Andrew Leigh

E&OE TRANSCRIPT
RADIO INTERVIEW
ABC CANBERRA DRIVE WITH ROSS SOLLY
WEDNESDAY 15 MAY 2024

SUBJECTS: Budget 2024; Tax Cuts for Every Australian Taxpayer; Energy Bill Relief for Every Household; Funding for ACT Infrastructure; Canberra to Sydney Rail Link

ROSS SOLLY (HOST): Here's a statistic for you, Andrew Leigh. I know you like your statistics.

ASSISTANT MINISTER ANDREW LEIGH: Absolutely.

SOLLY: Should everyone get the $300 energy bill rebate on our ABC Canberra Drive poll at the moment, you'd be happy to know 55 per cent of ABC Canberra Drive listeners say yes, 45 per cent say no, Andrew Leigh.

LEIGH: The simple answer to the 45 per cent is that energy companies don't know your income, they don't know your wealth. What they know is whether you're a concession card holder.

If you're a government and you're rolling out energy bill relief, you can either do it to everyone or you can do it just to concession card holders. You can't do any more fine-grained targeting than that. Our view was that middle-income Australians were doing it tough, and we wanted to extend energy bill relief to them. So, the most straightforward way of doing that was to provide it to everyone.

E&OE TRANSCRIPT
TV INTERVIEW
AFTERNOON BRIEFING WITH GREG JENNETT
WEDNESDAY 15 MAY 2024

SUBJECTS: Budget 2024; Tax Cuts for Every Australian Taxpayer; Energy Bill Relief for Every Household; A Future Made in Australia

GREG JENNETT (HOST): Well, time for some government perspective now on all things Budget. Andrew Leigh is the Assistant Minister for Treasury matters, so closely linked to the processes and the planning that got us here. And Andrew's back with us in the studio. Welcome once again.

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

JENNETT: Energy bill relief. Is the Government claiming in giving $300 to every household that you are at least in part, making good on the $275 reduction promise?

LEIGH: That hasn't been at the forefront of our thinking. Really, this is about providing energy bill relief at a time when households are under pressure. We've done it this way because it's the most efficient and straightforward way of providing that energy bill relief and because it reduces inflation. So, that's making the Reserve Bank's job easier. It's really important that fiscal and monetary policy work closely together. We've done that in past Budgets. We've done that again in this Budget.

ACT FEDERAL LABOR TEAM

E&OE TRANSCRIPT
PRESS CONFERENCE
PARLIAMENT HOUSE
WEDNESDAY, 15 MAY 2024

SUBJECTS: Labor’s Budget; delivering for Canberra; public service; infrastructure; ACT public housing debt; Independent candidates.

SENATOR THE HON KATY GALLAGHER, MINISTER FOR FINANCE: I’m here with my colleagues, Federal ACT representatives Andrew Leigh, David Smith, Alicia Payne. We’re really pleased to be here the morning after the night before of the Budget with a very strong investment in Canberra. Obviously, the Budget as a whole had a focus on cost-of-living without adding to inflation, but also had an eye on the future and seizing the opportunities that are coming with the transformation to Net Zero economies through the Future Made In Australia. There’s a lot of investment in Canberra. We’ve gone for many years under the former government not being recognised, either for our role as the nation’s capital or as a city on our own. And this budget deals with that, continues the work we’ve done in the previous two budgets, there’s investment in jobs, in supporting households with cost-of-living and our role as the nation’s capital through infrastructure investments. So it’s a very positive budget for Canberra and I’m going to hand to my colleagues now to focus on a couple of the key initiatives.

THE HON DR ANDREW LEIGH MP, MEMBER FOR FENNER: Well, thanks very much Katy. And this is a budget that delivers for all Australians, but a budget that really looks after Canberra. And one of the reasons for that is you’ve got the extraordinary Katy Gallagher, former ACT Chief Minister and Minister for Finance, sitting around the Expenditure Review Committee table, the Cabinet table, making decisions that don’t leave Canberra out. We saw in the Liberals’ last budget, the ACT get just one fifth of our fair share of infrastructure spending. This budget does right by the people of Canberra. One of the important aspects of the Budget is that every Canberra taxpayer gets a tax cut. That tax cut is a bigger tax cut than they would have received for four out of five Canberra taxpayers. We want Canberrans to earn more and to keep more of what they earn. And these tax cuts that’ll flow from 1 July are fairer, more efficient and will do more for the ACT economy than they would have done before we rejigged them. I’ll hand now to my colleague Alicia Payne to say a few words about other aspects of the Budget for Canberra.

ACT FEDERAL LABOR TEAM

ALBANESE GOVERNMENT INJECTS OVER $350 MILLION IN CANBERRA TO SEE OUR CITY THRIVE

The Albanese Government values Canberra’s role as the national capital and is making the investments in the 2024-25 Budget to rollout transformative projects and upgrade local infrastructure that will support our growing city to thrive.

Only a Federal Labor Government can work hand-in-hand with the ACT Labor Government to deliver the investments that Canberra needs to grow, while supporting local jobs and maintaining Canberra as the national capital.

This Federal Budget will inject almost $250 million to revitalise the AIS facilities in Bruce and ensure they are modern and fit-for-purpose for Australia’s elite and aspiring athletes.

SUBJECTS: Australian Institute of Sport Funding; Canberra Stadium; Ironman; Budget; Cost of Living relief; making HECS fairer; Commonwealth Prac Payment; Hamas-Israel Conflict; University Protests; High Court decision

LEON DELANEY (HOST): First up today the Federal Member for Fenner, the Assistant Minister for Competition, Charities, Treasury, Employment and probably a few other things that we don't know about. Andrew Leigh. Good afternoon.

ANDREW LEIGH: Good afternoon, Leon. I have to reassure you and your listeners there's no secret ministries with me.

DELANEY: I'm very relieved to hear that. Canberra's been getting a lot of love in the last couple of days. Obviously, we saw earlier this week the report from the committee inquiry into making Canberra great again, because I find that, as a phrase, much easier to remember than the actual name of the inquiry. And there were a lot of positives to come out of that. Today, of course, we've seen the announcement of $250 million for the revitalisation of the Australian Institute of Sport. What will that pay for?

LEIGH: Well, this is going to pay, Leon, as you said, for important investments in making sure that the AIS is ready for Brisbane 2032. That'll include the accommodation and the work around that precinct. The AIS, formed in 1981, was fundamental to Australia's success in the Sydney 2000 games. And we're investing again, eight years out from Brisbane in order to make sure that this facility is world class. That reflects the Federal Government's commitment to Canberra. You've had the investment in the National Art Gallery, the National Museum, in light rail. We are a government who takes Canberra seriously and recognises that investing in Canberra, is investing in the nation and investing in the nation's capital. This is really exciting. It was great to be out there this morning and chatting away with some of the sports people, including triathlete Zoe Clarke and runner Michael Roeger, as well as others in various sports who are going to be part of the future of elite sport.

E&OE TRANSCRIPT
RADIO INTERVIEW
HIT104.7 WILKO AND COURTS
MONDAY, 6 MAY 2024

SUBJECTS: Port Macquarie Ironman, Making HECS-HELP fairer.

NEIL WILCOCK (HOST): I know that a lot of people who are listening might have student debt if obviously you racked it up while you're at school and then maybe, like, you've just been in the workforce for a little while, but you haven't been earning enough to start paying things back, so maybe you've got quite a lot there. So, we've got MP Andrew Leigh on the phone. Good morning, Andrew.

ASSISTANT MINISTER ANDREW LEIGH: G'day. Great to be with you.

WILCOCK: Oh, there you are. Andrew, quickly, we know that you're away at the moment, so you're not in town. Is it because you're going to be an Ironman? Is that what you were doing?

LEIGH: Yes. I raced the Port Macquarie Ironman yesterday as my third Ironman. So, I think that now makes me the only politician stupid enough to have done all three Australian Ironman races.

E&OE TRANSCRIPT
TV INTERVIEW
SKY NEWSDAY WITH KIERAN GILBERT
THURSDAY, 2 MAY 2024

SUBJECTS: Government’s responsible cost-of-living relief, impact of spending from the states on inflation, lack of competition in the beer industry, applications open for advocates to become designated complainants, Port Macquarie Ironman.

KIERAN GILBERT: Joining me live now in the studio is the Assistant Minister for Competition, Charities and Treasury, Andrew Leigh. Thanks for your time. Is this a bit of a worry, the cash splash from the states, Queensland in this case, when it comes to the inflation challenge the Government and the country faces right now?

ANDREW LEIGH: Well, Kieran, I think all relief is welcome for households and all those Queensland households will be seeing tax relief on 1 July, as we put in place a tax cut for all taxpayers. In our last Budget we had the federal support for energy bill relief. That's something we believe is a responsible, targeted cost-of-living measure as we look to work in concert with the Reserve Bank to reduce inflation.

The Hon Julie Collins MP
Minister for Housing
Minister for Homelessness
Minister for Small Business

CONSUMER AND SMALL BUSINESS ADVOCATES TO HAVE SPECIAL POWERS TO RAISE COMPLAINTS

Applications are now open for interested consumer and small business advocates to apply to become a designated complainant – allowing them to submit complaints to the competition and consumer watchdog for response within 90 days.

Labor knows that consumer and small business advocates play an important role in identifying and bringing attention to governments, policy makers and the community on significant and systemic issues impacting Australians.

Designated complaints functions have operated successfully in the United Kingdom for some time, where they are known as ‘super-complaints’.

E&OE TRANSCRIPT
RADIO INTERVIEW
ABC CANBERRA – DRIVE WITH ROSS SOLLY
MONDAY, 22 APRIL 2024

SUBJECTS: AI SCAMS, VIOLENT CONTENT ON SOCIAL MEDIA PLATFORMS, SOCIAL MEDIA AND MENTAL HEALTH, CANBERRA TO SYDNEY RAIL

ROSS SOLLY (HOST): Andrew Leigh, good afternoon to you.

ANDREW LEIGH: Good afternoon, Ross. Great to be with you.

SOLLY: And you too. Andrew Leigh, your government has picked a fight here with Elon Musk. Are you comfortable with taking him on and demanding that he remove videos from his social media platform?

LEIGH: Look, absolutely. Being a billionaire doesn't put you above the law. And in this case, X, formerly known as Twitter, is clearly in the wrong. It should abide by the decision of the eSafety Commissioner. Julie Inman Grant is somebody with immense experience in this field, and X comes to this with a very poor track record. There's a recent report by Reset Australia which looked at the ability of these platforms to spread misinformation in one particular area that was around eating disorders and found that they weren't filtering their ads and indeed they were targeting young people with information that encouraged eating disorders. We know there's political misinformation being spread on these platforms. Simply, they can't be above the law. They need to be abiding by basic standards of decency, not making fun of Australia's content standards in the wake of two terrible tragedies.

SOLLY: Where is the line on this, though? If Elon Musk says that this is attack on free speech, that it's censorship, where do we draw the line? And is it a slippery slope? Andrew Leigh, if we sit there and say, ok, you've got to remove this, where do we go next with that?

LEIGH: I remember when we were doing this in law school, Ross, one of the classic lines was that free speech doesn't extend to the right to shout fire in a crowded theatre. There's no notion that free speech is absolute. It needs to be balanced against the interests of, in this case, the victims of these terrible crimes. We also need to make sure that we're strengthening the laws here. Our government is reviewing the Online Safety Act. We want to give more powers to ACMA to scrutinise the systems and processes to make industry rules. Hopefully, the coalition will come along with us on that. They've flip flopped a bit. They need to now come on board and holding big tech to account.

  Labor’s Making Merger Law Fit For A Modern Economy - Op Ed

Economists know two big facts about mergers. On the upside, size can bring economies of scale. Larger firms can deploy their network to produce goods and services more efficiently.

On the downside, monopoly isn’t just an infuriating board game. When firms control a market, they tend to cut back output and raise prices. There’s a reason that much of corporate strategy is devoted to keeping competitors out: when you’re the only player, the game looks a whole lot sweeter.

Encouraging firms to enjoy economies of scale while curbing monopoly power is at the heart of merger laws. Most mergers are not anti-competitive, and can be beneficial to the economy. But some mergers deserve closer scrutiny, to ensure that they are providing real benefits.

Unfortunately, Australia’s current system for scrutinising mergers is unfit for a modern economy. Analysis from the Australian Treasury’s Competition Taskforce finds that there are around 1400 mergers taking place annually. Yet the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission only sees around 300 of these mergers. Three out of four mergers fly under the radar.

This system looks even odder in an international context. Almost every advanced country, including the United States, Japan, Canada and all European Union members, has a system that requires the compulsory notification of mergers. Australia is an outlier in not requiring merger notification. The result is that our competition watchdog is flying blind.

It’s hard to imagine anyone arguing that if we were building a merger approval system from scratch, Australia’s current system is optimal. There are no less than three pathways, which contributes to needless confusion and delays and can create an opportunity for strategic behaviour to avoid detection.  And for the most part it isn’t transparent, with only a fraction of mergers reviewed by the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission every year done so publicly. There is too little available data on mergers and acquisitions, in an age where companies themselves are relying heavily on data.