big cup of tea'.

That same character was evident at the Bilbys. Glen Sturesteps said Bridie ‘made the Bilbys a warmer, more welcoming place', adding simply, 'Bridie cared.' The night before Bridie died, Glen spoke to her about her work. She talked passionately about health, statistics and nutrition because, he said: 'She believed the work mattered. She believed it could improve people's lives.'

The Hon Andrew Leigh MP
Assistant Minister for Productivity, Competition, Charities and Treasury

E&OE TRANSCRIPT
RADIO INTERVIEW
ABC RADIO CANBERRA, BREAKFAST WITH ROSS SOLLY
WEDNESDAY, 9 SEPTEMBER 2026

SUBJECTS: 2025 PISA results; Middle East conflict; Social media algorithms; Digital Duty of Care; Delivery of election commitments

ROSS SOLLY: Andrew Leigh is not only a lexiophile, but he's also a prolific author. He's managed to somehow churn out several books while also acting as the Member for Fenner and Assistant Minister, etc. Andrew Leigh, good morning to you.

ANDREW LEIGH: Good morning Ross, great to be with you.

ROSS SOLLY: Good to have you as well. Do you have any thoughts on why – this national report which came out overnight, which has shown that here in Australia, Andrew Leigh, unfortunately we're not making any progress. In fact, we might be going backwards when it comes to our kids' reading and learning maths, etc. The OECD is saying there's too many distractions and that's the number one problem, and AI-generated chatbots and stuff like this is just making it too hard for kids to do the stuff that we might have done in our time?

ANDREW LEIGH: This decline is long-standing. Chris Ryan and I documented a drop from the 1960s through the 1990s, and then that's been picked up in the PISA drop now, which sees students one to two years behind where their counterparts were in the start of the millennium. Part of it is attracting and retaining great teachers. We need to do a better job of ensuring that teaching is an occupation that is attracting top-flight teachers. I think Teach for Australia does this brilliantly and I know the Education Minister has been really focused on trying to ensure that teaching has the standing it needs in the community.

ROSS SOLLY: Yeah. One of the things apparently Jason Clare is looking at, and maybe he's close to making an announcement, is to once again turn the whole thing on its head, and he says Australia should follow the UK's lead in mandating old school explicit instruction teaching methods, Andrew Leigh, and phonics-based reading to turn around Australia. I mean, for some reason we walked away from that. Is it time to revisit it?

ANDREW LEIGH: Yes, I think it is. And Jason Clare has been very clear that England mandated phonics in schools in 2006. They instituted a mandatory year one phonics check in 2012 and they're now seeing the gains from that. We're doing the same thing, but we're starting behind. The reading wars have had an impact on reading scores. We've also been working in the area of maths to implement some of the similar changes that the UK put in place when they changed their curriculum in 2014 - so, we've got a maths curriculum that is grounded in evidence.

The Hon Andrew Leigh MP
Assistant Minister for Productivity, Competition, Charities and Treasury

The Himalayan Floods
House of Representatives, Parliament House

8 September 2026

The Hon Andrew Leigh MP
Assistant Minister for Productivity, Competition, Charities and Treasury

E&OE TRANSCRIPT
RADIO INTERVIEW
2CC RADIO CANBERRA, BREAKFAST WITH STEPHEN CENATIEMPO
TUESDAY, 8 SEPTEMBER 2026

SUBJECTS: Albanese Government banning unfair non-compete clauses, wage-fixing cartels and no-poach clauses

STEPHEN CENATIEMPO: Time to talk federal politics with the Assistant Minister for Productivity, Competition, Charities and Treasury and Member for Fenner, Andrew Leigh. Andrew, good morning.

ANDREW LEIGH: Good morning Stephen, great to be with you.

STEPHEN CENATIEMPO: Sometimes governments make the right decisions, they just take a long way around to getting it. But you’ve still got to celebrate the right decision, don't you?

ANDREW LEIGH: I think that's absolutely important. I think your editorial is a good reminder that all of us in politics need to be recognising when the other side does it right.

STEPHEN CENATIEMPO: Now, something you've been talking about for quite some time is banning unfair non-competes. Now, this is something that you and I have kind of clashed on to a certain extent and at the lower end of the market, for lack of a better way of putting it, I think you're on the right money here. I mean, if somebody, you know, is preventing a hairdresser from going and working in another salon then that's fair enough. But in an industry like mine, for instance, where there's intellectual property involved, there's a fine line. How do you get this right?

The Hon Andrew Leigh MP
Assistant Minister for Productivity, Competition, Charities and Treasury

E&OE TRANSCRIPT
TV INTERVIEW
ABC AFTERNOON BRIEFING, WITH PATRICIA KARVELAS
MONDAY, 7 SEPTEMBER 2026

SUBJECTS: Housing; Bathla Group; Superannuation; Social media algorithms; Digital Duty of Care; Tobacco excise

PATRICIA KARVELAS: I want to bring in Assistant Minister for Competition, Charities and Productivity, Andrew Leigh. Welcome. 

ANDREW LEIGH: Thanks Patricia, great to be with you. 

PATRICIA KARVELAS: Just on the collapse there and obviously, this is a really disturbing story. The NSW Premier, Chris Minns, says the federal government's changes to tax treatments on housing have played a role in blighting the construction sector. I mean, he's a Labor Premier saying this. What's your response? 

ANDREW LEIGH: Well, when we look at what's happened with the Bathla Group, my heart goes out to those who are waiting for their homes to be finished and to the workers who've been stood down. We do know that this is a group that's made extensive use of private credit, and in its statement to a Parliamentary Committee last Friday, ASIC made clear that it was looking quite carefully at private credit markets. There's over $3 billion outstanding since it's gone into liquidation. And so, this is an issue that's clearly been one of the major factors at play. 

PATRICIA KARVELAS: Okay. So there's lots of reasons, but do you think the role of the government's tax changes is part of the reason? 

ANDREW LEIGH: Well, what we've done is sought to create more opportunities for young Australians to get a home of their own. We've got house building continuing apace across the country, directly funded by us through the Housing Australia Future Fund but also turbocharged through the investments we're making into enabling infrastructure with states and territories that allows them to unlock more private sector development. My concerns clearly are with the people involved in this collapse, but I don't think you want to draw broader lessons from that. 

The Hon Andrew Leigh MP
Assistant Minister for Productivity, Competition, Charities and Treasury

E&OE TRANSCRIPT
RADIO INTERVIEW
ABC RADIO CANBERRA, DRIVE WITH GEORGIA STYNES
MONDAY, 7 SEPTEMBER 2026

SUBJECTS: Social media algorithms; Digital Duty of Care; Albanese Government banning unfair non-compete clauses, wage-fixing cartels and no-poach clauses

GEORGIA STYNES: Joining us right now is Andrew Leigh. He is the Labor MP for Farrer and joins us. Good afternoon.

ANDREW LEIGH: G'day Georgia, great to be with you.

GEORGIA STYNES: Yeah, nice to have you on. So, the idea around it could impinge on free speech – what's your view on that?

ANDREW LEIGH: Well, as a parent, I'm deeply concerned about algorithms which are funneling toxic filth to our kids and increasing behaviours such as sexual choking, that we're seeing rising across the community. 40 per cent of young Australians who are sexually active say they've been sexually choked. We're also seeing a lot of the misogynistic content coming into people's feeds much more often. 

So, we need to take back control of this. We did that, in part through the social media minimum age, which has now seen more than 5 million accounts deactivated. And the digital duty of care is also about requiring digital services providers to adopt safety by design and protect young Australians from online harm.

GEORGIA STYNES: So, your understanding of how these laws will do that, though? Because there's been criticism that they won't necessarily be able to stamp out some of the things you've just mentioned. So, can you explain to the listeners how they would work?