Andrew Leigh

E&OE TRANSCRIPT
RADIO INTERVIEW
ABC CANBERRA BREAKFAST WITH ADAM SHIRLEY
TUESDAY, 19 MARCH 2024

SUBJECTS: Need to reform Parliament’s culture, role of factions, Government’s policies to encourage competition in the supermarket sector, proposals to break up the big supermarkets.

ADAM SHIRLEY, HOST: Dr Andrew Leigh had a life not in the political bubble at all until he entered it. He's now the Assistant Minister for Competition, Charities and Treasury and for some time, he's been the Federal Member for Fenner, Andrew Leigh, good morning to you.

ASSISTANT MINISTER FOR CHARITIES, COMPETITION, TREASURY AND EMPLOYMENT ANDREW LEIGH: Good morning, Adam.

SHIRLEY: Are you allowed, to be yourself, truly in the role you hold and the party you work with?

LEIGH: I think so, but probably one of the things that's worth throwing into the discussion is that politics is a team sport. So, that, for me, brings two obligations. In the locker room: you need to make an argument as to what you ought to do out in the field. Out in the field, you play the strategy you agreed in the locker room. So, that will have people having more robust conversations in the party room than will necessarily be reflected in the conversation in the broader society. Just as when the Raiders go out in the field, they don't play as individuals, they play as a team.

E&OE TRANSCRIPT
RADIO INTERVIEW
ABC CANBERRA DRIVE WITH ROSS SOLLY
THURSDAY, 14 MARCH 2024

SUBJECTS: Proposals to ban TikTok; benefits of four-year terms; John Howard’s belated backflip; case for fixed terms; teen mental health and social media.

ROSS SOLLY, HOST: Andrew Leigh is the member for Fenner and he joins us on the program this afternoon. Andrew Leigh, good to have you on the show.

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

TAX TREATY EXPANSION CONSULTATIONS OPEN

The Albanese Government is working to expand Australia’s global relationships with consultations opening on the expansion of Australia’s tax treaties network.

The Government is entering into new tax treaty negotiations with Brazil, New Zealand, South Korea, Sweden and Ukraine as part an expansion of Australia’s tax treaty network. Submissions are sought on the key outcomes Australia should seek in negotiating these tax treaties and other issues related to Australia’s tax treaty network.

E&OE TRANSCRIPT
RADIO INTERVIEW
MORNINGS ABC BRISBANE WITH STEVE AUSTIN
FRIDAY, 8 MARCH 2024

SUBJECTS: Pressure on Charitable Organisations; Employer Underpayments; Doubling Philanthropy; Competition Reform; Extraordinary Women in Economics.

STEVE AUSTIN, HOST: Well, as we heard in the news headlines, at a time when charitable organisations are facing unprecedented demand, some community service charities are closing their programs across the south east. You’ve heard the news today that one in particular has to repay $9 million in what turned out to be underpaid wages to current and former workers. Mercy Community estimates that 1,700 current and former staff have been affected by the underpayment.

Now, you’d be aware that here in Queensland it’s a criminal offence where you could face jail if you are found to have underpaid employees. As a result, they have to pay the former staff and current staff what they’re owed. To do that, they need to close their residential care, their transition services, their foster and kinship care, supported independent living services and an asylum seeker centre. You heard the details on the news.

As fate would have it, Australia’s Assistant Minister for Charities, Employment, Competition and Treasury is Andrew Leigh. He’s in Brisbane. Thanks for joining me in the studio.

ASSISTANT MINISTER FOR CHARITIES, COMPETITION, TREASURY AND EMPLOYMENT ANDREW LEIGH: A real pleasure, Steve. Great to be with you and your listeners.

AUSTIN: There seems to be an issue with not just this charity but others – Uniting Care here in Brisbane announced the sacking of 350 workers yesterday. Are charities under financial pressure at the moment?

LEIGH: Certainly charities are feeling the squeeze of the cost of living crisis, Steve. We’ve seen this particularly with food bank charities, which is why we gave an additional top-up funding to those food bank charities to get them through the year. Many Australians are feeling the pinch and for low and middle-income Australians often they’ll turn to charities for assistance.

We’re doing what we can both through the increases to the income support system in last year’s budget, the tax cuts which we’ve adjusted and so every taxpayer will get a tax cut on the 1st of July, and then supporting charities. The former government had an attitude of declaring a war on charities. The Albanese government wants to work with charities and engage with them to reduce the reporting challenges that they face and ensure that they’re able to thrive and grow.

But obviously, as you’ve said today with Mercy Community closing a number of services, paying your staff isn’t optional. Charities, like businesses, need to get that right. Mercy Community has a storied history in Brisbane going back to 1861. They’ll remain an important part of the social fabric here, and they’ve done the right thing in making sure they repay those staff who were underpaid.

E&OE TRANSCRIPT
TV INTERVIEW
SKY NEWSDAY WITH KIERAN GILBERT
THURSDAY, 29 FEBRUARY 2024

SUBJECTS: Australian Competition and Consumer Commission inquiry into supermarkets; impact of Albanese Government’s bigger tax cuts for more Australians.

KIERAN GILBERT, HOST: Assistant Minister for Competition and Treasury, Andrew Leigh. Great to see you. This stunt yesterday by Andrew Wilkie and Bob Katter. They're calling for a divestment by the two major supermarkets. Is that possible? Can you force that?

ASSISTANT MINISTER FOR CHARITIES, COMPETITION, TREASURY AND EMPLOYMENT ANDREW LEIGH: We're not looking at divestment powers, Kieran. Where they exist in other countries, they're very rarely used. They're not one of the major tools you use for getting better prices for consumers. Instead, we're kicking off this supermarkets inquiry through the ACCC; the first such inquiry to be conducted in 16 years. The ACCC has just put out its issues paper looking at issues ranging from shrinkflation to discounting…

E&OE TRANSCRIPT
TV INTERVIEW
AFTERNOON BRIEFING
WEDNESDAY, 28 FEBRUARY 2024

SUBJECTS: Bigger, better, fairer tax cuts for more Australians; monthly inflation figures; Government’s cost-of-living relief; non-compete clauses hurting wages and innovation.

GREG JENNETT, HOST: Treasury Portfolio Minister Andrew Leigh is Assistant Minister for Competition and he joins us in the studio. Welcome back to the programme.

ASSISTANT MINISTER FOR COMPETITION, CHARITIES, TREASURY AND EMPLOYMENT ANDREW LEIGH: Thanks, Greg.

JENNETT: Andrew, tempted to ask if you've given any thought to what you'll do with your tax cuts, but I imagine it's something mundane like the rest of us. The Government, though tactically seems a bit disappointed it sailed through so quickly. The Prime Minister and others have been baying in the House of Reps, where you are for rapid passage all week. And then they got it last night. No delay, no examination. Is that a good thing or a bad thing from your point of view?

LEIGH: I’m delighted to see the strong support in the parliament for our bigger, better fairer tax cuts. Greg. We want Australians to earn more and keep more of what they earn. The Coalition, when we first announced our package, said that they'd roll it back, they said we should have an election and then eventually they voted for it. That's all to the good. That means every Australian will get a tax cut and it's particularly good for young Australians, 98% of whom will be better off under this package.

JENNETT: No voter gratitude to speak of as these things are tracked by at least two opinion polls, news poll and resolve this week, there's not much to measure. And surely that was a part of the original intention, particularly timed around the Dunkley by election.

E&OE TRANSCRIPT
RADIO INTERVIEW
ABC SYDNEY DRIVE WITH RICHARD GLOVER
TUESDAY, 27 FEBRUARY 2024

SUBJECTS: Boosting competition in the supermarket sector.

RICHARD GLOVER: Well, there's been a lot of discussion, hasn't there, especially in the last couple of weeks since that Four Corners program about adequate market competition in Australia. Do we have a serious problem when you can refer to a majority of the supermarket industry with the portmanteau term, Colesworth?

Well, the Assistant Minister for Competition, Andrew Leigh, says we may be becoming the land of the duopoly, and the solution must be reached through the cooperation of federal, state and local governments. And Andrew Leigh joins us here on Drive.

Good afternoon.

ASSISTANT MINISTER FOR COMPETITION, CHARITIES, TREASURY AND EMPLOYMENT ANDREW LEIGH: Good afternoon, Richard. Great to be with you and your listeners.

ROYAL AUSTRALIAN MINT’S NEW EXHIBITION CELEBRATES CHANGE IN ALL ITS FORMS

The Royal Australian Mint (the Mint) and the Cultural Facilities Corporation (CFC) are excited to announce that the Mint’s highly-popular coin shop and exclusive new off-site exhibition, Change in your Pocket, are now open at Canberra Museum and Gallery (CMAG) in Civic Square.

The Mint’s temporary new inner-city location and gift shop enables its many thousands of annual visitors to continue enjoying its exhibition and education programs and to buy coins and other souvenirs in a brand new setting while the Mint’s Deakin building undergoes extensive refurbishment.

E&OE TRANSCRIPT
RADIO INTERVIEW
ABC RADIO NATIONAL WITH PATRICIA KARVELAS
THURSDAY, 22 FEBRUARY 2024

SUBJECTS: Government’s response to lack of competition in supermarket sector, CHOICE quarterly price monitoring of grocery prices, Review of Food and Grocery Code, Mergers policy consultations, ANZ/Suncorp decision, Impact of non-compete clauses on wages.

PATRICIA KARVELAS, HOST: Australia is in the middle of a big competition debate. Why is that important? Because a lack of competition in the economy is helping to drive up prices in all areas – from supermarkets to banking to energy to our domestic and overseas flights, according to many experts. The Government says it wants to overhaul competition laws, and the person tasked with doing that and devising a strategy is the Assistant Minister for Competition and Treasury, Andrew Leigh so we’ve invited him on the program.

Andrew Leigh, welcome.

ASSISTANT MINISTER FOR CHARITIES, COMPETITION, TREASURY, AND EMPLOYMENT ANDREW LEIGH: Thanks, Patricia. Great to be with you and your listeners.

KARVELAS: Let’s start with the supermarkets, where I think most people are very – very focused at the moment given they go to the supermarket and, you know, come back with very few items for a big price tag. There are several inquiries looking into them right now. What do you think has gone wrong?

LEIGH: Well, we’ve got a highly concentrated supermarket sector, much more concentrated than, say, Britain or the United States. One of the standard rules of economics is when you’ve got too few players you tend to have prices that are too high. One of the challenges in the past has been the heavy squeezing of suppliers, and most of the focus in supermarket policy has been on the prices that suppliers receive through the Food and Grocery Code of Conduct.

Increasingly now though we’re also looking at the impact on consumers. And that’s why the Treasurer has asked the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission for a report on supermarket pricing. We’ll have an interim report by the end of August.

And we’ve also asked CHOICE to engage in quarterly price monitoring so people can see where the best prices are being provided and save money on their weekly shop. Those CHOICE reports will be coming out in the coming months.

KARVELAS: Okay. You mentioned this big concentration. In the last hour we spoke with Graeme Samuel, former ACCC boss. He says we’ve got 27 million people spread out in this country and, in fact, you know, contested this idea that it’s an issue of concentration. Do you disagree with him?

LEIGH: Well, certainly the rule about concentration applies across a range of sectors and I worry, Patricia, that Australia’s market concentration has increased over recent decades. We’ve got evidence now from very good microdata – which wasn’t available a few years back – that market concentration has gone up, that markups have increased – that is the gap between costs and prices – and there’s less job switching than there was in the past, which is a problem because switching jobs is one of best ways people boost their wages. All of that points to a less dynamic economy and maybe one of the reasons why we’ve just had the lousiest decade of productivity growth in the post-war era.

HOW TO GET MONEY'S WORTH OUT OF PROGRAMS

Each year thousands of patients miss their hospital appointments.

It costs money – contributes to backlogs and delays – and means that appointments cannot be allocated to others in need.

Some 15 per cent of outpatient appointments at Sydney’s St Vincent’s Hospital used to be missed each year, despite patients being sent reminders.