Andrew Leigh

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RADIO INTERVIEW
ABC RURAL COUNTRY HOUR WITH WARWICK LONG
THURSDAY, 9 MARCH 2023

SUBJECTS: Right to repair agricultural machinery.

WARWICK LONG (HOST): Let's keep talking government right now, but very much an on farm issue. The Federal Government is asking the Australian farming industry for ideas on how best to give farmers the right to repair the equipment they buy. So in January, the American Farm Bureau signed an MoU with major farm machinery dealers to allow US farmers access to machinery repair codes, diagnostics and manuals after they were initially locked out by companies protecting intellectual property rights. The same issue is facing Australian farmers and they want a similar solution. Andrew Leigh is the Assistant Minister for Competition and he says he wants to hear from industry about some of these solutions and work out a deal for Australian farmers. I spoke to him earlier today.

ASSISTANT MINISTER FOR COMPETITION, CHARITIES AND TREASURY ANDREW LEIGH: Certainly we’re interested in the potential for expanding the right to repair. For many years, I've been campaigning for data sharing, for mechanics to be able to fix modern cars. Modern cars are computers on wheels, and unless independent mechanics have access to that data, they were looking at going to the wall. And the very same issue arises with agricultural machinery. The movements in the United States suggest a way in which this might be possible to achieve and certainly it would improve agricultural productivity, because you're talking about farmers being able to fix their machines quicker and at harvest time, you've got dollars going out the door if you're not harvesting quickly.

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TV INTERVIEW
SKY NEWS AFTERNOON AGENDA WITH KIERAN GILBERT
TUESDAY, 7 MARCH 2023

SUBJECTS: Interest rates; Impact and causes of inflation; Government’s response to cost of living.

KIERAN GILBERT (HOST): Let's get back to the issue of the rate rise today, the 10th consecutive rate rise at an RBA board meeting. The Assistant Minister for Treasury, Andrew Lee, joins me now. Is there any hope from the RBA statement that this might be the last, or at least close to it?

ASSISTANT MINISTER FOR COMPETITION, CHARITIES AND TREASURY ANDREW LEIGH: I would have hoped so Kieran but if you look at the end of the RBA statement, they do say that further tightening is likely. So that's unfortunately troubling news for many households. If you look at the impact of the typical mortgage holder over the course of this rate rise cycle, which started just before the election, somebody on a typical mortgage will have seen their monthly repayments go up $658. This increase on its own pushes up repayments for that typical mortgage holder by $51 a month. So it's a significant impost on the Australian household.

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RADIO INTERVIEW
ABC RADIO NATIONAL DRIVE WITH ANDY PARK
THURSDAY, 2 MARCH 2023

SUBJECTS: How Uncompetitive markets hurt workers; Non-compete clauses in employment contracts; Superannuation tax breaks worth more than the full-rate aged pension

ANDY PARK (HOST): The cost of living is rising, interest rates are going up, groceries are getting more expensive, and it's getting harder to travel with the rising price of airfares. None of this is news to you, but in recent weeks we have heard stories of people who are really struggling, which are in stark contrast to some of the eye boggling profits from some of Australia's largest companies and their reporting. So what can we do? What should we do to ease the pressure on the average Australian household? Andrew Leigh is the Assistant Minister for Competition, he joins me now on RN Drive. Good day, Andrew

ASSISTANT MINISTER FOR COMPETITION, CHARITIES AND TREASURY ANDREW LEIGH: Great to be with you.

PARK: You've spoken about market concentration allowing companies to lift profits excessively and keep wages low. Are Australian consumers and workers being rorted here?

LEIGH: We certainly know that excess monopoly power is bad for consumers. It drives up prices and drives down choice. It means that firms don't do as much research and development and you don't get the sort of innovation that you'd expect in a highly competitive economy. But what I'm increasingly concerned about now is that market concentration might also hurt workers too. The classic extreme is a company town where you've only got one choice as to who to work with. In that situation, you have the employer exerting a sort of power over the workers that a monopoly exerts over consumers. And this monopsony power, the power that employers have over workers, seems to be prevalent in a lot of parts of Australia, particularly regional Australia. That might be a reason why we haven't seen the sort of real wage growth we would have hoped over the last decade.

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RADIO INTERVIEW
ABC NEWS RADIO WITH GLEN BARTHOLOMEW
TUESDAY, 28 FEBRUARY 2023

SUBJECTS: Changes to superannuation; Need for more competition; Consultations on 2026 Census topics.

GLEN BARTHOLOMEW (HOST): The Federal Government will cap superannuation tax concessions in a move it says will hit about 80,000 Australians. The changes will impact people with super balances of $3 million or more and will come into effect from the middle of 2025. At the moment, earnings from superannuation are taxed at up to 15 per cent, but that will increase to 30 per cent for those people. There will be no change for Australians with superannuation balances of less than $3 million. Dr. Andrew Leigh is the Assistant Minister for Competition, Charities and Treasury in the Albanese government and joins us now. Thanks for your time.

ASSISTANT MINISTER FOR COMPETITION, CHARITIES AND TREASURY ANDREW LEIGH: Real pleasure, Glen. Great to be with you.

BARTHOLOMEW: Explain why this change is necessary.

LEIGH: Well, if we continue the way we're going, superannuation tax breaks will cost more than the pension by 2050. Superannuation is meant to deliver a dignified retirement, not to be a tax-preferred inheritance vehicle. And yet there's 17 Australians with more than $100 million in superannuation. Think of it this way. Someone with $100 million in superannuation earning a 5 per cent return is getting a tax break, in the order of one and a half million dollars a year. Now, if Peter Dutton wants to stand up for those people, then he's welcome to do so. But our focus is making these reforms is to ensure that superannuation is sustainable.

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RADIO INTERVIEW
ABC CANBERRA BREAKFAST WITH ADAM SHIRLEY
WEDNESDAY, 28 FEBRUARY 2023

SUBJECTS: Workplace giving; Consultations on 2026 Census topics.

ADAM SHIRLEY (HOST): Do you give, I mean in a financial sense, to a given charity? I don’t know whether it’s Vinnies, whether it’s the Salvos, Red Cross, Hands Across Canberra, Thinking Locally, Communities At Work; there are so many different not-for-profits that need extra funds to support those who are in need. Well, a new workplace giving program is being started by Vinnies Canberra, it’s a monthly set up of donations that come straight out of your account. There are other Canberra workplace giving programs, I am sure, and I’d like to hear about one you might be involved with.

Well, someone who oversees giving and also the charity sector more broadly is Dr Andrew Leigh, Federal Member for Fenner and Assistant Minister for Competition, Charities and Treasury. Dr Leigh, thanks for your time today.

ASSISTANT MINISTER FOR COMPETITION, CHARITIES AND TREASURY ANDREW LEIGH: Pleasure, Adam. Always great to be with you.

SHIRLEY: How important are these workplace-giving programs in our cost-of-living/inflation–ridden times?

WHAT SHOULD THE 2026 CENSUS ASK ABOUT?

The Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) has today opened the first phase of public consultations on topics for the 2026 Census of Population and Housing. 

These consultations are the first stage of a review the ABS conducts after each Census. This presents an opportunity for the community to provide feedback on information needs that are presently not met by the Census, and to have input on topics that should be added.

The feedback from this process will help to inform the ABS’s recommendations to the Australian Government on the topics that could be included in the 2026 Census.

Running Better Evaluations

The Daily Telegraph

As a keen runner, I’m pretty keen on going where the evidence points. In experiments, high intensity training produces remarkable gains, so I try to build it into every workout. Randomised trials suggest that stability shoes don’t much affect foot strike, so I stick with cushioning shoes instead. After a long run, I’ll use compression socks, since they’ve been shown to improve recovery. I try to eat a Mediterranean diet, randomised trials show to be linked with better heart health. I don’t bother with vitamin pills, which haven’t been shown to improve longevity among otherwise healthy people.

When it comes to improving your workout, the evidence base is remarkably good. The top athletes are always testing new training techniques and gear, and the results trickle down to also-rans like me. But when it comes to figuring out what works in policy, the evidence is a good deal patchier. Unlike the search for the best sneakers and health supplements, there’s a whole lot less impact measurement. Particularly under the last government, too many decisions were made by the principle of GOBSATT: good ol’ boys sitting around the table.

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RADIO INTERVIEW
ABC CANBERRA DRIVE WITH ANNA VIDOT
THURSDAY, 16 FEBRUARY 2023 

SUBJECTS: Harmonisation of state and territory fundraising rules; Reducing red tape for charities.

ANNA VIDOT (HOST): At a time of financial pressure, when more people are becoming dependent or needing the support of charities both here and around the world, making sure that none of that money is wasted is really important. Well, soon there's going to be a consistent approach to the rules about how charities in Australia can raise money. Currently, each state and territory has a different set of rules for charitable fundraising, and compliance requirements are apparently costing charities an estimated million dollars per month nationally. Doctor Andrew Leigh is the member for Fenner and also Assistant Minister for Competition, Charities and Treasury. He's on the line with us this afternoon. Andrew Leigh, thanks very much for your time.

ASSISTANT MINISTER FOR COMPETITION, CHARITIES AND TREASURY ANDREW LEIGH: Real pleasure, Anna. Terrific to be with you and your listeners.

VIDOT: Why do we have such strict rules for fundraising and how did we end up with different ones?

LEIGH: The rules around fundraising were developed at a time when going on line was something you did with wet washing. Most of the fundraising that was done a generation ago was face-to-face, so it made sense for the regulation to be at a state and territory level. But now, fundraising is largely done over the internet, which means that an Australian charity that wants to raise money needs to comply with state and territory laws. There's seven different sets of laws -- only the NT doesn't have its own charitable fundraising laws -- so the paperwork can take a charity up to a week of staff time every single year. And that's where you get this total cost of a million dollars a month or more: in complying with all of those different state and territory fundraising laws.

Joint media release with
The Hon Danny Pearson MP
Victorian Minister for Consumer Affairs

AGREEMENT REACHED ON REFORM OF CHARITABLE FUNDRAISING LAWS

Charities have long told their governments that they are wasting time complying with inconsistent and outdated fundraising rules across the states and territories. On one estimate, compliance requirements cost Australian charities more than $1 million per month.

In their most recent meeting, the Commonwealth, state and territory Treasurers agreed to a set of nationally consistent fundraising principles to streamline and harmonise state and territory requirements on charitable fundraiser conduct.

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RADIO INTERVIEW
2CC 1206 AM WITH STEPHEN CENATIEMPO
WEDNESDAY, 15 FEBRUARY 2023

SUBJECTS: AVOIDING CHARITY SCAMS; PRODUCTIVITY COMMISSION REVIEW INTO PHILANTHROPY

STEPHEN CENATIEMPO (HOST): I got to say, it's a bloody disgrace that we have to discuss this, but unfortunately, it's the way of the world in 2023. A week now, or a bit over a week since the earthquake that hit Türkiye and Syria. The death toll is now over 35,000 people. And whilst most of the world is trying to assist those two countries with their rescue and salvage and repair efforts, there are warnings about scammers trying to take advantage of people's generosity. It's absolutely extraordinary. And this is off the back of yesterday, we talked about Valentine's Day scams. Dr Andrew Leigh is the Assistant Minister for Charities, Competition and Treasury and the member for Fenner, and he joins us on the line. Andrew, good morning.

ANDREW LEIGH , ASSISTANT MINISTER FOR CHARITIES, COMPETITION AND TREASURY: Good morning, Stephen. And, look, I think you just hit the nail on the head about how disgusting this is. You've got people buried under the rubble, you've got helpers flying to the other side of the world to assist them, and yet there's this tiny minority of people looking to make a fast buck out of the generosity of their fellow Australians.