Andrew Leigh

EVIDENCE-BASED POLICING

Speech to ‘What Works in Policing for Community Safety and Our People’, the Global Evidence-Based Policing Conference 2024, Melbourne
Tuesday, 3 September

I acknowledge the Wurundjeri people of the Kulin nation, the traditional owners of these lands, and pay respects to all First Nations people present.

I am chuffed to speak to such a distinguished group of practitioners and scholars in policing, from Australia and around the world. Special thanks to those who have travelled internationally to be here. You are integral to creating, developing, and implementing evidence-based approaches to policing

My thanks to David Cowan for the invitation to speak, and for the work he has been doing here in Australia to spearhead evidence-based policing, as Superintendent in charge of the Organised Crime Division by day, and President of the Australia and New Zealand Society of Evidence Based Policing by night.

David Cowan – like so many of you in this room – is a randomista. Not only is he seeking to run experiments, but to build support for long-term evidence-based policing in Australia, and around the world.

BUILDING A MORE CONNECTED COMMUNITY

Address at opening of Salesforce ‘Ohana Floors
Thursday, 29 August 2024

Thanks very much, Andrew. Like Uncle Charles, I'd like to acknowledge the Gadigal People of the Eora Nation on whose lands we meet today, to pay respects to all First Nations people present, and to acknowledge so much that the not-for-profits in the room do for supporting First Nations communities.

I started the day watching the sun rise on Maroubra beach this morning with a group called WNOW, founded by Tadgh Kennelly and David Eccles. It's a group that gets a bunch of blokes together on beaches to do a bit of exercise. We did our push ups and our burpees, and then circled up to talk about our mental wellbeing. Tadgh and Dave founded WNOW because they were worried about the epidemic of loneliness in Australia. They now have chapters spreading not only across Australia, but now around the world. It's just one example of the many extraordinary charities and not-for-profits helping shape Australia for the better.

SIMPLIFYING GENEROSITY: HARMONISING CHARITABLE FUNDRAISING LAWS

Address at the Australian Charities and Not-for-profits Commission Regulator’s Day
Thursday, 15 August 2024

Thank you to Commissioner Sue Woodward AM and to the staff of the Australian Charities and Not-for-profits Commission for the invitation to speak to you today.

And thank you to all of you who are joining the event, for the contributions you’ve made to develop and improve the regulatory environment of Australia’s charities and not-for-profits.

Seven years ago, I joined representatives of the charity sector to launch the #fixfundraising campaign to harmonise Australia’s fundraising laws.

Celebrating the Australian Institute of Sport's support for our Paris Olympians
Constituency Statements, Federation Chamber
Wednesday 14 August 2024

Most of our Olympians are coming home today and with them 53 medals—the best medal tally for Australia since the Sydney games. There have been some remarkable stories over in Paris: 43-year-old basketballer Lauren Jackson earning her fifth Olympic medal; cyclist Matthew Glaetzer, who lost four bronze medal races in the past four Olympics, beating thyroid cancer and finally getting an Olympic medal in Paris; and Jessica Hull becoming the first Australian woman to claim a medal in the 1,500m and propelling the athletics team to its best result since Melbourne in 1956. We saw Saya Sakakibara, the BMX gold medal winner, with an emotional tribute to her brother Kai. We saw Jess Fox taking home six individual medals in total over her various games, and we've now seen her sister Noemie win in the first-ever kayak cross event. The Fox family in itself would have ranked 29th on the medal table. Kayak cross was supported by the Albanese government's $20 million Paris preparation fund. Then we had 14-year-old skateboarding gold medallist, Arisa Trew, who said to her parents that she would now like a pet duck.

Taxation (Multinational—Global and Domestic Minimum Tax) Bill 2024 - Second Reading Speech

It's important to see this in its historical and international context. No government in Australian history has done more on multinational tax fairness than the Albanese government. No government around the world is doing more to improve multinational tax integrity than Australia.

THE FUTURE OF MEDICARE: RESEARCH-INFORMED POLICY FOR BETTER ACCESS AND HEALTH

Academy of the Social Sciences in Australia Symposium
Wednesday 19 June 2024, Canberra

I acknowledge the Ngunnawal elders, on whose traditional lands we meet, and pay respect to all First Nations people here today.

In Monty Python and the Holy Grail, a father proudly tells his son ‘When I first came here, this was all swamp. Everyone said I was daft to build a castle on a swamp, but I built in all the same, just to show them. It sank into the swamp. So I built a second one. That sank into the swamp. So I built a third. That burned down, fell over, then sank into the swamp. But the fourth one stayed up. And that's what you're going to get, Lad, the strongest castle in all of England.’

Building Medicare wasn’t easy. In the 1960s, economists John Deeble and Dick Scotton of the University of Melbourne carried out an industry study of the health care sector. In a recent article, Ross Williams recounts their work (Williams 2024). Using data on 5000 people across four states, combined with Ronald Henderson’s poverty survey, Deeble and Scotton showed the problems in the existing system.

They found numerous shortcomings. Pensioners got free health care, but low-income workers didn’t. Around one in five Victorians lacked health insurance, and therefore risked a double whammy – if they became badly ill, they could lose their life savings to medical bills. Meanwhile, the system was regressive, since the most affluent enjoyed tax deductibility of both premiums and co-payments.

DISCOVERING WHAT WORKS: WHY RIGOROUS EVALUATION MATTERS*

Australian Evaluation Showcase
Monday 17 June 2024, Canberra

*** CHECK AGAINST DELIVERY ***

I acknowledge the Ngunnawal people, the traditional owners of these lands, and pay respect to all First Nations people present.

You might think that certain truths are so self-evident that they transcend the need for evidence. For example, in the area of education, surely we know that:

• Parents are more likely to get their kids to school with the threat of losing income support.
• Literacy tests are a fair representation of students’ ability.
• Early childhood staff have the skills they need. 
• A health program that is co-designed with students and educators will address adolescents’ risk behaviours.

ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE AT WORK: CHANGING DEMAND FOR AI SKILLS IN JOB ADVERTISEMENTS*
Australian Bureau of Statistics and Reserve Bank of Australia Joint Conference on Human Capital
11 June 2024, Sydney

I acknowledge the Gadigal people of the Eora nation, the traditional owners of these lands, and pay respect to all First Nations people present.

Barely a day goes by without someone discovering a new use for artificial intelligence. Financial institutions are using AI to detect fraud, by looking for unusual transaction patterns. AI integrated with virtual reality is being used to create highly realistic training simulations for pilots, first responders and surgeons. Musicians are using AI to create new instruments and vocal processes. Educators are using AI to personalise the learning experience. Dating coaches are using AI to train people on finding their perfect match. Gardeners are using AI to choose which plants will work best together, schedule optimal watering times and devise pest control strategies. Carers are using AI to craft fictional stories that are perfectly tailored for young listeners.

AI engines have matched and exceeded humans on a range of tests. As Stanford University’s AI Index 2024 Annual Report points out, artificial intelligence has exceeded human benchmarks on tasks such as reading comprehension, image classification and visual reasoning (see Figure 1). As AI has surpassed these benchmarks, researchers have had to identify new challenges, such as competition-level mathematics, where AI has moved from 10 per cent of human-level performance in 2021 to 90 per cent on the latest estimates (Maslej et al 2024).

 A MORE COMPETITIVE AUSTRALIA
Appropriation Bill (No. 1) 2024-2025 
Consideration In Detail, 6 June 2024

When Labor came to office, Australia's economy was insufficiently competitive. We had seen one of the lousiest decades of productivity growth in the postwar era. Australia's household living standards had suffered, and real wages had flatlined as a result of what they described as a ‘deliberate design feature’ of their economic architecture. And so Labor, since taking office, has set about injecting a little bit more dynamism, a little bit more competition, into the Australian economy.

We know that the Australian economy under the former government had some serious competition problems. We know that, over that period, we saw an increase in market concentration in many industry sectors. Work by the OECD's Dan Andrews and Macquarie University's Elise Dwyer has shown that, if you compare Australia and the United States across 17 industries, the Australian economy is more concentrated than the US economy in 16 out of those 17 industries. This isn't just a matter of Australia being a medium-sized economy. If you look over the period from 2006 to 2020, Dan Andrews and Elise Dwyer find that the Australian economy became more concentrated, not less. Our size grew, but the market concentration problem got worse.

MR BILL WOOD AM
Constituency Statement, House of Representatives
Thursday, 30 May 2024

Labor people are proud of the fact that ours is Australia's oldest and greatest political party, formed in 1891, 133 years ago. But Bill Wood had a special claim. He could say he had been a member of the Australian Labor Party for more than half its existence.