Andrew Leigh

REPAIRING PRODUCTS AND REINVIGORATING COMPETITION
Opening remarks to the Griffith University Law Futures Centre
23 May 2024, Brisbane

Acknowledgements

I acknowledge the elders, customs and traditions of the Jagera and the Turrbul, from both sides of the Maiwar and all First Nations people present today.

I would like to thank Griffith University Law Futures Centre for inviting me to provide opening remarks ahead of the lecture by Assistant Professor Anthony Rosborough.

I thank Professor Leanne Wiseman for organising this event and bringing everyone together – including students, researchers and policymakers – to consider the right to repair through the lens of competition policy and market power. Having had the pleasure of speaking at your 2022 Australian Repair Summit, it’s terrific to be joining you again.

To those of you attending today, I thank you for advocating on behalf of Australian consumers and business.

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RADIO INTERVIEW
ABC ADELAIDE DRIVE WITH JO LAVERTY
WEDNESDAY, 22 MAY 2024

SUBJECTS: Unethical fundraising practices, Reform to the Privacy Act, ‘Randomistas’ and the value of randomised trials.

JO LAVERTY, HOST: We all know times are tough. We're tightening our belts, and so collecting for charities must be a very difficult job. At the moment, people are giving less because they can afford less. But then there are those charity collectors who go that little step further to try and commit you to ongoing payments, and sometimes it's without you realising. Andrew Leigh is the Federal Assistant Minister for Charities and is saying that this is not cool. He has made a speech to the Fundraising Institute of Australia. Minister, welcome. This sounds diabolical that the elderly people in particular are signing up for ongoing payments that they simply can't afford.

ASSISTANT MINISTER ANDREW LEIGH: Thanks for taking an interest in the story. I'm not sure I'd describe it as ‘diabolical’. I think most charities are out there doing the right thing, adhering to strict ethical codes. But I did want to flag to the charitable fundraising industry that this small number of problematic cases really does risk tarnishing the whole sector. I told the story about a 73-year-old from Bendigo, about a 79-year-old from Queensland, both of whom found that they had signed up to many, many ongoing donations, and their families felt that they were perhaps just a bit confused about how many sign-ups they'd made, and it was draining their bank accounts at a remarkably quick rate.

TOGETHER WE THRIVE: CELEBRATING THE IMPACT OF VOLUNTEERING
Queensland Volunteering Awards, Volunteering Queensland
Brisbane City Hall, Brisbane
22 May 2024

I acknowledge the Jagera people and the Turrbal people as the Traditional Custodians of these lands and pay respects to all First Nations people present.

I am pleased to join you today to celebrate the contribution of volunteers across Queensland. I acknowledge the Governor of Queensland, Jeanette Young, and thank the organisers, Volunteering Queensland for the vital role you play in Australia’s national volunteering infrastructure and for the work you do to promote connected and inclusive communities.

Happy National Volunteer Week to all volunteers here today.

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RADIO INTERVIEW
ABC BRISBANE BREAKFAST WITH STEVE AUSTIN
WEDNESDAY 22 MAY 2024

SUBJECTS: Future Made in Australia plan, Value of evaluation in public policy, Impact of beauty on electability, Australian Centre for Evaluation, Benefits of Digital ID.

STEVE AUSTIN, HOST: My next guest is a federal parliamentarian, I went back and read his first, his maiden speech to parliament and he said, and I quote; “My research has also taught me that good intentions are not enough. What we need in Australia policy today is not more ideologues convinced that their prescriptions are the answer, but modest reformers willing to try new solutions and discover whether they actually deliver results.” The person that said that is Australia's Assistant Minister for Employment, Treasury and Competition. He's also the Charities Minister, and he's in Brisbane this morning, representing the Prime Minister at the Queensland Volunteering Awards this morning at city hall. Andrew Leigh, lovely to see you back in Brisbane.

ASSISTANT MINISTER ANDREW LEIGH: Great to be back with you and your listeners.

GUARDIANS OF GENEROSITY: PRIVACY AND PHILANTHROPY IN AUSTRALIA
Fundraising Institute of Australia
Wednesday, 22 May 2024

Thank you to the Fundraising Institute of Australia for inviting me to address your annual Essential Member Update, and for bringing together this group of people with such an important role in the viability of our charity sector.

I am speaking to you from Brisbane, where I have just addressed the Queensland Volunteering Awards. I acknowledge the Jagera people and the Turrbal people as the Traditional Custodians of Meanjin, and pay my respects to all First Nations people present.

Labor governments are reforming governments, and in two spaces that have key significance to charitable fundraising there are some meaningful changes underway.

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RADIO INTERVIEW
ABC CANBERRA BREAKFAST WITH ADAM SHIRLEY
WEDNESDAY 22 MAY 2024

SUBJECTS: Unethical fundraising practices, reform of fundraising principles, best ways to donate to charities.

ADAM SHIRLEY, HOST: I don't know whether you give to charity or charities. If you volunteer, if you donate money. If you donate money, how do you do it? A real worry that some charities, and maybe companies contracted to work for them in Australia, are using less than above board practices to get you to give. And the work of some charities- most, in fact, Andrew Leigh, Assistant Minister for Competition, Charities and Treasury. The work of a lot of these charities is not in dispute. But I wonder, personally, how much concern do you have on the ways they're collecting money?

ASSISTANT MINISTER ANDREW LEIGH: Most charities are doing exactly the right thing, and I'm a strong champion of the charity sector, but I'm giving a speech today to the Fundraising Institute of Australia, sounding the alarm about a number of troubling cases in which fundraisers have been chasing down elderly Australians and signing them up for ongoing payments that are beyond what they can afford. I want to make it clear to the charitable fundraising sector that the high trust with which Australians regard charities rests on strong ethical conduct in the fundraising sector. In the context of Pareto Phone collapsing last year, a fundraiser which raised money for organisations like the Cancer Council and Fred Hollows. We all need to make sure that those fundraisers have a strong social licence to operate.

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RADIO INTERVIEW
ABC MELBOURNE DRIVE WITH ALI MOORE
FRIDAY 17 MAY 2024

SUBJECTS: JobSeeker, Support for long term unemployed, AEC Transparency Register.  

ALI MOORE, HOST: Andrew Leigh is Assistant Minister for Employment. Andrew Leigh, welcome to Drive.

ASSISTANT MINISTER ANDREW LEIGH: Thanks, Ali, great to be with you and your listeners.

MOORE: How concerned are you by the length of time some people are spending on JobSeeker payments?

LEIGH: Clearly we know from academic research that the longer someone spends out of work the more, what we call "scarring effect" there can be; people can get discouraged, their skills can start to atrophy, and they can become disconnected from the labour market. We do have an historically low unemployment rate at the moment, so means having an unemployment of 4.1 per cent is by any historical standards a very strong performance of the labour market, but that's not to mean that there aren't some people who are missing out, and the figures you've talked to are certainly concerning. The best way in which we can ensure that everyone has a job is to maintain those low levels of unemployment.

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TV INTERVIEW
SKY NEWSDAY WITH KIERAN GILBERT
THURSDAY 16 MAY 2024

SUBJECTS: Middle East Conflict; Jobs Figures

KIERAN GILBERT, HOST: Let's bring in the Assistant Minister for Competition Charities and Treasury, Andrew Leigh. And we see images of the protest movement happening in Irvine, California, at the University of California. This motion being moved in the Senate, critical of the statement used by a member of your caucus, Senator Fatima Payman.

Should the Prime Minister be calling your Labor colleague to pull her into line?

ASSISTANT MINISTER ANDREW LEIGH: The Prime Minister has made it clear that that statement isn't acceptable, Kieran. Australia has committed to a two-state solution. We support a humanitarian ceasefire. We're calling for the return of hostages. We have called on both sides to support a two-state solution. The slogan you refer to has been used by extremists on both sides of the conflict. It isn't consistent with a two-state solution which enjoys bipartisan support in Australia.

FIVE TESTS FOR THE OPPOSITION LEADER'S BUDGET REPLY
Statement on Matters of Significance, House of Representatives
Wednesday, 16 May 2023

If you want to know what the coalition really believe in, let's go back to the most unpopular budget of the past generation, a budget that commemorated its 10-year anniversary this year, the 2014 budget. The 2014 budget was preceded by then Prime Minister Abbott saying there would be ‘no cuts to education, no cuts to health, no cuts to pensions, no changes to the GST and no cuts to the ABC and SBS’. He vowed to avoid these things and he embraced every single one of them.

 In that 2014 budget, the Liberal Party and the National Party said that under-30s would get no unemployment support for six months. In fierce discussions about the right level of JobSeeker, they thought the right level for young Australians should be zero. They said that pensions would no longer be indexed to wages but would only be indexed to prices, essentially saying to Australia's fixed-income retirees that they could no longer share in productivity growth in the economy. They said that HECS-HELP debts would be indexed at a faster rate, a strong contrast to what we said in this budget, which was that the indexation of those debts would be lower.

 The 2014 budget, which commemorates its 10-year anniversary this week, had a $43 million cut to ABC and SBS. It had a $114 million cut to the CSIRO. It had deficits as far as the eye could see from a party that had promised before the election that they would deliver a surplus in their first year and in every year after that. And the 2014 budget ended bulk billing. I wonder who was the health minister who presided over that decision? Hey, that's right: it's none other than the Leader of the Opposition, the man who, when he was health minister, was voted by doctors the worst health minister in living memory.

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RADIO INTERVIEW
ABC CANBERRA DRIVE WITH ROSS SOLLY
WEDNESDAY 15 MAY 2024

SUBJECTS: Budget 2024; Tax Cuts for Every Australian Taxpayer; Energy Bill Relief for Every Household; Funding for ACT Infrastructure; Canberra to Sydney Rail Link

ROSS SOLLY (HOST): Here's a statistic for you, Andrew Leigh. I know you like your statistics.

ASSISTANT MINISTER ANDREW LEIGH: Absolutely.

SOLLY: Should everyone get the $300 energy bill rebate on our ABC Canberra Drive poll at the moment, you'd be happy to know 55 per cent of ABC Canberra Drive listeners say yes, 45 per cent say no, Andrew Leigh.

LEIGH: The simple answer to the 45 per cent is that energy companies don't know your income, they don't know your wealth. What they know is whether you're a concession card holder.

If you're a government and you're rolling out energy bill relief, you can either do it to everyone or you can do it just to concession card holders. You can't do any more fine-grained targeting than that. Our view was that middle-income Australians were doing it tough, and we wanted to extend energy bill relief to them. So, the most straightforward way of doing that was to provide it to everyone.