The Hon Andrew Leigh MP
Assistant Minister for Productivity, Competition, Charities and Treasury
E&OE TRANSCRIPT
TV INTERVIEW
ABC AFTERNOON BRIEFING, WITH PATRICIA KARVELAS
MONDAY, 15 JUNE 2026
SUBJECTS: Middle East conflict; US-Iran ceasefire deal; fuel supply; tax reform; new social and affordable housing in Canberra; One Nation; AI
PATRICIA KARVELAS: For more on this and the US around ceasefire, we're joined by Assistant Minister for Competition, Andrew Leigh. Welcome to the program.
ANDREW LEIGH: Thanks Patricia, great to be with you.
PATRICIA KARVELAS: There is a deal now reached between the United States and Iran to end hostilities. Are we any safer than we were before this war began, in your assessment?
ANDREW LEIGH: Well, I'm very pleased that this deal will hopefully ensure that Iran returns to the commitment that it made in 1970 in the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty not to pursue a nuclear weapon. What Australia has been urging on Iran is to clear up some of the uncertainty that surrounded its nuclear program, which is what has worried many countries.
Iran, of course, has been engaged in problematic activities here in Australia which is why we expelled the Iranian Ambassador. And we have, as well as commending countries such as Pakistan that have brought this deal to the negotiating table, have also been calling on the US and Iran to ensure that this is a lasting peace which covers the conflict in Lebanon and which leaves the world safer than it was before.
PATRICIA KARVELAS: But just to be clear, the Australian Government did support the US initially bombing Iran. Do you still think that that was the right decision?
ANDREW LEIGH: We supported the moves of the United States to ensure that Iran never acquires a nuclear weapon and we were very clear at the outbreak of hostilities the issues that have arisen with Iran in Australia backing terrorist activities.
PATRICIA KARVELAS: But are we really any closer to them not acquiring a nuclear weapon? Is there any evidence that that's the case?
ANDREW LEIGH: Well as I said, they agreed not to acquire a nuclear weapon in 1970 with the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty. Reaffirming that commitment is important. It remains to be seen what additional commitments will be made around the acquisition of enriched uranium, the level at which that will be enriched and the safeguards that will be in place that gives the international community some certainty that Iran won't go down that path. Obviously that would be deeply destabilising the Middle East, which is why we've had countries such as Qatar and Türkiyeplaying this constructive role of working with Iran, Israel and the United States in order to bring these negotiations to hopefully fruition.
Hopefully, a signing on Friday. It'll take some time for the Strait of Hormuz to be reopened, as your previous guest was outlining. There's going to be work to be done in getting those ships moving, so people in Australia won't immediately see the end of that for some time.
PATRICIA KARVELAS: Well let's go to that. The economic tail of this could be – there are different estimates. What does the deal and the reopening at the Strait of Hormuz mean for our economy and inflation? How long until we see inflation come back down?
ANDREW LEIGH: It begins the process of normalisation. This is the biggest shock to the global oil system in history; bigger than the 1970s oil shocks. So it's a very substantial hit. Our government obviously stepped up with the halving of the fuel excise and working with the states and territories to get the GST off petrol. That's provided important relief to motorists and the work that we've been doing to get more electric vehicles on the road has ensured that there are fewer motorists making demands on those fuel supplies. We have more fuel supplies, both petrol and jet fuel in Australia than we did before the crisis.
PATRICIA KARVELAS: Will we still have inflation and the aftereffects on goods and services in Australia going into, I mean, I've heard estimates even up to September we're going to still see high prices. Is that what you expect?
ANDREW LEIGH: We're certainly not going to see all the effects go away with the signing of the deal on Friday. That'll take some time as the tankers move through the Strait and as supplies return to normal. I think that's what all of the analysts have been anticipating. But that we have this deal in place is one that Australia welcomes.
PATRICIA KARVELAS: The US-Iran cease fire deal that we're talking about. What impact will it have on your decision to extend that cut in the fuel excise?
ANDREW LEIGH: We'll make that decision over the coming weeks, obviously people…
PATRICIA KARVELAS: Well the Prime Minister said days. So, how imminent is it?
ANDREW LEIGH: He will make that decision in consultation with Cabinet. Clearly, we'll need to provide certainty to motorists as to what's happening. This can't be a permanent cut to the fuel excise. That fuel excise pays for roads and so ultimately it will need to come back to normal. The government's decision will come soon.
PATRICIA KARVELAS: But given how grumpy people are at the moment which we're seeing in the polls, should you be in any rush to put an additional cost of living pressure on Australians?
ANDREW LEIGH: Look, we've got income tax cuts coming on the first of July. They’re income tax cuts that were opposed by the Coalition. They said if they'd won last year's election that they would wind them back. So that's another form of cost-of-living relief that's coming along with the increase to the minimum wage. Again, opposed by the Coalition and One Nation.
PATRICIA KARVELAS: Independent economist, Saul Eslake has been talking at this two day inquiry into the tax changes. He says amending your CGT bill to allow people who earn capital gains, you know, on and off at different times to average them across multiple years is worthy of consideration. Is that under consideration?
ANDREW LEIGH: Well, we take Saul Eslake's comments very seriously as we do other serious advocates for tax reform. There's been many people who have urged these changes upon us. The Grattan Institute, the Tax and Transfer Policy Institute, e61, Aruna Sathanapally, Chris Richardson, Saul Eslake among them. This inquiry is important as the government looks to the implementation work that will need to be done. That was always flagged up in the Budget and the specific details of that will be announced by the Treasurer.
But people should know this is about getting more Australians in a home of their own, and I was just with the Prime Minister and the Housing Minister earlier today in Jacka in my electorate at a new housing development. We're boosting housing supply and we're getting the tax settings right in a way that the experts have called for decades.
PATRICIA KARVELAS: Then if you're getting it so right, why is Pauline Hanson the preferred Prime Minister over Anthony Albanese?
ANDREW LEIGH: Look, reform can be a challenging journey. You saw that with the Hawke Government's introduction of capital gains taxation in the mid-1980s which saw the Hawke Government take a hit in the polls and the opposition pull into the lead for a period.
It is always much more straightforward to sit back and do nothing. But that's the path that Coalition governments take. The path that Labor Governments take is to be serious, reforming governments taking on the hard questions. Whether that's tackling our growth in emissions, whether it's dealing with home ownership, whether it's getting the bulk-billing rate back up as we've managed to do, all important for the cost of living and all important reforms that our government's put in place. Pauline Hanson, well she's long on grievance, but she's short on answers. She doesn’t…
PATRICIA KARVELAS: Yeah. People like it. So, if people are liking it that's devastating for the government, isn't it? It means that what you're telling them, they're not believing it?
ANDREW LEIGH: Look, it's the fairy floss of Australian politics. It might taste nice in the short-term but in the long-term it rots your teeth. And I think people are beginning to realise that One Nation simply doesn't have answers to the serious questions that Australia faces. Or when they do have answers, their answers are wrong. You know, they opposed a minimum wage rise for the lowest paid Australian workers. They voted against our wage theft bill. Every time they have a choice as to whether to stand for battlers or billionaires, they choose the billionaires.
PATRICIA KARVELAS: But on something like negative gearing they say it should be on, you know, just two properties. That sounds like a kind of reasonable way doesn't it, to deal with limiting the number of investors so people can get into first homes but also allowing investment in homes? Given what we're seeing on the property market?
ANDREW LEIGH: I think that policy would have very little effect on the market since most investors have fewer properties than that. What we've done is we've said if you're an existing investor, you can continue negatively gearing with the properties you've got, but if you want to opt into the system, you need to make it with a new home so you're doing something for the rest of us. You're adding to housing supply. That's how we manage things with foreign investors. Foreign investors have to buy newly built homes, adding to the housing supply. And now after these reforms, so too will people wanting to opt into negative gearing.
You can still get that tax concession, but you've got to boost the number of homes in this country because we've been under-building for decades. And that the effect of that is showing up in the increase in house prices which has so fast outpaced wages over recent decades.
PATRICIA KARVELAS: Just finally, One Nation says the Prime Minister's comments questioning the validity of their fundraising efforts, which they say have been huge on the back of this father liar language they're using, has actually helped them. Was it wise for him to question One Nation's ability to raise funds?
ANDREW LEIGH: Well, we know that One Nation is principally raising funds off billionaires and whatever else they're saying, the way in which they raise their big dollars is through donations from significant billionaires or from fundraisers like the one that they did a couple of weeks ago where they took off in Gina Rinehart's private jet from Sydney Airport, flew around over the top of Sydney for an hour while people had dinner, paid $15,000 a head and then landed back in Sydney Airport. How tin-eared is that in the midst of a fuel crisis that Barnaby Joyce and Pauline Hanson would have a sky-high fundraiser in a billionaire's jet - spending jet fuel at a time when others are facing cost of living pressures. If nothing else, that demonstrates that this is a party for the billionaires, not for the battlers.
PATRICIA KARVELAS: And yet battlers are interested in them. And that's unavoidable, isn't it, for a government to grapple with? If they're a party for billionaires, why are battlers turning to them?
ANDREW LEIGH: Well Patricia, we need to tackle the big challenges we face in Australia and one of the biggest of those is housing affordability and ownership. We've done that, and reform takes time as you roll it out and as you explain it to people. You're a student of Australian political history – you've seen that happen before. But you've also seen governments get re-elected because the Australian people see that they've tackled the big challenges. Just to leave housing in the too hard basket would be to leave behind a generation of young Australians who are struggling to get into a home of their own. A story I hear again and again, not just from young Australians, but from their parents and grandparents who want the system to be more intergenerationally fair. The Prime Minister, the Treasurer and the government have tackled that. That is what we're doing and I'm really pleased to be part of a reforming government doing the right thing rather than the easy thing.
PATRICIA KARVELAS: There is a breaking story that Gina Rinehart's company has invested $1 billion in Elon Musk's SpaceX and wants to collaborate on future AI infrastructure. Given you've mentioned that particular billionaire, what do you think of that decision?
ANDREW LEIGH: Well look, she'll make her own investment decisions. It's not for me to go to those investment decisions. But the Government's National AI Plan is about ensuring that the system works for all Australians, that we've got workers having a say…
PATRICIA KARVELAS: Is it good that then she's investing in Elon Musk's project?
ANDREW LEIGH: Well, she'll make her own investment decisions but we've set up an AI Safety Institute. We're ensuring that AI works for Australians, that people get the training they need, the say in how AI is rolled out in workplaces and that this potential productivity boosting tool is used to expand equity rather than just boost the growth rate.
PATRICIA KARVELAS: Alright.
ANDREW LEIGH: I’m speaking in Sydney in a couple of days about AI in the context of consumer affairs. And again, same philosophy Patricia. We've got to get this right and so consumers benefit from AI and aren't hurt by it.
PATRICIA KARVELAS: Thank you so much for your time.
ANDREW LEIGH: Thanks.
PATRICIA KARVELAS: And that was the Assistant Minister for Competition, Andrew Leigh speaking to me from Canberra about a range of issues there.
ENDS