Sky News Agenda with Kieran Gilbert - Thursday 20 June 2024
E&OE TRANSCRIPT
TV INTERVIEW
SKY NEWS AGENDA WITH KIERAN GILBERT
THURSDAY, 20 JUNE 2024
SUBJECTS: Government funded CHOICE reports to help Australian shoppers, ACCC inquiry into supermarkets, Government’s cost-of-living measures, Reducing inflation, Reliable renewables versus risky reactors.
KIERAN GILBERT, SKY: Aldi has the cheapest prices for groceries nationwide according to a report on supermarket prices. The survey conducted by CHOICE, it found Aldi was 25 per cent cheaper compared to Coles and Woolies. Basket of the same 14 items, you can see there, totalled more than $51 at Aldi, $68 plus at Coles, and $69 up - $69.33 at Woolies. The report was commissioned by the Albanese Government in response to national frustration over growing costs. Let's bring in the Assistant Minister for Competition, Charities and Treasury, Andrew Leigh. What did you make of the findings? I don't think a lot of people would be surprised by those numbers.
ASSISTANT MINISTER ANDREW LEIGH: I think people weren't surprised that Aldi was the cheapest, but many were surprised by the magnitude of the difference. 25 per cent is really significant. And you've also got non-trivial differences between Coles and Woolworths. Woolworths is cheaper in Sydney, Coles is cheaper in Melbourne. That's also important information for shoppers to have. Information is power, and we're trying to put that information in the hands of consumers by funding CHOICE to do its grocery price comparisons not every two years but every three months, with the next one coming out in September. We want to make sure that shoppers have power to go down the road and get the best deal. That puts competitive pressure on a sector which has pretty high levels of market concentration compared to other countries.
Read moreABC Brisbane Mornings - Thursday 20 June
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RADIO INTERVIEW
ABC BRISBANE MORNINGS WITH ELLEN FANNING
THURSDAY, 20 JUNE 2024
SUBJECTS: Randomised policy trials and the Australian Centre for Evaluation.
ELLEN FANNING, HOST: Andrew Leigh is the Assistant Treasurer, a former professor of economics, no less, and earlier this week, he gave a stirring speech calling for a bit of evidence before we, well, let's say, threaten parents with the suspension of welfare payments if they don't get their kids to school. Or we make our surly teenagers sit through healthy living lectures. And why? Because although these programs seem like, well, they would work, Andrew Leigh reckons they probably don't. He joins me now. Dr Leigh, thank you so much for joining us.
ASSISTANT MINISTER ANDREW LEIGH: Real pleasure, Ellen, thanks for having me on.
FANNING: Yes, I have enjoyed watching your passions over the years for research and they are undimmed in office. I love the start of this speech where you sort of list four things that would seem to be, as the Americans would say, self-evident. Cut the welfare if they won't send the kids to school. Literacy tests always are a fair representation of student ability. And let's just stick to one more if you lecture the adolescents about risky behaviour, they'll undertake less risky behaviour. That's all obviously true, isn't it, Andrew?
Read moreDoorstop Parliament House - Thursday 20 June 2024
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DOORSTOP
PARLIAMENT HOUSE
THURSDAY, 20 JUNE 2024
SUBJECTS: Government funded CHOICE reports to help Australian shoppers, Inquiry into the Food and Grocery Code of Conduct.
ASSISTANT MINISTER ANDREW LEIGH: Well, good morning everyone. Thank you very much for coming along on a beautiful crisp Canberra morning. My name is Andrew Leigh, the Assistant Minister for Competition, Charities, Treasury and Employment.
Information is power and the Albanese Government is putting that power in the hands of consumers. With today's CHOICE price monitoring report on the cheapest supermarket prices. We know many Australians are facing cost-of-living pressure. And we know that CHOICE has a strong track record of carrying out these price monitoring surveys. But in the past, the surveys have done been done every two years, and some of the information has been behind the paywall, available to CHOICE subscribers only. What's different about the report being released today is that it's available to everyone and will be carried out every three months, with the next report coming down before the end of September.
Read moreABC Sydney Mornings with Fran Kelly - Thursday 20 June 2024
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RADIO INTERVIEW
ABC SYDNEY MORNINGS WITH FRAN KELLY
THURSDAY, 20 JUNE 2024
SUBJECTS: Government funded CHOICE reports to help Australian shoppers, ACCC inquiry into supermarkets, Nuclear power.
FRAN KELLY, HOST: Aldi is cheaper than the two major supermarket chains. Fans, did you get that? Aldi is the cheapest, cheaper than Coles, cheaper than Woolies. The first comprehensive survey by CHOICE, commissioned by the Federal Government as part of its inquiry into competition within the supermarket sector, or the lack of it, has confirmed that Aldi is the cheapest by a whopping 25 per cent. Mind you, in many suburbs across Sydney, there is no Aldi within cooee, of course. So, that leaves you with Coles and Woolies and CHOICE found that their basket of goods was about a dollar apart. Andrew Leigh is the Federal Assistant Minister for Competition. Andrew Leigh, welcome to Mornings.
ASSISTANT MINISTER ANDREW LEIGH: Thanks, Fran. Great to be with you.
KELLY: Andrew Leigh, I could have told you Aldi was cheaper than the Coles and Woolies, but what do you take from this first CHOICE quarterly report?
LEIGH: You could have told me they were cheaper, but could you tell me they were 25 per cent cheaper? That for many people has been one of the surprising factors out of the CHOICE price monitoring report. The other factor is some of the differences across jurisdictions. In Sydney, for example, Woolworths is the cheapest supermarket, in Melbourne, it's Coles and so that's also useful information for consumers.
Read moreUnchain My Job - Opinion Piece
UNCHAIN MY JOB
Bianca, a young hairdressing apprentice, didn’t feel she was receiving enough training. So she looked at switching jobs. But it turned out that Bianca’s employment agreement barred her for working for any competitor within 10 kilometres for a year.
There’s also Betty, who was terminated from her job as a store manager. Even although she had been fired, she was still bound by a clause in her employment agreement that prevented her from working anywhere in the Northern Territory. If she wanted to work as a store manager anytime in the next twelve months, Betty would have to move interstate.
And then there’s Madison, who worked at a consulting firm. After experiencing sexual harassment and discrimination, she negotiated a resignation. But the firm still did its best to uphold a clause in her employment agreement that prevented Madison from taking a job with any client of her former employer.
Read morePedals of Possibility: Unleashing the Power of Two Wheels
PEDALS OF POSSIBILITY: UNLEASHING THE POWER OF TWO WHEELS
In 1816, Europe found itself grappling with the aftermath of a catastrophic volcanic eruption half a world away. The eruption of Mount Tambora in Indonesia precipitated what came to be known as the ‘Year Without a Summer,’ casting a shadow of agricultural despair across continents. Crops failed, livestock perished, and the very fabric of nineteenth century society, so heavily reliant on equine power, frayed under the scarcity of food and the loss of horses. It was within this crucible of necessity and ingenuity that Baron Karl von Drais, a German civil servant with a keen mind for invention, introduced a creation that would eventually revolutionize human mobility: the ‘Draisine’, or as it is more romantically known, the ‘Laufmaschine’ (which translates as running machine.
Read moreABC Canberra Drive with Ross Solly Thursday 13 June - Transcript
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RADIO INTERVIEW
ABC CANBERRA DRIVE WITH ROSS SOLLY
THURSDAY, 13 JUNE 2024
SUBJECTS: Reducing poker machines in ACT clubs, more than half a million full-time jobs created under the Albanese Labor Government, political donation reforms, inflation, cost-of-living help, PwC scandal
ROSS SOLLY, HOST: Andrew Leigh is the Member for Fenner and joins us on the program. We were going to talk ‑ we are going to talk about unemployment figures. Good afternoon to you, Dr Leigh.
ASSISTANT MINISTER ANDREW LEIGH: Good afternoon, Ross, great to be with you.
SOLLY: And you as well. Can I just ask you, though, what your view is on the role of clubs and poker machines in a community like the ACT? You've lived in this community for a long, long time. Do they play a valuable role, the clubs, and do you share their concerns that if you remove all the pokies that the clubs will no longer exist as we know it?
Read more2CC Breakfast with Stephen Cenatiempo Tuesday 11 June - Transcript
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RADIO INTERVIEW
2CC BREAKFAST WITH STEPHEN CENATIEMPO
TUESDAY, 11 JUNE 2024
SUBJECTS: Prevalence of AI jobs in Australian economy, Coalition advocating austerity measures, Peter Dutton abandoning climate change targets, reform of the NDIS, impact of renewables on ACT power prices.
STEPHEN CENATIEMPO, HOST: All right, time to talk federal politics with the assistant Minister for competition charities and Treasury and member for Fenner, Andrew Leigh. Andrew, good morning.
ASSISTANT MINISTER ANDREW LEIGH: Good morning, Stephen.
CENATIEMPO: Quite a number of things to talk about this morning. Artificial intelligence at work, changing demand for AI skills in job advertisements. Talk to us about this.
Read moreHow Monopolies Hurt the Economy - Opinion Piece
HOW MONOPOLIES HURT THE ECONOMY
When my three boys were younger, there was one sure way to start a family fight: play Monopoly. The board game would start calmly enough, with some teasing over who got to be the battleship, the boot and the thimble. But within the hour, lucky dice rolls would create a clear divide between the moguls and the marginalised. Sure, Monopoly might be the only place where rich and poor have an equal chance of going to jail. But like life, the game entrenches privilege. When you’re rich, you buy houses and hotels, which bring in rent from the other players. As the monopolist brother started taunting their soon-to-be-bankrupt siblings, yelling was sure to follow.
Monopolists aren’t evil – they’re just acting in line with their incentives. Writing in 1776, Adam Smith observed: “The interest of the dealers, however, in any particular branch of trade or manufactures, is always in some respects different from, and even opposite to, that of the public. To widen the market and to narrow the competition, is always the interest of the dealers.”
Read moreAfternoon Briefing with Greg Jennett 6 June - Transcript
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TV INTERVIEW
AFTERNOON BRIEFING WITH GREG JENNETT
THURSDAY, 6 JUNE 2024
SUBJECTS: Government’s productivity agenda, reform on non-compete clauses, release of 10th Australian Charities Report.
LORNA DUNKLEY (ABC NEWS): Assistant Minister for Treasury, Andrew Leigh, says Australia needs to put greater emphasis on productivity to curb slowing GDP growth. The economy grew just 0.1 per cent the first quarter of this year.
Despite this, Mr Leigh told Afternoon Briefings', Greg Jennett, he's optimistic about the future of Australia's economy.
ASSISTANT MINISTER ANDREW LEIGH: The Coalition's productivity agenda tends to be about cutting; cutting wages, cutting regulation. Ours is about investing, investing in people, investing in infrastructure and investing in institutions like our National Competition Policy reforms.
That's how we're going to get the sustainable wage growth into the future. I'm really confident that we're going to harness the best the technology has to offer in order to increase living standards.
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