Andrew Leigh

Condolence Speech – Bruce Baird

House of Representatives,
Parliament House

Wednesday, 14 October 2026

I rise to pay tribute to Bruce Baird and offer my condolences to his family. Bruce Baird was my local member of parliament when I was growing up. Before I had any experience of elected officials, I knew him as somebody who took an interest in his community and in the people he represented. As a 19- or 20-year-old, I decided I wanted to become a Justice of the Peace, and you had to apply to your state member of parliament. It was Bruce Baird who happily nominated me to become a Justice of the Peace.

Then, in 1995, with the Labor Party looking for suitable cannon fodder to run in one of the safest Liberal seats in the land, I put my hand up for Labor Party preselection, expecting that I would be running against Bruce Baird. He stepped down as the member for Northcott, and I found myself standing against Barry O'Farrell. At the age of 22, I secured an eight per cent swing for the Labor Party, which I was confident at the time was entirely due to the fluoro posters that we nailed up onto telegraph poles and our enthusiastic campaigning. I suspect, in retrospect, though, that eight percentage points was about the size of Bruce Baird's personal vote, which shifted to us with a new Liberal candidate on the field. Bruce Baird's departure, I suspect, did far more for my electoral prospects than any number of leaflets—and Barry O'Farrell was still elected with a 24 per cent margin, which kept my achievements in perspective.

It said a lot about Bruce and his role as a state MP that people saw him beyond his party affiliation, that they trusted him as their state MP. He made big achievements in state parliament. As a New South Wales minister, he carried the responsibilities of transport and, as many others have mentioned in this debate, helped secure Sydney's bid for the 2000 Olympics. Later, as the federal member for Cook, he brought his experience to the parliament, and it is a loss to this parliament that he didn't have the opportunity to serve as a minister in this place. He continued making serious contributions to public life long after leaving elected office.

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

The Hon Tanya Plibersek MP
Minister for Social Services

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

E&OE TRANSCRIPT
DOORSTOP 
PARLIAMENT HOUSE, CANBERRA 
14 OCTOBER 2026

TOPICS: Addressing financial abuse; Response to PJC report; Experience of victim-survivors; Coerced directorships; Child support, AI; Parliamentary language

MINISTER DANIEL MULINO: Good morning, it's really good to be here with so many colleagues for a really important issue and the release of the Government response to a really important report.

I just want to acknowledge I'm standing next to the Minister for Social Services, Minister Tanya Plibersek, and it's been really important to work with her on this report, this response, but on many of the issues covered today.

Michelle Rowland, the Attorney General, wasn't able to be here, but she's also been very heavily involved in the development of this response.

We have Ministers Ged Kearney and Andrew Leigh here today as well who have been involved in a number of actions that have already been undertaken, and I want to acknowledge Deb O'Neill and Zaneta Mascarenhas who have been on the PJC at the time when this report was developed and have been instrumental in progressing a lot of these ideas.

We've got Dan Repacholi in his envoy role, his Special Envoy role, he's been involved in a lot of these issues as well, and there are so many other members of the Caucus here. I want to acknowledge and thank all of them for being here. It reflects the importance of these issues.

Today we're here to talk about financial abuse. Financial abuse is an insidious crime which affects a lot of people, particularly women in our community. It's all too often invisible but it can have really devastating consequences.

It can take many forms: financial control, controlling someone's access to money, incurring debts in someone's name, controlling the financial system in a way that it takes the form of abuse. And we need to take action on a regulatory front to deal with this.

The Parliamentary Joint Committee on finance and corporations submitted a very important report on this set of issues which included 61 recommendations, and today we respond formally to those recommendations, accepting and supporting, or supporting in principle 58 of those recommendations.

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

The Hon Michelle Rowland MP
Attorney-General

The Hon Tanya Plibersek MP
Minister for Social Services

The Hon Ged Kearney MP
Assistant Minister for Social Services and the Prevention of Family Violence

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

Albanese Government Advancing Reforms To Combat Financial Abuse

Wednesday, 14 October 2026

The Albanese Government is strengthening protections for victim-survivors of financial abuse through reforms across superannuation, tax, corporate accountability, and child support.

Today, the Government has tabled its response to the Parliamentary Joint Committee on Corporations and Financial Services inquiry into financial abuse, supporting, or supporting in principle 58 of its 61 recommendations.

Financial abuse is a serious form of domestic and family violence that can leave victim-survivors facing long-term financial hardship, debt and reduced economic security.  

The Government is committed to ensuring that financial institutions, regulators, and professional service providers play their part in preventing abuse and supporting victim-survivors.

As part of this work, today we are also releasing a consultation paper on reforms to take action against perpetrators of financial abuse who use the tax and social security systems to create debts as a form of coercive control.

The consultation will consider options to provide targeted relief and better respond where coercion, fraud, or other abusive conduct has caused significant financial harm. 

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

Will AI Increase Inequality?

Third JPMorgan AI Conference,
Sydney / Melbourne

Online Address

Tuesday, 13 October 2026

I acknowledge the Ngunnawal people, on whose lands I am speaking with you today, and pay respects to all First Nations people present.

Thank you for the chance to address you today. For my topic, I’ve picked a question that’s been rattling around my head – and perhaps yours – over the past year. ‘Will AI increase inequality?’.

As someone who’s been working on inequality as both a professor and a politician, this strikes me as a question that matters economically.

It’s likely that AI will have substantial aggregate effects. The Australian Treasury (2026) says that ‘AI is the next major general-purpose technology that will push out the global productivity frontier and reshape the global and Australian economies.’

The Productivity Commission (2025) estimates that AI could lift the level of Australia’s multifactor productivity by more than 2 percent over the next decade.

But the question of who gets the benefits is crucial – whether you’re a citizen, a policymaker, or a business leader.

Let’s start with a practical example.

Imagine a customer support agent, two months into the job.

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

How government can learn what works

Published in The Mandarin

8 October 2026

For years, JobSeekers using Workforce Australia Online have generally faced a monthly mutual-obligation target of 100 points.

JobSeekers can meet their obligations through job applications, training, study, and other activities. The idea behind the target is that requiring more effort should, up to a point, increase the chances of finding a job.

But is 100 points the right number? Intuition and ideology don’t tell us much. If the target is too high, it seems reasonable to think that the obligation might stop encouraging useful job search and begin consuming time that could be spent finding work in other ways.

To shed light on the question, the Australian government ran an experiment. Almost 40,000 job-ready JobSeekers were randomly divided into three groups. One group remained under the existing arrangements, with a target of 100 points each month, including a minimum of four job applications. For the other two groups, the requirements were reduced to 70 points or 50 points, with three and two job applications, respectively.

Six months later, the employment results were similar. The three groups had worked an average of 10.4 weeks, 10.3 weeks, and 10.5 weeks. Their earnings and income support payments were also very similar.

Researchers also interviewed participants. People facing lighter requirements tended to report less stress. Some said the change gave them more time to pursue activities they thought would actually help them find work.

Before the trial, there were plausible arguments in both directions. Tougher requirements might strengthen the incentive to get a job. Lighter requirements might allow people to search smarter, focusing on the particular job where they were most likely to get hired. The experiment allowed government to find out.

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
THURSDAY, 8 OCTOBER 2026

SUBJECTS: Canberra Stadium

ROSS SOLLY: Well, Andrew Leigh is the Member for Fenner. He's also got the Bruce Stadium, of course, in his electorate. Andrew Fenner, good morning to you. Andrew Leigh, sorry, did I call you Andrew Fenner?

ANDREW LEIGH: G’day Ross. That’s alright! You’ve also called me Andrew Barr before, Andrew Fenner, and it turns out Bruce is in Alicia Payne's electorate. It was in my electorate before the boundary moved north.

ROSS SOLLY: Yes, of course! Of course, I just realised we had a boundary redrawn recently, didn't we? So, it's no longer in your…

ANDREW LEIGH: That's right. The people of Bruce have traded up to get the terrific Alicia Payne as their local MP, but I maintain a keen interest in the AIS.

ROSS SOLLY: Oh have they? Yes. Well, just on this proposal. Have you been briefed on it, Andrew Leigh? Often referred to as Andrew Fenner. Have you been briefed on it, and what do you think at first blush?

ANDREW LEIGH: Look, it's an exciting proposal. I've spoken to Stephen Byron about it. I'm interested in what it involves. I'm also aware, though, that there is a huge pipeline of investment going in from the ACT Government. So right now, you've got the pool development, that's a couple of hundred million dollars. You've got the convention centre, which is about half a billion dollars. You've got the theatre, which is about $300 million. And then you'd be adding a stadium, which could be anywhere from half a billion to a couple of billion dollars on top of that. 

ROSS SOLLY: Yeah.

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

What Should AI Love?

National Press Club of Australia,
Canberra

Wednesday, 7 October 2026

I acknowledge the Ngunnawal people, on whose lands we meet. My thanks to the Italian Embassy and the National Press Club for organising and hosting this event. It is a pleasure to share the stage with Father Paolo Benanti and our moderator Corrie McLeod.

Today’s discussion matches the arc of how many Australians have been thinking about AI. After ChatGPT launched in 2022, most of us were focused on how it could make us more productive – summarising documents, checking our work or planning holidays.

Since then, progress has been rapid. One measure of AI agents’ ability to carry out complex tasks has doubled roughly every seven months. As the technology has become more capable, the talk has turned to its impact on humanity. 

In these short opening remarks, I want to ask two questions. What can AI do for human wellbeing? And what values should guide our AI systems?

Start with a man with ALS who had largely lost the ability to speak.

In 2025, researchers implanted 256 electrodes in the part of his brain involved in speech. AI decoded his neural signals and turned them into speech almost instantly.

The synthetic voice resembled his own voice from before ALS. He could change his intonation, emphasise particular words and even sing short melodies.

Now let’s move to a more vexed use of AI.

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

E&OE TRANSCRIPT
TV INTERVIEW
ABC AFTERNOON BRIEFING, WITH PATRICIA KARVELAS 
TUESDAY, 6 OCTOBER 2026

SUBJECTS: Pre-COP; Pacific Engagement; Immigration Policies. 

PATRICIA KARVELAS: For more on the news of the day, Andrew Leigh is the Assistant Minister for Productivity, Competition, Charities and Treasury. Welcome to the program.

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

PATRICIA KARVELAS: Isn't that rude? I mean, that's like a traditional offering and the Prime Minister snubs them?

ANDREW LEIGH: Well Patricia, it's the first I've seen it. The Prime Minister is engaging in the Pacific as no previous Australian Prime Minister has done. This is really important work that he is doing, which comes on the back of dozens and dozens of visits by the Prime Minister and the Foreign Minister into the Pacific. This is contested territory and the work that we're doing with our Pacific neighbours and the work that we will be championing as part of our bid for a UN Security Council seat really is unprecedented and vitally important for Australian national interests. 

PATRICIA KARVELAS: Okay. I want to take you to hearing from the government on what you make of the Coalition's immigration policy. Their policy is to reduce net overseas migration to 100,000 for the first two years, then it goes up a little. It is a big, big shift in the policy approach. 25 per cent reduction in foreign students. There are other changes too. There's a real focus on just skills. Is the policy what Australians want? Senator Matt Canavan told me earlier that across the country, people are saying they want lower immigration, and this is what they're delivering, and they've done it through the Parliamentary Budget Office. 

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, 6 OCTOBER 2026

SUBJECTS: Scrapping card surcharges; Illicit tobacco 

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

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

STEPHEN CENATIEMPO: Before we start, I do want to talk about the illegal tobacco market, but, you know, you were one of the ones that put one of these videos out last week about these card surcharges. I hope in the interim you've gone and spoken to some local businesses about how bad this is and how it is actually bringing small business to its knees here in Canberra?

ANDREW LEIGH: Look, Stephen I've spoken to a lot of small businesses and they recognise that there's a great value in having a competitive market. Most small businesses weren't charging card surcharges, and they welcome the fact that they don't have competitors who are now throwing on an additional charge at the checkout. This is about price transparency and…

STEPHEN CENATIEMPO: Hang on a minute, hang on – let me stop you there, because that makes no sense at all. If there are businesses not charging it, why are they worried about businesses that are charging it? Aren't they already in the box seat?

ANDREW LEIGH: Because they're competing against a business which is advertising one price and then charging most customers a higher price. Card surcharges mean that the price you see on the shelf, the price you see in the menu, isn't the price you pay at the checkout. More than 80 per cent of Australian businesses don’t charge card surcharges…

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

E&OE TRANSCRIPT
RADIO INTERVIEW
2CC RADIO CANBERRA, LIVE WITH LEON DELANEY
FRIDAY, 2 OCTOBER 2026

SUBJECTS: Scrapping card surcharges; Interest rates; Inflation; Labor’s fiscal discipline

LEON DELANEY: First up today, the federal Member for the seat of Fenner and also by sheer chance the Assistant Minister for Productivity, Competition, Charities and Treasury, Dr Andrew Leigh, good afternoon.

ANDREW LEIGH: Good afternoon Leon, great to be with you.

LEON DELANEY: Although I suspect chance has nothing to do with it – you’re very qualified for the job. Let’s start with the abolition of those surcharges for credit and debit card transactions. It came into effect yesterday. My simple question is this: in light of the fact that many businesses now are saying, ‘We will offer you a discount for cash’, how is that any different from simply charging a fee for using your card? Instead of charging the fee that’s no longer legal, they’ll just give you a discount for anything that’s not on the card. But for all practical intents and purposes, it’s exactly the same thing, isn’t it?

ANDREW LEIGH: Here’s the big difference, Leon. When you’re getting a discount, you’re getting a better price than what you see on the menu or on the shelf. When you’re getting a surcharge, you’re getting the worst price. So what really frustrates people is when you see one price on the menu and then you pay a higher price at the checkout. No one minds getting to the checkout and discovering they’ve gotten a bargain. But people get pretty frustrated when you’re told that there’s one price, whether you’re shopping online or shopping in-store and then that price goes up at the checkout when you choose to pay by tap. That’s gone as of 1 October. A big reform helping consumers but also helping competition. Because most businesses aren’t charging these additional fees. About 84 per cent of businesses don’t have card surcharges. And now this is asking the other 16 per cent to come in line too.

LEON DELANEY: Okay. But for all effective purposes, if a business has previously been charging the surcharge to cover the cost of the transaction, they’re more likely now to increase their price anyway in order to cover that and then offer the discount for the cash transaction, ending up exactly back where we started?