Andrew Leigh

The Least of These: Dignity, Justice, and the Fight Against Inequality

Dr Andrew Leigh MP

Assistant Minister for Competition, Charities and Treasury

Assistant Minister for Employment

Catholic Social Services Australia Conference

Sydney

19 March 2025

Thank you for the opportunity to address you today. I acknowledge the Gadigal people of the Eora nation and pay my respects to all First Nations people present. Their connection to community and country reminds us of our ongoing responsibility to care for each other.

The Gospel of Matthew teaches us powerfully:

‘Truly, I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me.’ (Matthew 25:40)

This teaching resonates deeply with Australia’s ideals of fairness and community. Yet, our society today faces a significant challenge: inequality. Inequality matters profoundly - not just economically, but morally, socially, and spiritually. It shapes opportunities, influences life outcomes, and determines who shares in our national prosperity.

In reflecting upon inequality today, I’d like to begin with a thought experiment developed by the Dutch economist Jan Pen.

Imagine all Australians marching in a one-hour parade, their height reflecting their wealth.

At first, you wouldn’t see anyone - the poorest Australians, submerged by debt, would be underground. Several minutes would pass before you see people the height of tiny insects, representing those with minimal savings and precarious jobs. At half-time, the parade participants would be barely waist-high, reflecting an average wealth level that is far below what many expect.

It isn’t until the last few minutes that the parade gets dramatic. Australians become giants, several metres tall, owning investment properties and multiple cars. In the last seconds, billionaires appear, their heads literally in the clouds. The richest Australian would tower over 46 kilometres high - far above Mt Everest.

This image vividly captures the scale and drama of inequality in Australia today.

The Historical Journey of Australian Inequality

Yet it was not always like this. As I documented in my book Battlers and Billionaires, Australian history shows fluctuations in inequality, shaped by policy, events, and the collective actions of citizens.

When British settlers first arrived in 1788, inequality was limited - not due to idealism, but survival. Governor Arthur Phillip’s invitations to dinner famously concluded, ‘Please bring your own bread,’ reflecting the scarcity of resources and the reality that inequality was limited by necessity.

Yet inequality quickly rose through the nineteenth century, driven by land distribution favouring the wealthy. Under Governor Lachlan Macquarie, who ruled the colony from 1810 to 1821, more than half the land granted went to just the top 10 per cent of settlers. By the late nineteenth century, disparities between landowners and labourers were immense. Historian Stuart Macintyre describes colossal extremes between the luxurious life of pastoralists like Richard Casey and the hard labour endured by workers like Jock Neilson, who struggled through bush labour with minimal wages and harsh living conditions.

The early twentieth century brought change. In 1907, the Harvester Judgement established a basic wage designed to lift families out of poverty. Australia saw the creation of institutions such as the Commonwealth Conciliation and Arbitration Court, introducing worker rights into the national conscience. Still, stark inequalities remained, with large segments of society excluded from prosperity.

However, the post-war period between the 1940s and 1970s marked what economists call the ‘Great Compression.’ Strong unions, progressive taxation, expanded public services, and affordable housing policies dramatically reduced inequality. For several decades, Australians experienced significant upward social mobility and rising standards of living for the majority.

Yet since the 1980s, Australia has seen what economists describe as a ‘Great Divergence,’ reversing the gains of earlier decades. Today, the top 1 per cent of income earners receive nearly 10 percent of national income, nearly doubling their share from 40 years ago. Wealth inequality is even more extreme, with the richest fifth owning more than 60 times the wealth of the bottom fifth.

This widening gap is not just economic - it profoundly affects people’s everyday lives. Those at the bottom face greater health challenges, including a stark difference in life expectancy - Australians in the richest fifth of the population live an average of six years longer than those in the poorest fifth. The poorest Australians have seven fewer teeth on average due to poor dental care. In education, the wealth gap translates into substantial resource disparities between affluent and poorer communities.

Why Inequality Matters

Inequality does not simply represent a difference in wealth; it shapes our society. Excessive inequality erodes social cohesion, reducing empathy and undermining community bonds. When wealth is concentrated among a few, society becomes fragmented. Our sense of collective responsibility diminishes, and the fabric that binds us as Australians weakens.

Catholic social teaching stresses the inherent dignity of every person, the importance of community, and the imperative to act justly towards one another. From Pope Francis’ call for inclusive economies to teachings on the common good, Catholic faith underscores the urgency of addressing rising inequality.

For too many Australians, the promise of a fair go - the belief that effort and hard work determine success, not birth or background - has felt increasingly out of reach. Inequality is not just an abstract economic issue; it affects our communities, our health, our opportunities, and our sense of national cohesion.

No government is perfect, but I want to argue today that ours has done more to address inequality than any government in well over a decade.

Taking office three years ago, on the tail of the Covid pandemic, we have acted decisively to ensure that prosperity is shared more fairly across our society.

Lifting Wages and Supporting Secure Work

One of the most direct ways to reduce inequality is by lifting wages and ensuring job security. Since coming to office, the Albanese Government has delivered consecutive wage increases for 2.6 million Australians, particularly benefiting low- and middle-income earners. These pay rises ensured that minimum wage workers were not left behind as the cost of living rises.

Furthermore, our government has tackled insecure work by introducing stronger protections for casual employees who want to transition to permanent work, establishing minimum standards for gig economy workers, and enforcing ‘same job, same pay’ provisions to prevent labour hire workers from being exploited. These reforms help ensure that Australians can rely on stable incomes, reducing the financial precarity that fuels inequality.

From Monopoly to Lego: Building a More Competitive Economy From the Ground Up

Dr Andrew Leigh MP

Assistant Minister for Competition, Charities and Treasury

Assistant Minister for Employment

Corones' Law Competition Reform Event

Sydney

19 March 2025

I acknowledge the Gadigal of the Eora Nation. I pay my respects to Elders past and present and extend that respect to First Nations people taking part in today’s event.

Fresh out of law school, I had the privilege of working as one of Justice Michael Kirby’s High Court associates. I answered the phone, put thousands of letters in envelopes, made hundreds of cups of Ceylon Orange Pekoe tea and occasionally had the chance to do some legal research (Leigh 2016).

One of the things I learned was that lawyers would be lost without resources like Corones’ Competition Law (Svetiev 2023). Pages dog-eared and tabbed to death, Corones is a trusted source of how the courts have ruled and how arguments have been won and lost.

Corones texts also stand as a record of reform. Over many editions, it has captured everything from judgments on the original 1974 legislation, to reforms allowing third parties to access infrastructure in the 1990s, to the introduction of criminal cartel sanctions in the 2000s.

And today, a new round of competition reforms takes shape. This includes the new merger regime – the largest shakeup of Australia’s merger settings in half a century. And it includes a revitalised National Competition Policy agenda. These are the two areas I want to cover today, with a focus on the microdata underpinning these macro reforms.

Building an innovative economy

Ultimately, competition reform is about improving the long-term prosperity of the Australian people. This means getting the policy settings right if we want to build a stronger, more resilient and dynamic economy.

Think of the end-game as more like Lego than Monopoly. In Monopoly, one person gets everything while everyone else watches in frustration. In Lego, all the players get to build something – though in both cases, stepping on a piece can be painful.

As US congressman Jake Auchincloss put it, ‘Everybody, when they think about playing with Legos, has this sense of creativity and empowerment.’ (Klein 2025)

Competitive markets help ensure Australians pay fair prices for goods and services (Leigh 2024a). Without competition, businesses can charge whatever they like – kind of like airport food courts, where a ham and cheese sandwich requires a mortgage.

Competition also promotes choice and freedom.

The challenge is Australia’s competitiveness has been declining since the 2000s, while market concentration has nearly doubled since 2010 (Chalmers and Leigh 2024).

Using microdata to get a better picture

The Australian Government’s establishment of a Competition Taskforce within the Treasury in 2023 reflects the importance we place on competition reform and finding solutions.

In just over a year, the Competition Taskforce has made significant contributions.

This includes using microdata to identify competition issues and develop tailored policy and regulatory responses (Leigh 2024b).

For example, the Competition Taskforce has relied on data to:

• develop a robust evidence base on the prevalence and use of non‑compete clauses in Australian labour contracts to inform policy (Andrews and Jarvis 2023, ABS 2024)
• provide new and powerful insights into how competition can reduce airfares (Majeed, Breunig and Domazet 2024)
• explain patterns and trends in mergers and show how competition has declined in Australia (Competition Taskforce 2024).

Understanding competition

Unit‑level records that track businesses and households over time allow granular analysis of the way policies are influencing the economy.

Using bigger datasets, more refined econometric techniques and most up to date theories, economists have provided new insights on trends in market concentration and the relationship between competition and productivity. 

For example, researchers found an increase in market power partly explained Australia’s productivity growth slowdown. Industries with the greatest increase in concentration also had the greatest increases in markups (Hambur 2021).

In this context, high-growth firms act like Lego builders in the economy – constantly assembling, adapting, and expanding their creations. Rather than dominating like a monopoly, these firms thrive by snapping together innovative ideas, new markets, and fresh talent, driving the majority of turnover and employment growth.

Typically small and young, they grow by more than 20 per cent over a three-year period, often reshaping the landscape and challenging the older, more rigid structures of established incumbents. Think of them as the startups disrupting the economy – just as streaming services disrupted DVDs, Uber disrupted taxis, and toddlers disrupt your ability to get a full night’s sleep. As vital builders of sales and employment, a decline in high growth firms can lead to a less dynamic, less flexible economy (Majeed et al., 2021).

Concentration hot spots

The Competition Taskforce is working with the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission to develop a microdata screening tool to identify concentration hot spots. This innovative tool leverages the increasingly detailed geospatial data that the Australian Bureau of Statistics has added to its microdata assets.

The resulting tool will identify regions or segments of the economy that are already very concentrated, where further market consolidation through mergers and acquisitions poses the greatest risk to competition. Concentration hotspots are like a heat map of where Monopoly is being played a little too well, allowing policymakers to find solutions before someone tries to build hotels on every property.

The Taskforce’s use of administrative data to systematically understand economic activity at the local level will be a novel approach to competition policy both in Australia and among our peers. It will complement the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission’s thorough knowledge of markets developed through its many inquiries and day-to-day experience administering the competition laws.

This hot-spot tool should help the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission administer the new merger system and inform decisions about the sectors requiring mandatory notification. After all, if a Monopoly player already owns Park Place (or Park Lane), it’s best for the other players that they don’t own all the other dark blue properties. When monopolists dominate the board, it can be expensive for everyone else in the economy to move forward.

These examples showcase how increased availability of microdata has transformed the way we can use empirical evidence in the policy decision making process: to better identify issues, understand the problems, and develop effective and targeted solutions.

Microdata gives us the tools and understanding to target policies.

National Competition Policy

Building a more productive, dynamic and resilient economy and giving Australian consumers access to a wider range of higher quality products and services at lower prices from across the country and overseas requires collaboration and trust.

That is why Australian, state and territory governments have been working together to coordinate competition reform efforts under a revitalised National Competition Policy agenda.

Almost 30 years ago, states, territories and the Commonwealth agreed to put competition policy front and centre by agreeing to the National Competition Policy following the Hilmer Report. This was the era of economic reform, as well as grunge music, dial-up internet, Blockbuster video rentals, Tamagotchis, and arguing over whether Ross and Rachel were really on a break.

The original Hilmer reforms outlined a set of competition principles that transformed our economy in ways we largely take for granted today. These included structural reform of public monopolies, introducing competitive neutrality so that government businesses do not enjoy unfair advantages over their private peers, arrangements for third-party access to nationally significant infrastructure, and an obligation on all governments to review and reform laws that restrict competition.

These reforms, which focused on removing regulatory barriers in the non-traded sector, were credited with boosting Australia’s GDP by 2.5 per cent – equivalent to around $5,000 per household per year today. That’s basically the economic equivalent of finding an extra $50 in your jeans – twice a week, every week. 

Commonwealth, state and territory treasurers agreed in November to revitalise National Competition Policy to drive growth, improve choice and put downward pressure on prices (Chalmers 2024). Renewing the Government’s commitment to put competition policy front and centre once again but tailored for the new challenges and opportunities of the modern economy – we’re now a digital economy, we’re looking for ways to make the transition to net zero at least cost, and we have a growing care and support economy.

We have also updated the original National Competition Principles to drive better outcomes for the community, requiring governments to consider the competition impacts of government decisions and establish protections against poorly managed privatisations, empower consumers and address remaining barriers to the movement of goods, services and workers across the country.

Competition reform isn’t straightforward. If it was easy, past governments would have done it already. Competition reform can be like assembling flat-pack furniture – you know it’ll be worth it in the end, but along the way, there’s a lot of frustration and some pieces don’t seem to fit where they should.

Trajectory of the Government’s Competition Reforms

This recommits governments to a new wave of pro-competitive reforms over the next decade. Work is already underway on a first tranche of five priority reforms to ease the cost-of-living pressure and reduce regulatory complexity. The five pillars are:

• Streamlining commercial planning and zoning systems to improve competition by encouraging firm entry and expansion and reducing business and regulatory costs.
• Lowering barriers to the adoption of international and overseas standards in regulation. As a first step, we are fast-tracking the recognition of equivalent or superior overseas product safety standards, rather than relying only on domestic standards, to deliver safer and cheaper products. Following this, we will be working collaboratively to identify the priority sectors for the next phase of this reform.  
• Supporting modern methods of construction such as prefab and modular by levelling the regulatory playing field with traditional methods of construction, unlocking time and cost savings, overcoming labour shortages and boosting lagging construction productivity.
• A nationally consistent worker screening check to boost labour mobility for care workers.
• Developing broader rights to repair, including for agricultural products, which could reduce repair costs and waste by providing consumers and businesses more choice for repair services.

State and territory reforms are backed by the Government’s $900 million National Productivity Fund. This allows for the fiscal benefits of these reforms – which mostly flow to the Commonwealth – to be shared with those states and territories that choose to implement them. The idea is to encourage states and territories to undertake meaningful reforms for the benefit of the Australian people and the economy.

And this is just the start. The Government will continue to work closely with industry and state and territories to build a more productive economy through national pro-competitive reform options.

Further reform rounds will be informed by community consultation and the Productivity Commission’s five new inquiries.

They include inquiries into:

• creating a more dynamic and resilient economy
• building a skilled and adaptable workforce
• harnessing data and digital technology
• delivering quality care more efficiently, and
• investing in cheaper, cleaner energy and the net zero transformation.

Significant benefits flow from National Competition Policy

Significant benefits will flow from a revitalised National Competition Policy.

To help us understand the magnitude of the benefits, the Productivity Commission modelled the impact of 19 potential competition reforms (Productivity Commission 2024).

The Productivity Commission estimated that a revitalised National Competition Policy could result in an ongoing boost to GDP of up to $45 billion, an increase of up to $5,000 for every Australian household per year as well as lower prices by an estimated 0.7 to 1.5 per cent in the long run. This is significant. It is an enduring benefit for consumers, businesses and the economy. On-par with the highly successful reform efforts of the 1990s and 2000s.

And the benefits of the reforms extend beyond their economic effect. For example, reforms in the care and support economy would increase the quality of care in areas such as health and disability support.

There is tough reform work to be done, but the benefits of delivering meaningful reform speak for themselves.

Closing remarks

I’d like to leave you with this final thought.

When Danish carpenter Ole Kirk Christiansen created his iconic company almost a century ago, he named it LEGO after the Danish phrase ‘leg godt’, which means ‘play well’ (LEGO n.d).

Christiansen understood that openness, rather than monopolistic drive, enabled dynamic, productive and constructive play that benefitted everyone involved.

Instead of a blood sport where players knocked each other out one by one, participants benefitted when they could create, learn, collaborate and share ideas.

Today, Lego is the world’s most popular toy, with consumers buying over 30 billion blocks per year.

Raising my three sons, I found that an afternoon spent playing Lego inspired creativity and laughter. Our evenings spent playing Monopoly often ended in tears.

In much the same way, we are all grappling with changes that are shifting the parameters of the playing field. The digital economy and transition to net zero are equivalent to that moment in time that Congressman Auchincloss described as ‘…throwing the board’, when people ‘get so frustrated that another person – out of, frankly, pure luck – ends up on Park Place and is able to just extract rents every time you cross or you pass go’ (Klein 2025).

Through microdata-driven analysis of market concentration, revitalised National Competition Policy, and the continuation of productive collaboration between the Commonwealth, state and territory governments, competition should foster innovation and opportunity. More Lego, less Monopoly.

ENDS

THE HON CLARE O’NEIL MP

MINISTER FOR HOUSING AND HOMELESSNESS 

SENATOR THE HON KATY GALLAGHER

SENATOR FOR THE ACT

THE HON DR ANDREW LEIGH MP

MEMBER FOR FENNER

ALICIA PAYNE MP

MEMBER FOR CANBERRA

DAVID SMITH MP

MEMBER FOR BEAN

MEDIA RELEASE

More Homes, More Opportunities: Delivering For Canberra 

Monday 17 March 2025

The Albanese Government’s Housing Australia Future Fund (HAFF) is delivering 757 new social and affordable homes for the Canberra region, part of more than 13,000 across Australia under the first round of the HAFF.

The Housing Australia Future Fund is a $10 billion investment and part of the Albanese Government’s plan to deliver 55,000 new social and affordable homes over the next 5 years, including for at-risk women, children, key workers and veterans.

This follows the Albanese Government starting the largest house build in Australia’s history, building 1.2 million homes for Australians over 5 years.

Details of the Housing Australia Future Fund homes that are being delivered in Canberra appear below.

THE HON JULIE COLLINS MP

MINISTER FOR AGRICULTURE, FISHERIES AND FORESTRY

MINISTER FOR SMALL BUSINESS

SENATOR THE HON MURRAY WATT

MINISTER FOR EMPLOYMENT AND WORKPLACE RELATIONS

THE HON STEPHEN JONES MP

ASSISTANT TREASURER AND MINISTER FOR FINANCIAL SERVICES

THE HON ANDREW LEIGH MP

ASSISTANT MINISTER FOR COMPETITION, CHARITIES AND TREASURY

ASSISTANT MINISTER FOR EMPLOYMENT 

MEDIA RELEASE

New government action to help tradies get paid on time and in full

Friday 14 March 2025

The Albanese Labor Government is taking further action to help ensure tradies and subcontractors in the construction industry are paid on time and in full. 

Our immediate actions are: 

• Leveraging 20-day maximum payment times through the Commonwealth Supplier Code of Conduct and promoting similar expectations of Government Businesses like the NBN, Western Sydney Airport and Inland Rail. 
• Extending unfair trading practice protections to small businesses. 
• Boosting funding for ASIC to identify and take enforcement against more dodgy directors for illegal phoenixing conduct, focusing on the sectors that are more at risk of such conduct like construction.  

We are also releasing the Government’s response to the Review of Security of Payment Laws. 

The Review of Security of Payment Laws (the Review), undertaken by Mr John Murray AM, recommended ways to improve consistency across the different state and territory laws on security of payment to foster a fairer and more resilient construction sector. 

Since the release of the Review many states and territories have amended security of payment laws, but the former federal government failed to respond. 

Today our Government is reaffirming its commitment to fairness and bolstering support for small businesses that are contractors, subcontractors and suppliers in the construction sector. 

We are taking action to support the objectives of the Murray Review, including: 

• progressing our tripartite work with businesses and unions on a Building and Construction Industry Blueprint to develop effective arrangements to protect the security of payments for contractors down the supply chain; 
• leveraging the Commonwealth Supplier Code of Conduct which requires suppliers contracted to non-corporate Commonwealth Entities to reflect the Commonwealth’s maximum payment times in their contracts with subcontractors, and by promoting similar expectations of Government Businesses; 
• using wider policy levers to assist small businesses facing an imbalance of bargaining power, such as, providing guidance to help identify unfair contract terms in standard contracts, and extending unfair trading practices protections to small businesses; 
• taking action to support the adoption of eInvoicing; and 
• boosting funding for ASIC to improve its ability to identify and take enforcement action against those involved in illegal phoenixing conduct, focusing on the sectors that are more susceptible and impacted by such conduct, particularly construction.  

This builds on the Albanese Labor Government’s significant achievements to date through the Building Ministers’ Meeting, the National Construction Industry Forum, the overhaul of the Payment Times Reporting Scheme and the introduction of new laws for disputes about unfair contracts for independent contractors. 

SENATOR THE HON KATY GALLAGHER

MINISTER FOR FINANCE
MINISTER FOR WOMEN
SENATOR FOR THE ACT

The Hon Andrew Leigh MP

ASSISTANT MINISTER FOR COMPETITION, CHARITIES AND TREASURY 
ASSISTANT MINISTER FOR EMPLOYMENT

ALICIA PAYNE MP

MEMBER FOR CANBERRA

DAVID SMITH MP

MEMBER FOR BEAN

MEDIA RELEASE

Thursday, 13 March 2025

More Crisis Accommodation For Canberra

The Albanese Labor Government will deliver more housing for women and children experiencing family and domestic violence in Canberra, as part of our commitment to ending gender-based violence in one generation.

Local not-for-profit Marymead CatholicCare Canberra & Goulburn will receive $3.5 million in funding to deliver up to seven dwellings under the Crisis and Transitional Accommodation Program, which will offer housing options to those in the Canberra community experiencing family and domestic violence.

The announcement exceeds Labor’s 2022 pledge to deliver an additional $1 million in funding to extra crisis accommodation in the ACT.

The project will be among 42 funded under the Program nationally, which is investing $100 million to support the building, remodelling or purchase of crisis or transitional accommodation for women and children experiencing family and domestic violence, and older women at risk of homelessness.

The Program is part of the Australian Government’s investment of more than $4 billion in women’s safety to support the National Plan to End Violence against Women and Children 2022-2032.

The project is expected to welcome women and children later in 2025 and will be used as crisis and transitional accommodation for the next 20 years.

Quotes attributable to Minister for Women, Senator the Hon Katy Gallagher

“This funding delivers on a commitment we made at the last election to help keep women and children in Canberra safe.

“Our Government has committed more than $4 billion to ending violence against women, including towards this important investment in housing for women and children affected by domestic and family violence.

“We know this is a priority and the Albanese Government is investing nearly 20 times more funding in crisis and transitional accommodation and programs than the previous Coalition government did in a decade.”

Quotes attributable to the Hon Andrew Leigh MP, Assistant Minister for Competition, Charities and Treasury

“A safe place to sleep should never be a privilege. This investment isn’t just about bricks and mortar - it’s about dignity, security, and the chance to rebuild.

By expanding crisis accommodation, we’re ensuring that more women and children can escape violence without facing the added trauma of homelessness."

THE HON JULIE COLLINS MP

MINISTER FOR AGRICULTURE, FISHERIES AND FORESTRY

MINISTER FOR SMALL BUSINESS

THE HON STEPHEN JONES MP

ASSISTANT TREASURER

MINISTER FOR FINANCIAL SERVICES

THE HON DR ANDREW LEIGH MP

ASSISTANT MINISTER FOR COMPETITION, CHARITIES AND TREASURY

ASSISTANT MINISTER FOR EMPLOYMENT

MEDIA RELEASE 

Friday 14 March 2025

Albanese Labor Government to extend unfair trading practice protections to small businesses 

The Albanese Government will extend a crackdown on Unfair Trading Practices to small businesses after last year’s commitment to protect consumers.   

We heard during consultation on protecting consumers from Unfair Trading Practices that it is important to also extend protections to small businesses, who face power imbalances when dealing with larger businesses. 

This is why the Albanese Labor Government will also address this significant gap in legal protections for small businesses, where thousands of businesses – including in the construction, agriculture and retail sectors – have experienced unfair practices that cause substantial harm. 

The Albanese Labor Government will ensure that small businesses are fairly protected when dealing with large businesses. 

This builds on action we have already taken to level the playing field for Australia’s record 2.6 million small businesses including: 

• extending unfair contract term protections to more businesses and introducing penalties for firms that breach them;  
• improving the Franchising Code of Conduct; and
• delivering new action to improve small business payment times. 

Treasury will consult this year on the design of protections for businesses, including on whether a principles-based prohibition should apply and whether specific unfair trading practices should be targeted to protect small businesses.  

This will complement a statutory review of the amendments to strengthen unfair contract term protections that the Albanese Labor Government legislated in 2022. 

The consultation will consider how Unfair Trading Practice protections can be used to address practices that harm small businesses.  

Noticing the dog that didn't bark

Published in The Canberra Times

12 March 2025  

The Reserve Bank’s decision to cut rates marks a historic moment. Never before have we managed to reduce inflation without a sustained experience of joblessness. In the past, curtailing inflation meant thousands of people thrown out of work – suffering the loss of income and dignity that comes with being unable to find a job. Now, for the very first time, we’ve managed to get price growth down without the human toll of mass unemployment.

To see how remarkable this experience has been, it’s worth going back through how past episodes of inflation have been handled.

In 1973, an oil embargo in response to the Yom Kippur War caused world oil prices to more than double. The global oil price shock pushed annual inflation in Australia to a peak of 18 percent. Unemployment went up from 4 percent to 6 percent, leaving many Australians claiming unemployment benefits for the first time. The combination of double-digit inflation and higher unemployment led to the term ‘stagflation’. Australia entered recession.

Inflation was briefly brought back down in 1977 before a second oil shock hit. The 1979 Iranian revolution caused a drop in global oil production. Again, oil prices doubled. Again, Australian inflation took off, with annual inflation exceeding 10 percent. Again, unemployment rose – this time from 6 percent to 10 percent. In the early-1980s, Australia – like many other countries around the world – went into recession.

Inflation was brought under control, but only briefly. By the mid-1980s, inflation began to increase again, averaging around 8 percent for the second half of the decade. Unemployment, which had fallen to 6 percent by the late-1980s, spiked upwards. The early-1990s recession, caused largely by Australia’s efforts to curb demand and reduce inflation, saw unemployment peak at 11 percent. Factory workers in their fifties were laid off. Some would never work again. Among young people, one in five were unable to find work.

Fast forward to the post-pandemic inflation spike, which has hit countries around the world. In 2023, the UK economy entered recession. In 2024, New Zealand entered recession, and finished the year with unemployment having risen to 5 percent. Canada has also seen a significant rise in joblessness, with the unemployment rate rising through 2024, and now standing at nearly 7 percent.

Why competition reform is more fun than it looks and more significant than you thought

Good morning, everyone. I acknowledge the Whadjuk Nyoongar people, the Traditional Owners of the lands on which we meet. I pay my respects to their Elders past and present and extend that respect to First Nations people taking part in today’s event.

Thank you to the Economic Society of Australia for the invitation to address the first Economics on the Swan event for the year.

Economics is not only a powerful policy tool but a rewarding profession. Among other things, economics provides an opportunity to focus on wellbeing and not just dollars, a chance to be bold and a platform for rigorous evidence (Leigh 2023). And when research and reform come together, economics is more fun than it looks.

Fun can be hard

Dr Rainer Newberry, a geologist from the University of Alaska, came up with the 3‑point fun scale which was adopted by the outdoor adventure community (Strout 2022).

‘Type I Fun’ is fun in the moment. ‘Type II Fun’ is unpleasant in the moment but satisfying in retrospect. ‘Type III Fun’ is not fun at all, even in retrospect. In a Western Australian context, Type I fun might be a pleasant day exploring Rottnest Island.

Type III Fun might be where a four‑wheel drive adventure turns into getting lost in the Gibson Desert, risking the fate of Mr Gibson.

Type II Fun is how I’d think about the Busselton Ironman. Long, hot and gruelling, but satisfying to reflect upon.

Competition reform is like Type II Fun for economists. It is no policy paradise or island stroll. But it is no data desert either. Competition reform is somewhere in between – hard work at the time but worth the effort.

That was the experience of the Hilmer reforms in the 1990s. The process took almost a decade, ideas were contested, and cooperation across governments required constant vigilance. Yet the benefits were massive – equating to a $5,000 boost in average annual household incomes.

New challenges

Today, the Australian economy faces a different set of challenges and a new set of competition reforms are underway.

The Australian Government’s establishment in 2023 of a Competition Taskforce within the Treasury reflects the importance we place on competition reform. We gave the Taskforce – supported by an expert advisory panel – a brief to look at whether Australia’s competition laws, policies and institutions remain fit for purpose.

Already, we have implemented the biggest overhaul of merger laws in half a century, started a process to revitalise National Competition Policy and initiated reforms to check the monopoly and monopsony power of big supermarkets.

Beyond that, we have also been consulting on a new regime to address the anti‑competitive conduct of large digital platforms. The practices of large platforms are presenting an increasing challenge to competition regulators around the world. We have drawn on the recommendations of the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission in its 5‑year Digital Platform Services Inquiry and the experience of several countries, including the European Union and United Kingdom, which have recently established new laws to regulate platforms on an ex ante basis.

Today’s talk will cover how research and reform have intertwined. First, to build the case for reform. Second, to shape our competition settings. And third, to set us up for economy‑wide reforms, which may be more significant than you think. And I will finish with some thoughts on the future for economic research and competition.

E&OE TRANSCRIPT
TELEVISION INTERVIEW
ABC AFTERNOON BRIEFING WITH OLIVIA CAISLEY

SUBJECTS: Cyclone Alfred; Ukraine; The Coalition’s promise to limit public servants’ ability to work from home; Tariffs

4 MARCH 2025

OLIVIA CAISLEY: To unpack that and much, much more today, let's bring in our political panel, LNP Senator Paul Scarr and Assistant Minister for Competition Andrew Leigh.

Welcome to you both to the program. There is plenty of news to get through today. Paul let's start with you quickly first. You're in Queensland, which is in the path of Cyclone Alfred.

PAUL SCARR: Yep.

CAISLEY: How prepared is your community?

SCARR: I think the community is as prepared as it can be. There's very close liaison between all three levels of government: the Federal Government, the State Government, the local government authorities. Sandbags are being made available, people are being given warnings and suggestions and recommendations as to how to prepare. And the community's coming together, as Queenslanders always come together, whether or not it's in North Queensland or in the southeast corner, we come together at times like this and help each other.

CAISLEY: And Paul, we just heard there before the WA Premier Roger Cook referring to the American Vice President as a “knob” over that extraordinary argument that took place in the Oval Office over the weekend. Is that an appropriate way for a state leader to be speaking?

SCARR: I don't believe so. I don't believe it is. And I don't believe it's helpful. And from my perspective, I think our focus here in Australia should be on Australia's commitment to the people of the Ukraine, and in respect of that commitment, it's quite bipartisan.

And before the last election, the Coalition Government had a very strong position with respect to assisting the people of Ukraine and Ukraine's right to its sovereignty, its own secure sovereign borders, and that policy has continued, notwithstanding there was a change in government after the last election. So, I think we should focus on what Australia's policy is.

CAISLEY: And Andrew, what did you think?

ANDREW LEIGH: Well, US politics is endlessly interesting, and it's always tempting to express your view every time something happens over in the US. But we're really focused right now on the challenges that Australia faces.

As Paul said, preparing for Cyclone Alfred, which is looking like making landfall either on Thursday or Friday of this week.

I would urge any of your viewers who are able-bodied to consider signing up for EV CREW, a great on-the-ground operation which allows you to help out in the local community.

And as Paul said, there's bipartisan support for Ukraine. Australia has given $1.5 billion in assistance, of which $1.3 billion is military aid.

THE HON ANDREW LEIGH MP
Assistant Minister for Competition, Charities, and Treasury
Assistant Minister for Employment
MEMBER FOR FENNER

ALICIA PAYNE MP
MEMBER FOR CANBERRA

DAVID SMITH MP
MEMBER FOR BEAN

TRANSCRIPT

E&OE TRANSCRIPT
PRESS CONFERENCE
CANBERRA
TUESDAY, 4 MARCH 2025

SUBJECTS: Historic reforms to support community foundations.

GENEVIEVE JACOBS, CEO HANDS ACROSS CANBERRA: Thank you all for coming. I put out the call to our fellow charities yesterday to say could we form a posse? So, could we get community foundations and local charities together? Because this is obviously an incredibly important announcement from the Assistant Minister.

We're delighted to have Assistant Minister Leigh, who's also the Member for Fenner here with us at the premises that we share with Bendigo Bank, for the headquarters of Hands Across Canberra. Also, the Member for Canberra, Alicia Payne, and the Member for Bean, David Smith, and a whole representative floor of the people who do good, good for the community in Canberra.

And also our wonderful guests, the CEO of Community Foundations Australia, Ian Bird and Krystian Seibert who has come to us from Philanthropy Australia, who both flew down for this occasion.

ALICIA PAYNE, MEMBER FOR CANBERRA: Good morning, I am Alicia Payne, the Member for Canberra. It’s wonderful to be here this morning with so many representatives of really important organisations here in Canberra that do such important work for our community.

And, of course, Genevieve Jacobs from Hands Across Canberra and Ivan Slavich, here at Bendigo Bank, who do so much work for our community, for this really great announcement from Andrew Leigh as part of the important work he's doing around philanthropy and charities. And great to be here with him, and also David Smith, the Member for Bean. Now I’ll hand over to Andrew Leigh.

ASSISTANT MINISTER ANDREW LEIGH: Well thanks Alicia. It is great fun being a parliamentary representative alongside Alicia and Dave, who are just so immersed in their communities. Dave, who has done the big walk with Menslink – Ben Gathercole, thank you very much for all the work that you do. Alicia, who is so deeply involved in her community. We've got representatives here from Project Independence. Glenn Keys, thank you very much for being here today. From St John's Ambulance, from Karinya House, from Cancer Council ACT and from many other organisations. Thank you all for being here to support this important announcement around community foundations.