The Hon Andrew Leigh MP
Assistant Minister for Productivity, Competition, Charities and Treasury
Member for Fenner
E&OE TRANSCRIPT
RADIO INTERVIEW
ABC RADIO CANBERRA, MORNINGS WITH EDDIE WILLIAMS
MONDAY, 21 SEPTEMBER 2026
SUBJECTS: Fuel prices in the ACT; Albanese Government making product recalls faster and more effective; EVs; Intergenerational Report; Productivity
EDDIE WILLIAMS: You're with Eddie Williams on 666 ABC Canberra. It can happen with anything – from a carton of eggs to a child's toy or even your car. A product recall when there's something wrong with the product, so you've got to return it and get a refund. Well, for the first time in more than a decade, the government is looking at some reforms to how product recalls work in Australia. Andrew Leigh is the federal Member for Fenner in the ACT and the Assistant Minister for Productivity, Competition, Charities and Treasury, Dr Leigh, good morning.
ANDREW LEIGH: Good morning Eddie, great to be with you.
EDDIE WILLIAMS: I want to ask you about petrol first. I was speaking with Liberal Senate candidate, Nick Tyrrell a few minutes ago about the Opposition's proposal for a fuel price shield. Should the government be looking at doing something further when it comes to the fuel excise?
ANDREW LEIGH: We're already taking significant action. We've increased the penalties for anti-competitive conduct. We've given the ACCC more resources to go after price gouging, and we've ensured that it is doing fuel price monitoring right across the country. They've already announced an inquiry into possible collusion by a couple of diesel retailers in regional Australia. This is a well-funded, well-armed regulator that has stronger tools than they've ever had before and are going after bad behaviour in the petrol market in the interest of Australian drivers.
EDDIE WILLIAMS: I asked Nick Tyrrell about prices in Canberra, specifically being the highest of Australian cities and whether any specific measures are needed here. This is what he said.
[Excerpt]
NICK TYRRELL: When the ACCC came out and said that the ACT, or Canberra, is the highest capital city for petrol prices in the country. And when you do the comparison and see that it's higher than Darwin, you sort of start scratching your head and asking those same questions that have been asked countless times before. And, you know, I think when I wrote to the ACCC last week, I was a little bit disappointed to hear Andrew Leigh on radio on Friday morning. Ross Solly asked him four times if he thought something needs to be done about prices in Canberra, and four times he dodged. And I think, you know, I'm sort of – I'm proud to be out there doing something about it. I think the ACCC should come back to the government in Canberra with a wish list and say, ‘Well, if you did these things you could stop topping the list for petrol prices in the country’.
[Excerpt ends]
EDDIE WILLIAMS: Is the government dodging the issue when it comes to fuel prices in Canberra?
ANDREW LEIGH: Not in the least. And if only Nick Tyrrell spent as much time on policy development as he spends not listening to the exchange that I had with Ross last week, we'd be a better country for it. The fact is we are resourcing the ACCC. We understand the main driver of fuel prices right now is those sky-high international oil prices caused by the war in Iran, and we've urged the United States and Israel to bring that conflict to an end.
But it's also about supporting cost of living. We've provided tax cuts to all Canberra taxpayers, opposed by the Liberals, wage rises to minimum wage and award employees, opposed by the Liberals. And of course, if Nick Tyrrell and his team had had their way, 60 per cent of Canberra public servants would have lost their job after the last election, which would have been a devastating blow to our ACT economy. So, I don't think the Liberals have any leg to stand on talking about cost of living in Canberra. They are the party that would have smashed the Canberra economy if they'd won the last election, taking out 41,000 public service jobs from our city.
EDDIE WILLIAMS: Let's talk about product recalls. What has prompted the government to look at this?
ANDREW LEIGH: Well, product recalls are really important in order to keep consumers safe. We've seen the asbestos sand issues last year, and we're now looking at a significant overhaul of how our product recall system works. This will be the first overhaul of the recall system in over a decade. It's about getting those recalls coming faster, getting quicker reporting, strengthening regulatory intervention powers and ensuring that we have safe products for Australians. That affects areas like online marketplaces where you're often dealing with international suppliers. And so ensuring our recall system works for more e-commerce is also critical for the government.
EDDIE WILLIAMS: How does it work at the moment?
ANDREW LEIGH: Right now if there is a recall, there's mandates around what a supplier has to do in notifying their customers and getting the product out of the market. It'll depend on the degree of potential harm. In the case of coloured sand with potential asbestos in it, that was something which had a very high level of importance and where we worked collaboratively with states and territories in order to have safe drop-off points. One of the other issues now is around e-bikes and e-micromobility devices. A very good way of ensuring that people can quickly get around. But if people are selling products which breach those standards, we need to have ways of getting them out of the market quickly.
EDDIE WILLIAMS: Yes. So, how do you do that? What is the government looking at?
ANDREW LEIGH: We're releasing a Regulatory Impact Statement today seeking views. They'll obviously come from our terrific consumer groups that we engage with very frequently, but also from suppliers, letting us know the best way of improving the recall system. So, we've got more information coming to consumers and more information going to businesses that need to make those recalls fast to keep Australian consumers safe.
EDDIE WILLIAMS: Yeah. You're keen to hear from the consumers themselves as well?
ANDREW LEIGH: Absolutely, yes. The consultation is open on the Treasury consultation hub, just treasury.gov.au. It's a really important part of the safety responsibilities that the Commonwealth Government has, ensuring that we get more product out there at lower prices, but that they are safe for families and for all consumers.
EDDIE WILLIAMS: How quickly do you hope to see some movement here?
ANDREW LEIGH: The consultation will be open until 18 October 2026, and then we'll look to move quickly after that in order to implement these recommendations. We've been very actively engaged with state and territory consumer ministers. We met together in Darwin recently. So, it's about working collaboratively because those state and territory fair trading bodies also have an important role in consumer recalls.
EDDIE WILLIAMS: You're hearing from the Member for Fenner, Andrew Leigh on 666 ABC Canberra. News today; Four Corners investigating electric vehicles and some concerns around cybersecurity. Is this a concern for the government?
ANDREW LEIGH: Well, all products need to comply with appropriate consumer protections and that includes protecting the data of consumers. On top of the existing protections though, we also have a privacy review being led by Michelle Rowland, the Attorney-General which will look at issues around privacy of data going back to manufacturers. This applies to all vehicles. It's not just electric vehicles. Petrol vehicles and diesel vehicles being sold now are essentially computers on wheels have huge amounts of data and ensuring the integrity of that data is protected is absolutely vital.
EDDIE WILLIAMS: One minute is probably too brief to discuss the intergenerational report in a huge level of detail, but Australia's fertility rate is expected to drop faster than previously forecast over the next 40 years. How does the country deal with that?
ANDREW LEIGH: We talk about participation, population and productivity. Of those three P's, productivity is the one that's in my title. We've got the biggest productivity agenda since the 1990s, including measures such as ensuring Australians can move to a better job by scrapping non-compete clauses which will kick in from next year. Our competition reforms are all about a seamless national economy – measures that boosted living standards in the 1990s. And of course capturing the best of AI while ensuring workers are looked after is critical to the productivity growth that Australia hopes to see over the coming decades.
EDDIE WILLIAMS: Dr Leigh, good to talk to you this morning. Thank you.
ANDREW LEIGH: Likewise Eddie, thank you.
EDDIE WILLIAMS: Andrew Leigh, the Member for Fenner and also the Assistant Minister for Productivity, Competition, Charities and Treasury, announcing the government looking at some reforms to product recalls. The first time in more than a decade that a government has taken a close look at that. He and I were also discussing fuel prices in the ACT.
ENDS