The Hon Andrew Leigh MP
Assistant Minister for Productivity, Competition, Charities and Treasury
E&OE TRANSCRIPT
RADIO INTERVIEW
2CC RADIO CANBERRA, BREAKFAST WITH STEPHEN CENATIEMPO
TUESDAY, 27 JANUARY 2026
SUBJECTS: Australian of the Year Awards
STEPHEN CENATIEMPO: Time to talk federal politics with the Assistant Minister for Productivity, Competition, Charities and Treasury and the Member for Fenner, Andrew Leigh. Andrew, good morning.
ANDREW LEIGH: Good morning Stephen, are you keeping cool?
STEPHEN CENATIEMPO: Yeah, I'm trying. Movie cinema is a good place. You'd go and see that Super Progressive movie, wouldn't you?
ANDREW LEIGH: I haven't gotten to see a movie for quite a while now. But one of my boys said that Marty Supreme, the new ping pong movie, is pretty good.
STEPHEN CENATIEMPO: Okay, fair enough. Yeah, I haven't been to the movies. Actually, I took my nephew to see one not that long ago, and I can't even remember what it was. The Australians of the Year were announced on Sunday night. And I think, you know, I was very critical of the Australian of the Year award a number of years back but we seem to have got it back on-track and this year's recipients have done some extraordinary work. But you had a chance to talk to three of the four recipients at the ceremony on Sunday night and talked about what platform they want to – or where they want to take their award. And because we know that for the next 12 months, they'll use their position to sort of push a certain avenue or subject matter. And you had a chance to discuss that with them?
ANDREW LEIGH: Yeah, I had a real privilege of spending some time with all of the nominees. So there's four categories, eight jurisdictions, there are 32 of them who spend the weekend together in Canberra not knowing who's going to win. So you get to talk to many of them about what they'd do if they did win. And Katherine Bennell-Pegg, who's our Australian of the Year, first Aussie astronaut, she's going to be focusing a lot on STEM. She's really concerned that the number of kids studying physics and maths has been falling in Australia and that it's important to inspire the next generation, as she got it just by looking up at the stars.
STEPHEN CENATIEMPO: Because I…
ANDREW LEIGH: And Nedd Brockmann. Oh sorry, go on.
STEPHEN CENATIEMPO: It's interesting. I just want to go on for that because I was talking to Dr Brad Tucker about this this morning and he said if we can get this right, there's no reason why we can't genuinely have our own space program here in Australia. I know we've got the Australian Space Agency, but he said there's not a lot of political will from both sides to get to that stage yet, but there's no reason why we can't be launching rockets fully manned by Australian astronauts at some stage not that far down the track?
ANDREW LEIGH: And the great thing about both Brad and Katherine is that they are so super passionate. Like they're the opposite of your stereotype of science nerds. Both brilliant minds, but also just overflowing with excitement about how great it is to understand what's going on with the stars, how that can help us with mining and exploration, the benefits to Australia of better GPS in agriculture. So they make it practical, as well as just thinking about what you can do if you better understand science and technology.
STEPHEN CENATIEMPO: I want to talk about the young Australian of the Year for a moment – Nedd Brockmann. Now, you and I have both taken part in the Vinnies CEO Sleepout and you sleep outside for one night. This bloke ran across the country.
ANDREW LEIGH: He's remarkable. He's concerned by the number of Aussies who were sleeping rough and that led him to run across Australia in record time – 46 days from Cottesloe Beach to Bondi Beach and running at a rate of about two marathons a day. He has some pretty horrendous stories about what happened to his toes and how you manage blisters on blisters over that time. But the bloke has sheer guts and determination as well as a passion to make a difference for young Australians experiencing homelessness. So, I think he's going to be talking a lot about that over the course of the year.
STEPHEN CENATIEMPO: Did you get a sense of why he decided that this was his barrow to push, so to speak?
ANDREW LEIGH: Yeah, I think it's just that he felt incredibly lucky. He grew up in a family where he said that he had everything he could want –loving parents and surrounded by the resources that he needed. And so, it was a sense of obligation to others. Being having been given so much in terms of love and resources, he had an obligation to give back to the country. It's not a story of rags to riches; it's a story of somebody who was lucky, feeling that he wanted others to be lucky too.
STEPHEN CENATIEMPO: One of the things, and I say this every year, that the person that I hold the highest esteem is the local hero award winner. Because it's those people that – the sort of the unsung heroes. The Australian of the Year is usually somebody with a fairly prominent background. But the local hero this year, Frank Mitchell, looking at Indigenous employment and, you know, when you talk to people like Warren Mundine and, you know, you even go back as far as Charlie Perkins, it was always about, I guess, letting the Indigenous community pull itself out of disadvantage and I guess that's something that he's focused on here?
ANDREW LEIGH: Hugely, yeah. He said that getting a job really changed his life and wants more young Indigenous Australians to have the opportunity to get into apprenticeships. He's the nicest, most down to earth bloke, incredibly modest and generous but just wants to create more opportunities for Aboriginal people to upskill and sees, as you talk about this Stephen, it's not just about money, it's also about the meaning and for fulfillment that you get from having a job where you feel as though you're part of the Australian community, that you're giving something back to everyone else.
STEPHEN CENATIEMPO: I equate it to home ownership and it's one of the things that I always lament that we always talk about social and affordable housing where we don't talk about home ownership enough because that sense of ownership that you get from owning a home – the same as the sense of ownership, the sense of, I guess, purpose you get from having a job are so vitally important?
ANDREW LEIGH: Yeah I mean, there's a reason that when we go to parties, we don't ask people “what do you consume?”. We say, “what do you do?” We want to know what people create because most of us do think of ourselves as creators. And Frank, I think he's going to be looking to spread that benefit to more and more people. Looking at what are the barriers right now to people getting into apprenticeships and into jobs, and how he can help to break those down. He's from Western Australia, and he's done some good work over there and is now going to be looking to spread that across the country.
STEPHEN CENATIEMPO: As a political leader, what do you draw from this?
ANDREW LEIGH: Huge inspiration Stephen. I mean, you just hang out with these Australian of the Year award recipients, and you get a sense of people who regard a life well lived as being a life where you give something back to the community. There's this great Jewish line that ‘It's not upon us to finish all the work, but neither are we permitted to step back from it.’ Each of us needs to do a little bit better, whether that's helping someone vulnerable out in our communities, whether it's creating jobs for others, whether it's looking after someone who's doing a bit worse off like you do with the Vinnies Sleepout. Each of those things makes a slightly better: a stronger community and a better world.
STEPHEN CENATIEMPO: Well said Andrew, great to talk to you. We'll catch up in a couple of weeks.
ANDREW LEIGH: Likewise, thanks Stephen.
STEPHEN CENATIEMPO: Andrew Leigh, Assistant Minister for Productivity, Competition, Charities and Treasury.
ENDS