Andrew Leigh

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

The Anger Machine: Rebuilding Community in the Age of Outrage

Joan Kirner Social Justice Oration,
State Library Victoria, Melbourne

Wednesday, 21 October 2026

Introduction

I acknowledge the Wurundjeri people of the Kulin Nation, the traditional custodians of the land on which we meet, and pay my respects to all First Nations people present. Thank you to Denis Moriarty and Our Community for the honour of inviting me to deliver this oration.

To a teenager with a growing interest in politics, Joan Kirner was a towering figure. Victoria’s first woman premier. Environmentalist. Education reformer. Essendon supporter. And that’s just one letter of the alphabet.

Her post-political legacy was equally significant. Joan Kirner was an inaugural co-convenor of EMILY’s List Australia, and a central figure in Labor’s 1994 decision to use quotas to bring about gender parity. As our party moved towards equality, it seemed that every time I chatted to a female colleague, she had a Joan Kirner story; a tale of how Kirner had encouraged her to run, supported her through a preselection, or picked up the phone to tell her to ignore an ugly attack.

Person by person, Kirner helped change Labor’s parliamentary ranks so they looked more like the nation we represent. I have seen that change in my own career. When I joined the federal parliament in 2010, Labor’s caucus was 36 per cent women. Now, it is 56 per cent women. The dynamics in the room have shifted too. Women and men in the caucus room are more supportive of one another, more inclined to show vulnerability, and kinder to one another. Gender parity hasn’t just changed the policies we put forward; it’s also changed the way we practice politics. 

And it’s the practice of politics that I want to focus on today, because politics has become a seriously angry business. The Australian Federal Police now receives around a thousand reports of threats against federal politicians a year (Basford Canales 2026). Nine out of ten women seeking office say they have experienced online abuse or intimidation (Women for Election 2026). At the last Australian election, neo-Nazis were allegedly paid to heckle the Prime Minister. 

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

From Hairdos to Flat Whites: Franchising a Fairer and More Productive Australia

Franchise Council of Australia CEO Roundtable National Convention Centre,
Canberra

Tuesday, 20 October 2026

I acknowledge the Ngunnawal people, on whose lands we meet, and pay my respects to all First Nations people present. I recognise the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander business owners working in franchising, such as Noonuccal woman Karen Seage, the owner of Snap Underwood, a successful Queensland printing and design business.

Thank you to Jay Westbury and the Franchise Council of Australia for inviting me to open this inaugural CEO Roundtable. I appreciate the Council’s engagement with the government’s reform work, including on retail leasing.

Let me start with a story.

In 1888, a former domestic servant opened a hair salon in Rochester, New York. Her name was Martha Matilda Harper. She had been sent into service at seven, and had spent much of her life looking after other people’s households. Now she was putting her savings, all $360 of them, into a business of her own.

Harper had an unusually persuasive advertisement for her services. Her own hair reached the floor. Customers considering her haircare methods could inspect the evidence before making an appointment.

Most founders have to grow their brand. Harper could brush hers.

Getting customers through the door was harder. Wealthy women were accustomed to having their hair attended to at home. Harper had to persuade them to visit a salon.

As the story goes, Harper found an opening through the music teacher next door. He had no waiting room. She offered her salon to mothers waiting while their children took lessons. While they waited, the mothers could have their hair done (Crockett 2024).

Business grew. Women from other cities wanted access to the same treatment. Harper had to work out how to expand while preserving the quality of the service.

Condolence Speech – Bruce Baird

House of Representatives,
Parliament House

Wednesday, 14 October 2026

I rise to pay tribute to Bruce Baird and offer my condolences to his family. Bruce Baird was my local member of parliament when I was growing up. Before I had any experience of elected officials, I knew him as somebody who took an interest in his community and in the people he represented. As a 19- or 20-year-old, I decided I wanted to become a Justice of the Peace, and you had to apply to your state member of parliament. It was Bruce Baird who happily nominated me to become a Justice of the Peace.

Then, in 1995, with the Labor Party looking for suitable cannon fodder to run in one of the safest Liberal seats in the land, I put my hand up for Labor Party preselection, expecting that I would be running against Bruce Baird. He stepped down as the member for Northcott, and I found myself standing against Barry O'Farrell. At the age of 22, I secured an eight per cent swing for the Labor Party, which I was confident at the time was entirely due to the fluoro posters that we nailed up onto telegraph poles and our enthusiastic campaigning. I suspect, in retrospect, though, that eight percentage points was about the size of Bruce Baird's personal vote, which shifted to us with a new Liberal candidate on the field. Bruce Baird's departure, I suspect, did far more for my electoral prospects than any number of leaflets—and Barry O'Farrell was still elected with a 24 per cent margin, which kept my achievements in perspective.

It said a lot about Bruce and his role as a state MP that people saw him beyond his party affiliation, that they trusted him as their state MP. He made big achievements in state parliament. As a New South Wales minister, he carried the responsibilities of transport and, as many others have mentioned in this debate, helped secure Sydney's bid for the 2000 Olympics. Later, as the federal member for Cook, he brought his experience to the parliament, and it is a loss to this parliament that he didn't have the opportunity to serve as a minister in this place. He continued making serious contributions to public life long after leaving elected office.

The Hon Dr Daniel Mulino MP
Assistant Treasurer and Minister for Financial Services

The Hon Tanya Plibersek MP
Minister for Social Services

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

E&OE TRANSCRIPT
DOORSTOP 
PARLIAMENT HOUSE, CANBERRA 
14 OCTOBER 2026

TOPICS: Addressing financial abuse; Response to PJC report; Experience of victim-survivors; Coerced directorships; Child support, AI; Parliamentary language

MINISTER DANIEL MULINO: Good morning, it's really good to be here with so many colleagues for a really important issue and the release of the Government response to a really important report.

I just want to acknowledge I'm standing next to the Minister for Social Services, Minister Tanya Plibersek, and it's been really important to work with her on this report, this response, but on many of the issues covered today.

Michelle Rowland, the Attorney General, wasn't able to be here, but she's also been very heavily involved in the development of this response.

We have Ministers Ged Kearney and Andrew Leigh here today as well who have been involved in a number of actions that have already been undertaken, and I want to acknowledge Deb O'Neill and Zaneta Mascarenhas who have been on the PJC at the time when this report was developed and have been instrumental in progressing a lot of these ideas.

We've got Dan Repacholi in his envoy role, his Special Envoy role, he's been involved in a lot of these issues as well, and there are so many other members of the Caucus here. I want to acknowledge and thank all of them for being here. It reflects the importance of these issues.

Today we're here to talk about financial abuse. Financial abuse is an insidious crime which affects a lot of people, particularly women in our community. It's all too often invisible but it can have really devastating consequences.

It can take many forms: financial control, controlling someone's access to money, incurring debts in someone's name, controlling the financial system in a way that it takes the form of abuse. And we need to take action on a regulatory front to deal with this.

The Parliamentary Joint Committee on finance and corporations submitted a very important report on this set of issues which included 61 recommendations, and today we respond formally to those recommendations, accepting and supporting, or supporting in principle 58 of those recommendations.

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

Will AI Increase Inequality?

Third JPMorgan AI Conference,
Sydney / Melbourne

Online Address

Tuesday, 13 October 2026

I acknowledge the Ngunnawal people, on whose lands I am speaking with you today, and pay respects to all First Nations people present.

Thank you for the chance to address you today. For my topic, I’ve picked a question that’s been rattling around my head – and perhaps yours – over the past year. ‘Will AI increase inequality?’.

As someone who’s been working on inequality as both a professor and a politician, this strikes me as a question that matters economically.

It’s likely that AI will have substantial aggregate effects. The Australian Treasury (2026) says that ‘AI is the next major general-purpose technology that will push out the global productivity frontier and reshape the global and Australian economies.’

The Productivity Commission (2025) estimates that AI could lift the level of Australia’s multifactor productivity by more than 2 percent over the next decade.

But the question of who gets the benefits is crucial – whether you’re a citizen, a policymaker, or a business leader.

Let’s start with a practical example.

Imagine a customer support agent, two months into the job.

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

E&OE TRANSCRIPT 
Q&A
NATIONAL PRESS CLUB OF AUSTRALIA
WEDNESDAY, 7 OCTOBER 2026

SUBJECTS: Artificial intelligence; AI ethics and human well-being; Market concentration and data centres; Social media minimum age and Digital Duty of Care; AI companions; Workers’ voice in AI adoption; Catastrophic AI risks; Consumer protection and AI shopping agents; AI-generated pornography; International AI competition

CORRIE MCLEOD, NATIONAL PRESS CLUB MODERATOR: Hello and welcome to the National Press Club, and today's Westpac address. My name is Corrie McLeod, and I'm the publisher of InnovationAus.com and a director of the Club here.

We have two speakers today for an artificial intelligence and technology ethics forum. Father Paolo Benanti is an Italian Franciscan Friar, member of the Third Order Regular of St Francis, Catholic priest and academic specialising in the ethical implications of emerging technologies.

Father Benanti is Professor at the Pontifical Gregorian University and holds professorial roles at Seattle's University College of Science and Engineering and the Luiss University in Rome. He is a member of the UN's high level Advisory Board on artificial intelligence, and he is also an AI adviser to the Vatican. He's in Australia as a guest of the Italian Embassy.

Andrew Leigh is the Assistant Minister for Productivity, Competition, Charities and Treasury, and prior to being elected in 2010 Andrew was a Professor of Economics at the Australian National University. He is a prolific author with many books examining the intersection of economics, equity and innovation.

His speech this year titled ‘Rethinking Economic Foundations in an AI World’ looks at the shifts in labour, knowledge and accountability.

In May this year, Pope Leo the 14th signed his first encyclical, Magnifica Humanitas, which addresses artificial intelligence and protection of human dignity. This document has captured the attention of business, technology and government leaders around the world, as we grapple with the speed and power of AI to transform society for better or worse.

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

What Should AI Love?

National Press Club of Australia,
Canberra

Wednesday, 7 October 2026

I acknowledge the Ngunnawal people, on whose lands we meet. My thanks to the Italian Embassy and the National Press Club for organising and hosting this event. It is a pleasure to share the stage with Father Paolo Benanti and our moderator Corrie McLeod.

Today’s discussion matches the arc of how many Australians have been thinking about AI. After ChatGPT launched in 2022, most of us were focused on how it could make us more productive – summarising documents, checking our work or planning holidays.

Since then, progress has been rapid. One measure of AI agents’ ability to carry out complex tasks has doubled roughly every seven months. As the technology has become more capable, the talk has turned to its impact on humanity. 

In these short opening remarks, I want to ask two questions. What can AI do for human wellbeing? And what values should guide our AI systems?

Start with a man with ALS who had largely lost the ability to speak.

In 2025, researchers implanted 256 electrodes in the part of his brain involved in speech. AI decoded his neural signals and turned them into speech almost instantly.

The synthetic voice resembled his own voice from before ALS. He could change his intonation, emphasise particular words and even sing short melodies.

Now let’s move to a more vexed use of AI.

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

Joining the Dots: Towards a Seamless Australian Economy

CEDA

Edith Cowan University City Campus,
Perth

Wednesday, 23 September 2026

I acknowledge the Whadjuk Noongar people as the Traditional Custodians of the lands on which we meet, and pay my respects to Elders past and present. I extend that respect to all First Nations people here today.

Thank you to CEDA and Edith Cowan University for bringing us together, and to my former colleague, the talented economist Professor Colm Harmon, for leading the conversation to follow.

By my count, this is the seventh time I have spoken at a CEDA event. Past talks have covered multinational tax, productivity, job security, gender equality, program evaluation and merger reform. It is good to be back.

CEDA has been part of Australia’s economic conversation since 1960, when it was founded by Sir Douglas Copland. Copland held senior academic posts at the universities of Tasmania and Melbourne. He later became the Australian National University’s first Vice-Chancellor. He was a remarkable institution builder.

For 66 years, CEDA has brought together business, government, academia and the community around a distinctly Australian goal: sustainable long-term prosperity. CEDA forums give governments a place to test policy against business experience and academic evidence. With researchers like chief economist Cassandra Winzar and under the leadership of CEO Melinda Cilento, CEDA is in good hands.

My talk today is about competition policy. But you need not fear that it will get too abstract. We will start with bicycle helmets, move to prefabricated bathrooms, and finish with electric trucks.

I’ve chosen these examples because they each have something to say about making the national economy work better. With Western Australians voting to join the federation in July 1900, our nation sprang into being in January 1901. The economic benefits of federation have been immense, yet 125 years on, the job still isn’t quite done.

Businesses and workers often tell us that they encounter eight regulatory economies. Sometimes the differences are small, but added together, these differences consume time and deter entry. They constrain scale and slow the spread of better technology. The bill arrives through higher prices and weaker productivity.

The Albanese Government’s revitalised National Competition Policy is all about making it easier for workers and firms to operate across Australia. 

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

The Learning State: Building Experimentation into Australian Government

Shann Memorial Lecture

University of Western Australia, 
Perth

Tuesday, 22 September 2026

1. How Many Hoops Should a Jobseeker Have to Jump Through?

I acknowledge the Whadjuk Noongar people, on whose lands we meet, and recognise all First Nations people present. Thank you to the University of Western Australia, to Alison Preston, president of the Economic Society of Australia (Western Australia), and to everyone involved in organising the Shann Memorial Lecture. It is a huge honour to give a lecture bearing Ed Shann’s name. I will say more about Shann shortly, and how his approach to economics fits today’s theme.

But I want to begin with a much more recent Australian story about how our government is using randomised trials to shape government policy.

When people receive income support through Workforce Australia Online, the government sets mutual obligations. Jobseekers can meet these obligations through job applications, training, study and other activities. Each activity is allocated a certain number of points under the Points Based Activation System. The standard monthly target has been 100 points, which typically includes a minimum of four job applications.

The logic seems straightforward. Looking for work takes effort. Requiring more effort should, up to a point, increase the chances of finding a job.

But where is that point?

How many applications should someone be required to submit? How demanding should the points target be? At what stage does an obligation stop encouraging useful job search and begin consuming time that could be spent finding work in other ways?

Trevor Smith, 1931-2026
Condolence Speech

House of Representatives,
Parliament House

Wednesday, 16 September 2026

I rise to pay tribute to Trevor William Edward Smith, who died peacefully at home on 21 August, aged 94, just a few weeks short of his 95th birthday. Trevor was born in London in 1931 and grew up in central London during the Blitz. As a boy, he would report back to air raid wardens on which houses had been damaged. He later served in the air force in Britain and married his beloved Dorothy when he was just 20.

When the family decided to emigrate, they considered Canada but chose Australia partly because the boat schedules worked better. They were among the many 10-pound Poms who made this country home. Trevor worked in communications at Woomera then moved to Canberra in the early 1960s, in time to watch the lake fill. He and Dorothy became Australian citizens here. His career later included a secondment to the US navy, working in Maine and California.

On returning to Canberra, he helped install the sound and vision systems in this building.

As a retiree, Trevor was active in COTA, SCOA and Probus. He made handmade cards, painted garden gnomes, practised photography in his own darkroom and took his children to Canberra Airport simply to watch the planes. Trevor played tennis, racquetball, table tennis and, above all, squash. A left-hander, he was a regular on the ACT masters team and quite possibly the oldest player at the Dickson courts. His daughter Janice joked that by the end he was not terribly mobile around the court, but he still had a wicked drop shot. Remarkably, Trevor was still playing squash until a fortnight before his death.