Andrew Leigh

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

New Report Helps Australians Get a Fairer Deal at the Checkout

25 September 2025             

The latest Albanese Government funded CHOICE quarterly report into supermarket prices released today has revealed Aldi remains the cheapest supermarket followed by Coles, Woolworths and IGA.

The sixth quarterly report gives consumers the latest pricing information on household products by comparing a basket of basic goods and putting a spotlight on home brand products.

CHOICE mystery shoppers visited 104 supermarkets in 27 locations across Australia in June. For a full basket of 15 items, Aldi was the cheapest supermarket again with a total cost of $55.34, followed by Coles ($56.75), Woolworths ($57.20) then IGA ($65.56).

The September report also includes a new ‘freshness assessment’, comparing strawberries from the four supermarket chains. CHOICE found Coles was the winner on both day one, with 100 per cent of punnets showing no signs of decay, and day five, when 58 per cent had no signs of decay.

The Hon Tanya Plibersek MP
Minister for Social Services

Senator the Hon Katy Gallagher
Minister for Finance
Minister for Women
Minister for Public Service
Minister for Government Services

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

Dr Marisa Paterson MLA
Minister for Police, Fire and Emergency Services
Minister for Women
Minister for the Prevention of Domestic, Family and Sexual Violence
Minister for Corrections
Minister for Gaming Reform
Member for Murrumbidgee

Suzanne Orr MLA
Minister for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Affairs
Minister for Climate Change, Environment, Energy and Water
Minister for Disability, Carers and Community Services
Minister for Seniors and Veterans
Member for Yerrabi

Innovative trial to support First Nations fathers and tackle family violence

Wednesday, 24 September 2025

The Federal and ACT Labor Governments are teaming up to deliver an Australian-first trial program that will support Aboriginal and Torres Strait fathers who are using, or at risk of using, violence at home.

The trial Caring Dad’s program will help First Nations fathers to better understand the impact of harmful behaviour, improve their relationships with their children and support them to engage in respectful parenting with mothers.

With almost $1 million funding from the Albanese Labor Government, the ACT Government will deliver and evaluate the culturally safe and community-led trial over the next two years.

The program will be trialled in partnership with Yeddung Mura, a local Aboriginal Community Controlled Organisation.

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

E&OE TRANSCRIPT
PRESS CONFERENCE
YEDDUNG MURA, CANBERRA
WEDNESDAY, 24 SEPTEMBER 2025

SUBJECTS: Caring Dads program to support First Nations fathers and reduce family violence

MARISA PATERSON MLA: Wonderful to be here today to officially launch the trial Caring Dads program. Yeddung Mura has done a huge amount of work developing this program. It's a Canadian program that's been specifically adapted for the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander community here in Canberra. The program is designed to work with dads and men who use violence or harmful behaviours, and work with them to change their behaviour. The program is very focused on connecting fathers with children and working on those relationships. So, it's great to be here and I really commend Yeddung Mura for the work that they've done and for setting up this program and really looking forward to seeing the outcomes that this program delivers for the community.

ANDREW LEIGH MP: G'day, my name is Andrew Leigh, Assistant Minister for Treasury, and it's a real pleasure to be here at the announcement at the beginning of the pilot of Caring Dads at Yeddung Mura. And I'd like to thank the team from Yeddung Mura for showing us around and talking with us about the important work they're doing in the community. The Albanese Government's plan to end violence against women and children within a generation has as part of it, investment in innovative programs to address perpetrator behaviour. As part of that, we're providing $3.3 million to the ACT Government, and $780,000 of that will go to the trial of Caring Dads. It’s a world’s first trial of an innovative program based on a Canadian program, but very much adapted for First Nations people here. It will work with a range of vulnerable cohorts, including those coming out of the Alexander Maconochie Centre, in order to address perpetrator behaviour and ultimately reduce violence against women and children.

ENDS

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

The Politics of Abundance and the Perils of Zero-Sum Thinking

Australian National University

Wednesday, 24 September 2025

I acknowledge the Ngunnawal people, traditional custodians of the land on which we meet, and pay respects to all First Nations people present today. My thanks to Professor Nicholas Biddle for inviting me back to my old school, the Research School of Social Sciences, to speak to students studying Politics, Philosophy and Economics – a degree that showcases three of the Australian National University’s strongest disciplines.

1. Scarcity or Abundance?

‘It’s not a question of enough, pal. It’s a zero-sum game. Somebody wins and somebody loses’.

That line, delivered by Gordon Gekko in Oliver Stone’s Wall Street, captures the cold logic of a worldview that sees progress as nothing more than a fight over spoils. For some, that is not just a film script but a philosophy of life.

It is the essence of a zero-sum mindset. A conviction that the world is a fixed pie. If you gain, then I must lose. If one group advances, then another must fall behind.

I want to argue that politics at its best is the opposite. Politics is about building abundance. Not excess, but capability. The ability of societies to deliver more homes, more affordable energy, more inclusive growth. Abundance is about enlarging the pie so that everyone can share in it. It is about positive-sum outcomes, where cooperation benefits all.

The politics of abundance asks how we can grow together. The politics of scarcity insists we must fight over shares. And in recent years, the politics of scarcity has been on the rise. Too often, debates are framed in zero-sum terms. Immigration is presented as ‘migrants versus jobs’. Gender debates are cast as ‘women versus men’. Climate debates become ‘jobs versus environment’. When politics is narrated this way, ambition shrinks and cooperation falters.

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

The Great Unbinding: Why It’s Time to Scrap Non-Competes

Published in The New Daily

22 September 2025

Imagine being a health worker earning under $80,000, only to find that if you quit, you can’t work in the same occupation for an indefinite period. The geographic scope? Not just your neighbourhood, but the whole of Australia and New Zealand.

Or think of the graduate engineer on $63,000. His contract said that if he moved on, he couldn’t work for a competitor anywhere in Victoria for 12 months. For a young worker just starting out, that felt less like a career ladder, more like a trapdoor.

These aren’t the contracts of CEOs plotting corporate raids. They’re the contracts of ordinary Australians: people trying to pay the bills, build a career, and use the skills they’ve worked hard to earn. Instead, they find themselves shackled by non-compete clauses that say: ‘Don’t even think about moving.’

These aren’t isolated cases. Non-competes now cover around one in five Australian employees: more than three million people. They stifle wages, block mobility, and bottle up ideas. For workers, they punish initiative. For the economy, they act like sand in the gears.

Senator The Hon Katy Gallagher
Senator for the ACT

The Hon Mark Butler MP
Minister for Health and Ageing

The Hon Andrew Leigh MP
Member for Fenner

Alicia Payne MP
Member for Canberra

David Smith MP
Member for Bean

Delivering More Bulk-Billing For The ACT

Monday, 22 September 2025

The Albanese Government is boosting access to bulk billing GPs for Canberrans.

Delivering on the Government’s election commitment, an Expression of Interest (EOI) is now open to find organisations interested in establishing three new bulk billed GP clinics for Canberra. This will deliver more doctors and more bulk billing practices to the ACT.

The three new bulk billed GP practices are part of Labor’s healthcare plan for the ACT under a $24.3 million package.

This investment is on top of Labor’s record investment in Medicare to triple the bulk billing incentive and support practices that bulk billing all of their patients.

The new bulk billing clinics will work alongside a new bulk billed and GP-led Medicare Urgent Care Clinic in Woden, adding to the current network of Urgent Care Clinics in Gungahlin, Dickson, Belconnen, Weston Creek and Tuggeranong.

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

One extra email: a small change that could revolutionise public policy

Published in The Canberra Times

22 September 2025

Every year, thousands of Australian charities are required to file an Annual Information Statement. These filings keep the public Charity Register accurate, help donors know where their money is going, and underpin trust in the sector. Yet despite regular reminders from the regulator, a persistent number of charities still file late.

In the past, efforts to boost compliance drew on a mix of practical tools and professional judgment. Officials might introduce a new communications strategy, simplify the form, or send out further reminders. Some of these steps worked better than others, but assessing impact was difficult. If compliance rates rose, the change was credited; if not, further adjustments were tried.

This year, the Australian Charities and Not-for-profits Commission (ACNC) took a different approach. With the help of the Australian Centre for Evaluation and the Behavioural Economics Team of the Australian Government, it ran a randomised trial. Fifteen thousand charities were split into two groups. Both received the standard reminder email to the organisation’s official address. But half also had an additional reminder sent directly to one of the people legally responsible for running the charity.

The results were clear. Charities that received the extra email were almost six percentage points more likely to file on time, and they filed around three days earlier on average. That small change – sending a second message to the right person – translated into hundreds more charities meeting their obligations, improving transparency, and reducing last-minute scrambles for extensions.

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

Community at the Heart of Small Town Renewal

National Small Town Reinvention Conference
Online Address

Monday, 22 September 2025

I’m Andrew Leigh, the Assistant Minister for Charities – a portfolio that I regard as Assistant Minister for Community-Building. I’m speaking to you from the traditional lands of the Ngunnawal people.

It is a pleasure to join you virtually for the National Small Town Reinvention Conference.

Let me begin by recognising Peter Kenyon. His tireless advocacy has reminded Australians that the future of our small towns will not be written in distant boardrooms or capital cities, but in the energy, imagination and collaboration of local people.

I would also like to acknowledge my state parliamentary colleague, Tony Piccolo, who lobbied for this location, and who shares Peter’s passion for small towns.

In our book Reconnected, Nick Terrell and I discussed both the problem and the solution. We showed how community life has frayed: fewer people volunteering, fewer joining clubs, fewer turning up to local events. But the book was also about renewal. We looked at the ways people are rebuilding community – re-establishing connections, inventing new traditions, and finding practical ways to draw people together again. That rebuilding work is precisely what this conference embodies.

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

 She Who Leads: Launch of the NETRI Report

National Portrait Gallery, Canberra
 

Saturday, 20 September 2025

I begin by acknowledging the Ngunnawal peoples, the traditional custodians of the land on which we meet, and pay my respects to Elders past and present. I extend that respect to all First Nations people here today.

It’s an honour to be with you this afternoon to launch the NETRI Report. My thanks to Dr Madhumita Iyengar for her leadership of Initiatives for Women in Need (IWiN), and to collaborators Raffy Sgroi from Sage Advice and Hari Iyengar from South Asian Federation ACT (SAFACT). Above all, I want to recognise the NETRI participants – the graduates whose energy, ideas and determination are at the heart of today’s celebration.

NETRI is a beautiful word. In Sanskrit, it means “she who leads”. But NETRI is more than a name. It’s a philosophy. It is about recognising the leadership potential that exists in women from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds, and giving that potential room to grow.

When you read the report, you see how NETRI created a space where women could bring their whole selves. It wasn’t about leaving culture at the door, it was about weaving culture into leadership. It was about saying: your heritage, your stories, your experiences are not barriers to leadership; they are the very qualities that make your leadership distinctive.

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

From Wi-Fi to what if?: Andrew Leigh on Australia’s innovation gap

Published in SmartCompany

17 September 2025

When Australian scientists at CSIRO developed the technologies behind modern Wi-Fi, it was a breakthrough that reshaped how people connect and communicate. The organisation secured some royalties, but the technology never became the foundation for a home-grown industry. That experience captures a familiar Australian pattern: we are good at creating knowledge, but less effective at turning it into lasting economic capability.

For decades, Australia’s economic model has relied heavily on adoption. We pride ourselves on being quick to pick up technologies developed elsewhere, and adoption will always matter. But adoption alone is no longer enough. One of Australia’s productivity challenges arises from the fact that only 1-2 percent of our businesses engage in innovation that is new to the world. As the Productivity Commission has observed, many businesses may not realise how far they sit from the global frontier. It’s like a track athlete running alongside the race leader, unaware that they’re being lapped.

As the Strategic Examination of Research and Development has noted, the weak point is often experimental development: the messy, unglamorous work of moving from prototype to product. In the most successful economies, firms invest heavily in this stage, working side by side with customers. In Australia, the investment is lighter. Our universities are strong in basic research and have grown stronger in applied research. But too often ideas do not get pulled through to the market. The result is a conveyor belt of discoveries that stop short of the customer.