Andrew Leigh

SUBJECTS: ACCC Report, CHOICE Report, Merger Reform, National Competition Policy, Food and Grocery Code, Negative Gearing

GARY ADSHEAD (HOST): Dr Andrew Leigh, Assistant Minister for Competition, joins me on the line now. Thanks very much for your time, Andrew.

ANDREW LEIGH: Pleasure Gary, great to be with you.

ADSHEAD: All right, I said it. They've been in under the gun. I mean, we now know that the ACCC are considering Coles and Woolworths to be part of an oligopoly. Can you tell us why that shouldn't be of concern?

LEIGH: Well, we do have a very concentrated supermarket sector, Gary. The report finds that 67% of the market's controlled by Coles and Woolies, with ALDI having another 9%. That's more concentrated than many other in the world, which is why our supermarkets deserve an extra level of scrutiny from other sectors in the economy.

SUBJECTS: ACCC Report, CHOICE report, Divestiture, Supermarket Competition, Cost of Living, Food and Grocery Code, Inflation, Gambling Ads

ANDREW LEIGH: Thanks very much everyone for coming along today. My name's Andrew Leigh, Assistant Minister for Competition, Charities, Treasury and Employment.

The Albanese Government wants to see a fair deal for families and a fair deal for farmers. That's why we're doing all we can to ensure that the supermarket sector is held to account. Today, I'm pleased to be releasing the ACCC's interim supermarkets report. This is the first deep dive into the supermarkets that the competition watchdog has done in 16 years. The report received some 80 submissions and the public survey that was opened received over 20,000 responses from the Australian public. That's the biggest response to any survey that the ACCC has ever done, and it reflects the very strong concern among Australians about supermarket pricing and about farmers getting a fair deal.

The Albanese Labor Government is committed to ensuring Australians are paying a fair price for their groceries and our farmers are getting a fair price for their hard work, with the Government today releasing the ACCC’s Supermarkets Inquiry Interim Report.

When families are doing it tough, they need a Government that's on their side and a tough consumer cop on the beat – and that’s the important role the ACCC is playing.

In January, the Albanese Government tasked the ACCC to look into supermarkets, and today the Government has released the ACCC’s Supermarkets Inquiry Interim Report, which explores in detail issues including concentration and competition in the sector, rising prices and shrinkflation, supermarket buyer power and other consumer and producer concerns.

SUBJECTS: CHOICE, Supermarket Competition, Competition Policy Agenda, Housing Policy, Negative Gearing, 2026 Census

GREG JENNETT (HOST): Well, Canberra MP Andrew Leigh is a Treasury portfolio Minister carrying responsibilities for competition and charities. In years gone by he was an ardent supporter of removing tax concessions on investment properties. We covered the latest supermarket pricing survey funded by the Government as well as negative gearing when Andrew Leigh joined us here earlier.

Andrew Leigh, thanks for joining us once again on Afternoon Briefing. Now you're out talking today about the supermarket price survey that's been returned by Choice. It again confirms that Aldi comes out somewhat significantly cheaper on a regular basket of goods compared to Woolworths and Coles.

While interesting, this data doesn't seem to be changing pricing behaviour. The Government funds it, but what's its value if it doesn't drive change in pricing by the Big Two?

ANDREW LEIGH: Well the value, Greg, is ensuring people know where to get the best deal, and you know you can walk down the road, and you know how much you're going to save. We're also seeing some shifts from the previous price monitoring report that we funded CHOICE to do. That one said that with specials Woolworths outperformed Coles, now we've got Coles outperforming Woolworths. We want to see that price competition, but we also are putting information into the hands of shoppers so they can get the best deal at the checkout at a time when people are feeling that cost‑of‑living pressure.

SUBJECTS: CHOICE report, Inflation, Housing Policy, Negative Gearing, Capital Gains

TOM CONNELL (HOST): Joining me live, Assistant Minister for Competition, Charities and Treasury, Andrew Leigh. Thank you for your time.

ANDREW LEIGH: Pleasure, Tom.

CONNELL: Interesting this government funded report, to sort of not compare the pair, but compare the four of them. I found out you like to, you shop around, you go to multiple supermarkets. So, were you not surprised by any of these results?

LEIGH: Well, I was surprised by the quantum of the difference. Aldi comes out well ahead of Coles and Woolworths, and we've also seen that the basket with specials now favours Coles, whereas in the first report it favoured Woolworths. This provides two benefits, Tom. One is that Australians get a sense as to where they get the best deal, so we're saving shoppers money. The other is that it puts competitive pressure on the supermarkets.

SUBJECTS: Supermarket Competition, CHOICE report, Cost of Living, Food and Grocery Code, ACCC action, Housing Policy, Capital Gains Tax, Negative Gearing, Competition Policy, Economic Policy, Inflation

ANDREW LEIGH: Good morning. Thanks everyone for coming along. My name's Andrew Leigh, the Assistant Minister for Competition, Charities, Treasury and Employment. I'm delighted to be able to talk to you today about the announcement of CHOICE’s second quarterly grocery price monitoring report.

Labor understands that Australians are doing it tough, and we want to help deal with those cost-of-living pressures. Getting information to the hands of shoppers means people can get the best deal at the checkout and stretch the household budget just a little bit further. And that's why we funded CHOICE, the respected consumer group, to do a shadow shopper exercise, working out the price of a representative basket of groceries at the major supermarket chains. Their first report came out three months ago, and today we've got the results of CHOICE’s second shadow shopper report.

SUBJECTS: HOUSING; NEGATIVE GEARING

ADAM SHIRLEY (HOST): Andrew Leigh is the Assistant Minister for Competition, Charities and Treasury and federal member for Fenner. I presumed when I caught up with him just before 8.30am, that he would have a degree of knowledge of whether Treasury has actually been asked to model potential changes to capital gains and negative gearing arrangements. It seems clear, and I'm presuming you'll be able to confirm this, that Treasury has been asked, at least by someone or multiple people in government, to look at options for negative gearing and capital gains tax change. Yes or no?

ANDREW LEIGH: Adam, I'm not across everything the Treasury is looking at, they will be looking at tax changes from time to time. Our housing policy is absolutely clear and doesn't include that change.

SHIRLEY: Yeah, but you are the Assistant Minister to the Treasury and it seems obvious. In fact, it's been reported by Labor insiders this is exactly what Treasury has been asked. Have they been at least asked to see what permutation options are available?

LEIGH: Adam, it's a big department that routinely conducts work on a range of policy issues, as you'd expect.

SHIRLEY: You know, this is one of the biggest political issues potentially one way or the other though, surely someone's told you or surely you've asked.

LEIGH: Well we've been very clear with our housing agenda, Adam, and our focus is around getting more housing supply out there. Right now we have measures stuck in the Senate being blocked by a coalition of the Liberals and the Greens. We want to build, they want to block. That's our housing agenda. And there's also much more that we've got on and done. Collaborating with the states in order to get more housing rolling out for more Australians - targeting 1.2 million homes over five years. That's an ambitious policy because we understand the importance of housing to so many Australians.

The second Albanese Government initiated CHOICE quarterly report into supermarket prices has been released today, giving consumers facts about where to get cheaper prices.

Funded for three years by the Albanese Labor Government, the CHOICE report gives Australians accurate data on how to get the cheapest groceries.

To compile the report CHOICE visited 104 stores across Australia including Aldi, Coles, Woolworths and IGA.

SUBJECTS: ACCC; FOOD AND GROCERY CODE; DIVESTITURE; FOOD RELIEF CHARITIES

ROSS SOLLY (HOST): Doctor Andrew Leigh is the Assistant Minister for Competition and joins us this afternoon. Doctor Leigh, thank you for your time.

ANDREW LEIGH: Pleasure, Ross. Great to be with you.

SOLLY: So, the ACCC obviously believes that Woolworths and Coles have been acting in a pretty unscrupulous fashion. What's your reaction to it, to its findings today?

LEIGH: Well, they're just extraordinary allegations that are being made here, Ross. I mean, suggestions that involve some 266 Woolworths products and 245 Coles products. And to give your listeners some flavour of what the ACCC is alleging, they give an example in their media release of Oreos, which were being sold at Woolworths for $3.50 and then Woolworths increased the price to $5 for a very short period, put it back down to $4.50 and advertised them with a ‘prices dropped’ promotion. That doesn't seem like a reasonable special to me. The allegation that is being made by the ACCC is that this was misleading consumers. Obviously, when I wouldn't comment on the specifics of the allegation, but if they're proven, then this would be pretty outrageous for the many Australians who shop at Coles and Woolies and would have spent millions of dollars collectively on these products.

SUBJECTS: ACCC; FOOD AND GROCERY CODE

ALI MOORE (HOST): Dr Andrew Leigh is Assistant Minister for Competition, Charities and Treasury. Minister, welcome.

ANDREW LEIGH: G'day, Ali.

MOORE: First, before we get to the draft mandatory code, your response to the ACCC legal action launched today? 

LEIGH: These are incredibly serious allegations, Ali. I mean, we're talking about 266 Woolies products, 245 Coles products, consumers would have paid millions of dollars for these products and if the specials are false specials, as the ACCC is claiming, then that's incredibly serious for what it means for consumers.

You know, just to give you one sort of concrete example, which is in the ACCC's media release, they talk about Oreos being sold at $3.50 a pack for about a year, then temporarily spiked up to $5 a pack, dropped down to $4.50, which was then advertised as ‘price dropped’. That doesn't look like a real special to me. So, obviously this will be tested before the courts, but if it's found that Coles and Woolies have breached the law, then they deserve every penalty that's thrown at them. Australians are under cost-of-living pressures they deserve to get specials that are real specials.