Andrew Leigh

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

E&OE TRANSCRIPT
DOORSTOP PRESS CONFERENCE
MURAL HALL, PARLIAMENT HOUSE
FRIDAY, 7 AUGUST 2026

SUBJECTS: ACCC to probe allegations of food mislabelling; bird flu; fuel; gambling reform; immigration

ANDREW LEIGH: Thanks very much for coming everyone. My name is Andrew Leigh, the Assistant Minister for Competition. When Australians walk into a supermarket, they should have the confidence of knowing that the claims on the shelf are true. That means if they're paying a premium for a product that's made in Australia or made according to certain conditions, then they should be confident that those claims are accurate. 

Over the last couple of weeks, we've seen some concerning allegations aired on Four Corners suggesting that some of the products in Australia's supermarkets are not being accurately represented. I'm pleased today that the ACCC has announced that it will inquire into those allegations.

The ACCC is an effective enforcer, which has been given additional resources by the Albanese Government. No Australian Government has been more passionate about improving the quality of our consumer laws. We've increased penalties for anti-consumer conduct. We've banned unfair trading practices. We've taken action against shrinkflation. We've cracked down on supermarket price gouging. The ACCC’s inquiry continues a range of actions that the ACCC has taken against misleading statements around food in recent years. That's included actions in which the ACCC has managed to secure infringement notices or penalties against misleading statements to do with the country of origin of fish, the country of origin of lobster, whether milk was fresh, and also whether eggs were free range. 

The ACCC has shown a strong willingness to enforce Australia's consumer laws in the interest of Australian consumers. Australians shouldn't be duped by misleading labels. Australians should be able to walk into a store and know that what it says on the tin is accurate. I commend the ACCC in taking this important action. I’m happy to take questions.

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

Why Maths Matters
Launch of the Grand Mathematics Quiz,
Canberra

1 August 2026

[Acknowledgements omitted.]

I want to start with a story.

In 1787, in the German city of Brunswick, a teacher decided he would keep the class quiet by asking the students to add up all the numbers from 1 to 100. He thought it would buy him a few minutes of peace.

What he hadn't counted on was a remarkable student named Carl Friedrich Gauss.

Gauss spotted a pattern. He realised that 1 plus 100 equals 101. So does 2 plus 99. So does 3 plus 98. There were 50 pairs, each adding to 101. Fifty times 101 is 5,050. Before anyone else had really begun, Gauss had the answer.

Instead of doing a hundred separate additions, he found the pattern that made the problem simple.

We do that every day. Maths is all around us. It powers the devices in our pockets. It helps us forecast the weather. It determines when buses should arrive. It helps us understand challenges such as climate change by modelling what different choices mean for our planet. Maths underpins my own discipline of economics, and it is essential to the design of every major structure, including the modernist Belconnen Library we're in today.

Recognising patterns has been the work of mathematicians for centuries.

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

Matters of Public Importance: Labor Government

House of Representatives,
Parliament House

Wednesday, 1 July 2026

When the Leader of the Opposition became leader, getting rid of the first woman to head the Liberal Party, he said that his party needed to ‘change or die’. I don't think many Australians thought that they were going to choose door 2, but that's what's happening right now. The modern Liberal Party won't change, and it's choosing to die. They won't change a system that's locked a generation of young Australians out of homeownership. They won't change their natural inclination, in a choice between opportunity and privilege, to back privilege every time. As the Opposition Leader himself might have said: 'Fantastic. Great move. Well done, Angus.'

The fact is that Labor is today introducing measures which are going to benefit millions of Australians, and so many of these measures have been opposed by the shadow treasurer. We are boosting minimum wages and award wages, benefiting more than three million Australians, and yet the shadow treasurer is on the record criticising the Fair Work Commission's decision to deliver a real wage increase to low-income workers. We're increasing wages for care workers, who'll benefit by around $59 a week. A registered nurse will benefit to the tune of about $86 a week. And yet the Shadow Treasurer has criticised better wages for frontline workers as 'borrowing from future generations'.

From today, workers will see payday super. They'll actually see money coming into their super accounts when it should. But the Shadow Treasurer has criticised universal superannuation, labelling it 'a form of economic social engineering' and 'a form of economic insanity'. 

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

Aviation Consumer Protection Bill 2026
Second Reading

House of Representatives,
Parliament House

Monday, 29 June 2026

Australia has an unusual aviation market. A population our size is thought by many experts to be able to support about three airlines, and we do have three airlines. The problem is that two of them are owned by the same company: the Qantas group. That means that the Qantas group and Virgin have 98.5 per cent of the market. The top two players having 98.5 per cent of the market means that industries like banking and telecommunications look pretty competitive by comparison.

This is one of the most concentrated industries in Australia. Most regional routes are monopolies and, as work carried out by the competition taskforce in Treasury by Omer Majeed in conjunction with Robert Breunig at the Australian National University has shown, there is a strong relationship between the lack of competition and the prices that flyers pay. When one airline services a route, they find, airfares average 39.6c a kilometre. When two airlines compete, the average fare drops to 28.2c per kilometre. With three competitors, it drops to 19.2c. In other words, if you've got a route where there are three competitors, flyers are paying about half the price per kilometre that they pay over a monopoly route. Even the threat of competition, researchers have found, brings down lower prices.

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

Constituency Statement: Inspirational Runners
House of Representatives

22 June 2026

Yesterday, Pam Muston organised her 10th Kowen trail marathon, an event that raises funds for the Wamboin Rural Fire Brigade, turning hills and kilometres into community strength. Hundreds of runners chose to run the 12-, 21-or 42-kilometre courses through Kowen Forest before returning to a breakfast cooked by the local firies.

I've had the privilege not only of running plenty of Pam's races but also of running alongside her, so I can attest that she's not only a great race director but also a terrific ultramarathoner. Pam has won the Glasshouse Mountains hundred-miler three years in a row, raced the 240-kilometre Coast to Kosci on multiple occasions and runs the Sri Chinmoy Canberra Trail 100 race each year. Her 2025 ACT Local Hero nomination recognised the admiration Canberrans have for Pam.

I also pay tribute to Jennie Kellett of Hawker. At 71, Jennie holds multiple Australian age group records for the half marathon and marathon. Two years ago she ran the Chicago Marathon in three hours, 23 minutes. Last year she completed the Comrades Ultramarathon in nine hours, 29 minutes. Jennie keeps proving that older athletes can produce speedy times. Pam and Jennie both took up serious running in their 50s, and these two remarkable women inspire many to run further than they might have imagined.

Ends

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

Constituency Statement: Housing 
House of Representatives

22 June 2026

Last week I joined the Prime Minister and Housing Minister at the North Canberra suburb of Jacka. Jacka is named after Albert Jacka, the first Australian to receive the Victoria Cross. Before he served in the First World War, he worked as a forester, which raises a question: could a worker on a forester's wage buy a secure home today?

To address that, the Australian Government is boosting housing supply across the country. In Jacka, skilled tradies are building 57 social and affordable homes backed by $50 million in Commonwealth funding through the Housing Australia Future Fund. These homes are due to welcome their first residents within a year. Our $47 billion Homes for Australia agenda will unlock 420,000 homes over the next decade. Through our five per cent deposit scheme, a quarter of a million Australians have already been helped towards their first home. We're changing negative gearing so new investors are encouraged to finance new homes, which means more construction and a fairer contest at auction for first home buyers. In Jacka and across the country, Labor is building that future.

Ends

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

Credit Where It’s Due: Insolvency, Trust and Economic Dynamism

Australian Restructuring Insolvency and Turnaround Association National Conference
Gold Coast

Friday, 19 June 2026

I acknowledge the Yugambeh people, traditional custodians of the land on which we meet, and pay my respects to Elders past and present. I also acknowledge any First Nations people with us today.

Thank you to the Australian Restructuring Insolvency and Turnaround Association for the invitation to join you.

This is a room that sees the economy from a particular angle. Economists tend to see businesses as dots on a chart. Government departments might see them as ABNs, PAYG obligations and line items in national accounts. Consumers see them as the café downstairs, the builder next door or the app that either works beautifully or ruins a Saturday afternoon.

You see them when the numbers no longer add up.

That gives this profession a rare kind of knowledge. You see the spreadsheets, the security interests, the family guarantees and the conversations that begin with someone saying: ‘I thought we had more time’.

You also see what happens when the system works. A viable business can be restructured. A creditor can get a fairer return. A debtor can understand their obligations. A fraud can be stopped before it corrodes confidence. A person whose life has been knocked sideways can regain a place in the economy.

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

From Fine Print to Fair Play

Virtual Address to the National Consumer Congress
Sydney

Friday, 19 June 2026

I acknowledge the Gadigal people of the Eora Nation, and pay my respects to their Elders, and all Indigenous people joining today, including those working every day to make markets fairer for First Nations communities.

Thank you to the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission for convening the National Consumer Congress, and to everyone here from consumer organisations, regulators, community groups, academia, business and government.

Your theme is ‘Making it count: What does it take to achieve real change?’

For consumer policy, that question is trickier than it might seem at first blush.

Announcing a reform is only the first step. It also has to reach the kitchen table, the checkout screen, the call centre and the complaints desk. It’s one thing to have consumer rights. It’s another to be able to exercise your rights without needing the advice of a King’s Counsel and the tenacity of a blue heeler.

Consumer protection counts when it changes what people actually encounter. When a parent buying a child’s toy online can trust that it is safe. When a shopper can see the real price before they pay. When cancelling a subscription is not treated as an endurance sport. When a faulty product is met with a remedy, not a shrug.

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

Competition Policy for Invisible Agents

Economic Society of Australia (NSW Branch) Conference on ‘The Invisible Mind – The Economics of AI’,
Sydney

Wednesday, 17 June 2026

I acknowledge the Gadigal people of the Eora Nation, on whose lands we meet today. I pay respect to their elders, and all First Nations people present. Thanks to Professor David Orsmond and your Economic Society of Australia (NSW Branch) colleagues for organising today’s conference.

The title of today’s conference is The Invisible Mind, which is wonderfully evocative. It sounds like a lost Hitchcock film, or perhaps the name of a popular philosophy podcast.

Since Adam Smith, economists have talked about invisible hands. Today I want to talk about invisible agents.

An invisible agent is an AI system that acts for someone in a market. It may search, compare, recommend and buy. It may set prices, design bids, screen suppliers and negotiate contracts. It may work for a consumer, a firm, a platform or a payment provider. Often it acts at machine speed, across many transactions, with a human setting broad instructions rather than watching each step.

Economics has always cared about agency. We ask who has information. We ask who has incentives. We ask who bears risk. We ask who captures the surplus.

AI agents place a mysterious intermediary into the mix.

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

Keeping Markets Open: Competition Policy for the Many

Ashurst Competition and Consumer Law Panel,
Sydney

Tuesday, 16 June 2026

I acknowledge the Gadigal people of the Eora nation, and pay respects to all First Nations people present. Thank you to Ashurst for hosting us today. It’s a pleasure to join Australian Competition and Consumer Commission chair Gina Cass-Gottlieb for this important conversation.

Around the world, proponents of open markets are having to argue our case again.

For much of the postwar era, the case felt almost self-evident. Economies that traded, competed and welcomed new ideas tended to become richer. Countries that turned inward tended to fall behind. Australia’s own experience fits that pattern. Our prosperity has been built in large part by opening up: to trade and investment, to talent and technology, to the discipline of competition.

Australia once sheltered behind high tariff walls and ‘protection all round’. Then we became more outward-looking and more competitive. The reforms of the 1980s and 1990s asked Australian firms to compete more vigorously at home and abroad. That transition carried real pressure. It also boosted productivity and raised living standards.

Today, advocates of open markets are on the back foot. In Australia and around the world, populism is on the march. On the far left, that emerges as a critique of big business and foreign investment. On the far right, it manifests as calls for increasing tariffs and slashing skilled migration.