Andrew Leigh

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

Bridie Lee and Ryan Riethmuller

House of Representatives, 
Parliament House 

Thursday, 10 September 2026

On the morning of 27 August, five members of the Canberra Bilbys Triathlon Club were riding on Gungahlin Drive when a car struck the group. Bridie Lee, 32, died at the scene. Ryan Riethmuller, 39, was critically injured and died in hospital seven days later. I thank the first responders, including parliamentary security guard Ralph Whitten.

Bridie had come to Canberra from Western Australia in 2022 to join the Australian Bureau of Statistics. She leaves her parents, John and Carolyn, her brother David and her sister Amy. At the ABS, Bridie worked on health statistics. Bindi Kindermann said, Bridie brought ‘warmth, kindness and genuine care to every interaction.' Her ABS colleagues called her 'a ray of sunshine, incredibly intelligent, adaptable and positive'. She volunteered across the graduate program, mentored new graduates and threw herself into social events. Bindi remembers mornings chatting with Bridie in the kitchen as she made her 'big cup of tea'.

That same character was evident at the Bilbys. Glen Sturesteps said Bridie ‘made the Bilbys a warmer, more welcoming place', adding simply, 'Bridie cared.' The night before Bridie died, Glen spoke to her about her work. She talked passionately about health, statistics and nutrition because, he said: 'She believed the work mattered. She believed it could improve people's lives.'

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

The Himalayan Floods
House of Representatives, Parliament House

8 September 2026

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

E&OE TRANSCRIPT
DOORSTOP
PARLIAMENT HOUSE, HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES ENTRANCE
MONDAY, 7 SEPTEMBER 2026

SUBJECTS: Albanese Government banning unfair non-compete clauses, wage-fixing cartels and no-poach clauses

ANDREW LEIGH: Good morning, my name is Andrew Leigh. I'm the Assistant Minister for Productivity, Competition, Charities, and Treasury. Right now, millions of Australian workers are being stopped from moving to a better job by so-called non-compete clauses. 

Non-compete clauses are holding workers back. They don't just affect high-paid executives; they're impacting early childhood workers and security guards. Even gardeners are being subject to what we used to call gardening leave. What this means is that we get less productivity and lower wages. e61 research says that the average worker subject to a non-compete loses $2,500 a year, relative to where they would have been without that non-compete clause. 

Labor will scrap non-compete clauses for workers earning below the Fair Work Act's high-income threshold, currently $190,100. We're also getting rid of wage-fixing agreements, which allow employers to collude in keeping wages low. Right now, employers can't collude in keeping prices high, but they can get away with colluding to hurt workers. That's unfair. It hurts productivity and it hurts the dynamism and the mobility that we need to get productivity moving again. Labor is also cracking down on no-poach clauses, which say to firms that they can't poach each other's employees. For example, the no-poach clauses that currently exist in the franchise agreements of some fast-food companies. 

These reforms are vital to productivity. Labor is committed to a more competitive and dynamic economy. As the Assistant Minister for Productivity and the Assistant Minister for Competition, I'm really proud of our reforms in getting national competition policy moving again. The merger reforms that overhauled our merger laws for the first time in 50 years, and the vital work that we're doing on economic dynamism. 

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

Randomising Our Way to Better Policy

Asian Evaluation Week 2026,
Asian Development Bank, Manila

Online Address

Tuesday, 1 September 2026

Thank you for the opportunity to speak at this year’s Asian Evaluation Week.

I thank the Asian Development Bank for bringing together policymakers, practitioners and researchers from across our region.

This year's theme, ‘Put Your Money Where Your Evidence Is’, is  a powerful reminder that we have a responsibility to direct funding and resources towards programs that make a real difference.

At its core, evaluation is about answering a straightforward question: did a policy or program improve people's lives?

That question is surprisingly difficult to answer. We can observe what happened after an intervention was introduced, but we cannot directly observe what would have happened in its absence. Rigorous evaluation helps bridge that gap, because it gives us a credible counterfactual.

Evaluation moves us beyond assumptions. It helps us distinguish between correlation and causation.

Just as importantly, evaluation encourages humility.

Many policies that appear promising fail to deliver meaningful results when tested rigorously. Equally, some simple and inexpensive interventions produce benefits that exceed expectations.

Rigorous evaluation helps policymakers become more curious.

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

How Frictions Reinforce Class

TASA Social Stratification Symposium,
University of Melbourne

Online Address 

Friday, 28 August 2026

I acknowledge the Wurundjeri Woi-wurrung people of the Kulin Nation, on whose lands we meet today, and pay respect to their elders.

Thank you to Jenny Chesters, Penny Toth, TASA and the Social Stratification Thematic Group for convening today’s symposium. Professor Chesters and I worked together at the Australian National University many moons ago, and it has been a pleasure since then to watch her build a body of work that has deepened Australia’s understanding of education, family background, opportunity and social class.

Thank you for the chance to join you virtually to consider one of the biggest questions any nation can ask itself: who gets what chance, and why?

Let me start with a story.

Picture a young worker in her twenties. She has a job in childcare, hairdressing, disability support or aged care. She likes her work, but the pay is modest and the rent keeps rising. One day, a better job comes up. Higher pay, shorter commute, perhaps a roster that makes life a little easier.

Then she remembers the contract she signed on her first day.

Somewhere in the pages, perhaps after the probation clause and before the leave provisions, there is a non-compete clause. It says she cannot work for a competitor for a period after leaving. She does not know whether it is enforceable. She does not know whether anyone would sue. She does know that a letter from a lawyer would be terrifying.

So she stays.

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

Stronger Charities, Stronger Communities
Australian Charities and Not-for-profits Commission (ACNC) Governing For Good Forum

Online Address

Friday, 14 August 2026

I acknowledge the Ngunnawal people where I am recording this and the Wurundjeri people where you are meeting, and pay respects to all First Nations people present, as well as the many charities that work to close the gap.

One of the best books I’ve read this year is Nicholas Epley’s A Little More Social, which argues that most of us would be happier and healthier if we connected with people more often. Drawing on decades of research in social psychology, he makes a powerful case that we should have more conversations with strangers and deeper chats with friends.

Some of that is about individual actions, but it’s also about institutions. A society with thriving charities is one that provides more chances for us to be a little more social. Community groups are essential to building community, and good governance in the charity sector helps the organisations that connect Australians remain effective, trusted and resilient.

Before turning to that topic, I want to thank Sue Woodward for your leadership of the Australian Charities and Not-for-profits Commission, and for bringing us together for this year’s Governing for Good Forum.

I also acknowledge the members of the ACNC Advisory Board, chaired by Sarah Davies. I thank retiring members Myles McGregor-Lowndes, Rosina Loria, Anna Bacik and David Crosbie for their service over the past three years. I welcome new members Alice Macdougall, Ian Murray, Krystian Seibert and Rosy Walia. I congratulate Sarah Davies, Sara Harrup, Ian Hamm and Nick Maisey for their continuing contribution.

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

Melinda Tynan and Cameron Myers
Constituency Statement 

House of Representatives,
Parliament House, Canberra

Thursday, 13 August 2026

I rise today to recognise two outstanding constituents of Fenner.

Melinda Tynan is retiring after decades of public service. Melinda began her career in the New South Wales police force, where she worked directly with people experiencing domestic violence. She was the chief instigator of the first Australasian Women in Policing Conference, held in Sydney in 1996, which helped lead to the creation of the Australasian Council of Women and Policing. The council was incorporated in 1997; Melinda was a founding member and its secretary. In 1998 the ACT Attorney-General appointed her domestic violence project coordinator and an ex-officio member of the ACT Domestic Violence Prevention Council.

Her 2000 thesis, 'Fatal flaws', examined the policing of violence against women in Australia. She later brought that expertise into the Australian Public Service, working on women's safety and responses to trafficking, forced marriage and family violence. Her daughter, Ophelia, tells me that Melinda was also among the key advisers who helped develop Australia's first National Plan to Reduce Violence against Women and their Children. Ophelia described her mother to me as a giant in the field and said she was an extremely proud daughter. After a career spent making women and children safer, Melinda has given her plenty to be proud of.

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

Labor is the Party of Competition and Consumers
Matters of Public Importance

House of Representatives,
Parliament House, Canberra

Wednesday, 12 August 2026

Nine years of the former Coalition Government left Australia with too much market power and too little consumer power. I could not be happier than to be debating the Shadow Treasurer on this MPI about which side of this House stands up for consumers against the power of oversized corporations.

I will take the House back to what the situation was in 2022. When we came to office, competition and consumer penalties were too low. They were being treated by firms as a cost of doing business. The maximum dollar penalty was $10 million, a 10th of what that figure is today. When we came to office, the former government had left payday lending reforms on the shelf. They'd accepted recommendations from a review back in 2016 and released exposure draft legislation the next year, but by 2022 they hadn't done a thing on payday lending reforms.

The former government fought the Banking Royal Commission for ages. Throughout 2016 and most of 2017 they were fighting the Banking Royal Commission, and they only agreed to have the Banking Royal Commission when the banks themselves called for it. It was the four major banks that called for a Banking Royal Commission before the then Coalition Government. Of course, that Banking Royal Commission found widespread misconduct across banking, insurance and financial advice, making 76 recommendations.

Under the former government we saw buy now, pay later explode outside credit regulations. Providers didn't need a credit licence or to comply with responsible banking obligations. Under the Coalition it was buy now, regulate later. They didn't stand up for consumers.

Under the former government, when we came to office, unfair contract terms were legal. Courts could declare them invalid, but there was no offence on a firm that put an unfair contract term in a standard form contract, and that meant small business was getting hurt.

The Hon Clare O’Neil MP
Minister for Housing
Minister for Homelessness
Minister for Cities

The Hon Tanya Plibersek MP
Minister for Social Services

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

Alicia Payne MP
Member for Canberra

David Smith MP
Member for Bean

Caitlin Tough MLA
ACT Minister for the Prevention of Domestic, Family and Sexual Violence
Member for Brindabella

E&OE TRANSCRIPT
DOORSTOP PRESS CONFERENCE
YARRALUMLA, ACT
WEDNESDAY, 12 AUGUST 2026 

SUBJECTS: $300 million investment in crisis accommodation; family and domestic violence crisis; 1.2 million housing target; 2026 Census

ALICIA PAYNE: Today we are announcing that there will be 19 new crisis accommodation homes across the ACT as part of a national investment into crisis accommodation, including around $16 million for the ACT. 

This is just one of the things that we are doing across the board to ensure that Australians have access to the housing that they need, and this is a really important part of it, and I know one that Canberrans will be very pleased to hear about. So I'll hand over to Minister O'Neil. 

CLARE O'NEIL: Actually, when we're going to hear from our ACT colleague first, so Andrew and David, do you want to say a few words? 

ANDREW LEIGH: If we're going to end domestic and family violence, then blokes need to step up. We need to step up and speak out against domestic and family violence, and we also need to support important initiatives like this one: 448 dwellings across the country providing safe, secure places for women and children facing domestic and family violence to go in their moment of peril. 

DAVID SMITH: This is a great announcement today that recognises that FDR happens everywhere right across the country and our responses need to reflect that. So in today's announcement we're providing housing right across the ACT, including my electorate of Bean. 

CLARE O'NEIL: I'll go, Caitlin, and then we'll go to you, and then to you. 

Okay. Good morning, everyone, and I'm really pleased to be with you here today, and I acknowledge my fantastic colleagues behind me who are joining the fight against the crisis of domestic violence that affects us right across Australia.