The Hon Andrew Leigh MP
Assistant Minister for Competition, Charities and Treasury
Assistant Minister for Employment
E&OE TRANSCRIPT
RADIO INTERVIEW
2CC, CANBERRA WITH STEPHEN CENATIEMPO
TUESDAY, 8 APRIL 2025
SUBJECTS: Albanese Government’s investment in Margaret Timpson Park, Peter Dutton’s public service cuts, Peter Dutton’s vendetta against Canberra.
STEPHEN CENATIEMPO, 2CC: Time to catch up with the Assistant Minister for Competition, Charities and Treasury, and the Member for Fenner Leigh. Andrew, good morning.
ASSISTANT MINISTER LEIGH: Morning Stephen.
STEPHEN CENATIEMPO, 2CC: Now you've announced, if you're re-elected, or if the government's re-elected, $1.5 million for upgrades at Margaret Timpson Park in Belconnen. Look, I don’t spend a lot of time in Margaret Timpson Park, but it does look pretty good to me from what I've seen, and I’ve got no problem with this. But are you confident that the ACT Government's actually going to stump up and do the work?
ASSISTANT MINISTER LEIGH: Absolutely Stephen. Margaret Timpson Park is right in the heart of Belconnen, and if you go to the Westfield Shopping Centre there, it's the park looking straight out from the Westfield. A lovely little space, very heavily used now that you've got so many of those apartment towers going up, and our $1.5 million upgrade will see toilets, a barbecue area and a play area put in place there. It's going to be well used as Belconnen continues to gentrify and we get more and more people using that space. And it was great yesterday - you really would have enjoyed this Stephen, we had Chris Timpson, who is Margaret's widower. She passed away way back in 1993 and he's still with us and was telling us the stories of what she did in that early period of self-government. The first ACT Woman of the Year; just a remarkable woman. So, it was great to honour her legacy and also to be investing in that park.
STEPHEN CENATIEMPO, 2CC: The question is though, why is it a federal government responsibility? Isn't this the kind of thing that local governments would normally do?
ASSISTANT MINISTER LEIGH: Well, the federal government is making investments right across the country. In Canberra, we announced investment in the National Convention Centre over the weekend and we’re investing in a range of roads, such as the Monaro and Barton Highway. And we’re making some of these smaller investments, including in parks. We understand that this is an important priority for people in Canberra, getting a good leisure facility. This isn't something that's going to send GDP through the roof, but certainly will do an awful lot for happiness in the Belconnen community.
STEPHEN CENATIEMPO, 2CC: I want to talk about the Convention Centre commitment because overall, I think it's a good commitment and, you know, I think it's an important piece of infrastructure for Canberra. But again, is the $100 million in federal government funding contingent on the ACT stepping up with its $100 million?
ASSISTANT MINISTER LEIGH: That's right. The ACT and federal governments have worked together on this announcement. So, it's a $200 million announcement in total in order to begin that work, and that will see a whole lot more of these international conferences coming to Canberra than at the moment, just aren't able to be accommodated.
STEPHEN CENATIEMPO, 2CC: Yeah, that’s right. But my question is, if the ACT Government can't come up with the $100 million, does that mean the federal $100 million goes away?
ASSISTANT MINISTER LEIGH: The ACT Government is committed to doing it. Andrew Barr was with us there on Sunday when we made the announcement so they are as committed to the project as the federal government is, and it is a really important facility for Canberra.
STEPHEN CENATIEMPO, 2CC: Am I right in reading the writing the detail through this, only $31 million will actually go towards the Convention Centre, and that's just for feasibility studies?
ASSISTANT MINISTER LEIGH: It's $31 million for feasibility and design work, a business case, taking it up to the ready construction stage, and then $69 million for the design and construction of the Canberra Aquatic Centre and the new site. So, we need the current Civic pool site in order to build the Convention Centre, and that means we need a new location for the Aquatic Centre in Commonwealth Park. Canberra swimmers can be reassured that they'll be able to continue to swim close to the city while we get this new Convention Centre up and running.
STEPHEN CENATIEMPO, 2CC: Isn't this putting the car before the horse? Isn't the process normally that the ACT Government would come to the federal government with a business case already done and say, ‘we need funding for this project’ and here's our reasoning for it?
ASSISTANT MINISTER LEIGH: Well, this is more than the business case. This is taking it up to the point of construction.
STEPHEN CENATIEMPO, 2CC: No I understand, but what I'm saying is part of this is a business case. So that means the business case hasn't been done yet?
ASSISTANT MINISTER LEIGH: Well, there's certainly been a huge number of studies. I remember some of the first meetings I had as the then Member for Fraser in 2010 were with people advocating for a Convention Centre. So, there's been a whole series of business cases put forward. What we really need to do is get going on it now.
STEPHEN CENATIEMPO, 2CC: Yeah but I mean having said that, there's been eight feasibility studies done on a new stadium. We're no closer to getting that done either.
ASSISTANT MINISTER LEIGH: We've got a lot of infrastructure priorities in a growing city. We're the fastest growing jurisdiction in Australia, so that's going to create a lot of infrastructure pressures. We've got the National Security Precinct, we've got the light rail, with some big infrastructure projects already under way. There is just a limit to the amount of construction we can be doing at any one time in the city and federal Labor is committed to doing that. Unlike the former government, which in its last budget gave us just one fifth of our fair share of infrastructure spending.
STEPHEN CENATIEMPO, 2CC: But how do you determine fair share Andrew? Because I mean, David Pocock’s out there saying we need to be funded on a per capita basis. Well, that that's not how funding for infrastructure can ever work?
ASSISTANT MINISTER LEIGH: Certainly, if you looked at the funding per person, I think Canberrans would expect that if you’re the fastest growing part of Australia, you wouldn't get a fifth of the fair share and that was what Josh Frydenberg’s final budget delivered. This was a government - the Morrison Government that happily neglected Canberra. A Dutton Government would neglect Canberra in exactly the same way.
STEPHEN CENATIEMPO, 2CC: As did the previous Labor Government neglect Canberra.
ASSISTANT MINISTER LEIGH: Not in the least. The previous Labor Government made significant investments here in the ACT. This is a passion which has followed through the Rudd, Gillard and Albanese Governments. Now, we have a Prime Minister who lives in this city, unlike Peter Dutton who is happy to punch down on Canberra every time he can.
STEPHEN CENATIEMPO, 2CC: Oh, here we go.
ASSISTANT MINISTER LEIGH: Yes, every time I hear him, I think ‘here he goes again’.
STEPHEN CENATIEMPO, 2CC: So, you honestly think it makes a difference where the Prime Minister sleeps?
ASSISTANT MINISTER LEIGH: I think it makes a difference if you're willing to sleep in the national capital. And Stephen ask yourself this question, is there any other country where someone running to be the leader of the country would say I don't want to live in the capital? It’s just part of the job.
STEPHEN CENATIEMPO, 2CC: Well there aren’t many countries where the Prime Minister has more than one official residency either?
ASSISTANT MINISTER LEIGH: There’s a range of them, and when Peter Dutton is asked about this, his main priority is where he gets the nicest view of the ferries, not where he's actually able to do the job for the benefit of Australia.
STEPHEN CENATIEMPO, 2CC: On an FM radio show. Would you rather that they asked him what his favourite hamburger was like they usually do?
ASSISTANT MINISTER LEIGH: What I would rather is a Prime Minister who, in the traditions such as Robert Menzies who was willing to understand that the national capital is just an essential heart of Australian democracy and the living in the national capital is part of doing the job properly. It's not a lifestyle choice. The aim is service to Australians, not trying to get the prettiest view for you.
STEPHEN CENATIEMPO, 2CC: Well, our greatest post-war Prime Minister lived in Sydney, and he seemed to do a pretty good job for 11 years?
ASSISTANT MINISTER LEIGH: Certainly, Robert Menzies was pretty keen on Canberra, and John Howard lived in the capital on many occasions. So, what we have from Peter Dutton is ongoing Canberra bashing, we’ve got the huge public service job cuts that are still going to occur, and they're still going to have a significant adverse impact on the services that are delivered.
STEPHEN CENATIEMPO, 2CC: But Andrew, the public service cannot be a ponzi scheme to prop up the ACT economy. It's there to serve the Australian public.
ASSISTANT MINISTER LEIGH: Absolutely, it is. And what we saw under the Coalition, with Robodebt, two year waits for veterans’ claims to be processed and a blowout in processing times for parental leave.
STEPHEN CENATIEMPO, 2CC: We’ve seen 41,000 more public servants, and none of that change.
ASSISTANT MINISTER LEIGH: Well, now we've seen the public service at the right size. The Australian Public Service per person is still smaller than it was from John Howard left office. Now, we've replaced consultants and contractors with ongoing public servants, and the benefit of that can be seen in the reduced wait times for Australians.
STEPHEN CENATIEMPO, 2CC: Alright, well the people that I speak to don’t say that is the outcome Andrew, but I do appreciate your time. We'll catch up in a couple of weeks.
ASSISTANT MINISTER LEIGH: Thanks Stephen.
STEPHEN CENATIEMPO, 2CC: Andrew Leigh, Assistant Minister for Competition, Charities and Treasury, and the Member Fenner.
ENDS