The Hon Andrew Leigh MP
Assistant Minister for Productivity, Competition, Charities and Treasury
E&OE TRANSCRIPT
DOORSTOP
PARLIAMENT HOUSE, HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES ENTRANCE
MONDAY, 7 SEPTEMBER 2026
SUBJECTS: Albanese Government banning unfair non-compete clauses, wage-fixing cartels and no-poach clauses
ANDREW LEIGH: Good morning, my name is Andrew Leigh. I'm the Assistant Minister for Productivity, Competition, Charities, and Treasury. Right now, millions of Australian workers are being stopped from moving to a better job by so-called non-compete clauses.
Non-compete clauses are holding workers back. They don't just affect high-paid executives; they're impacting early childhood workers and security guards. Even gardeners are being subject to what we used to call gardening leave. What this means is that we get less productivity and lower wages. e61 research says that the average worker subject to a non-compete loses $2,500 a year, relative to where they would have been without that non-compete clause.
Labor will scrap non-compete clauses for workers earning below the Fair Work Act's high-income threshold, currently $190,100. We're also getting rid of wage-fixing agreements, which allow employers to collude in keeping wages low. Right now, employers can't collude in keeping prices high, but they can get away with colluding to hurt workers. That's unfair. It hurts productivity and it hurts the dynamism and the mobility that we need to get productivity moving again. Labor is also cracking down on no-poach clauses, which say to firms that they can't poach each other's employees. For example, the no-poach clauses that currently exist in the franchise agreements of some fast-food companies.
These reforms are vital to productivity. Labor is committed to a more competitive and dynamic economy. As the Assistant Minister for Productivity and the Assistant Minister for Competition, I'm really proud of our reforms in getting national competition policy moving again. The merger reforms that overhauled our merger laws for the first time in 50 years, and the vital work that we're doing on economic dynamism.
The draft laws we're releasing today are the next phase of consultation in a set of reforms that were announced by the Treasurer in last year's Budget. Reforms that are vital to ensuring that Australians have the freedom to choose the job they go to. Australian workers shouldn't be shackled to their current job because it's bad for the boss if they move to a better one. Australian start-up entrepreneurs should be able to hire the workers they need to get their business off the ground.
Dynamic and competitive economies require worker mobility. But over recent years we've seen that worker mobility fall. This reform is good for workers, it's good for wages, it's good for productivity, and it's good for entrepreneurship. Labor is releasing this draft legislation. We look forward hearing the responses of those across the sector and hopefully seeing full support right across the Parliament for these critical reforms. Happy to take questions.
JOURNALIST: How prevalent are these handcuffs, particularly for those salaries under $190,100?
ANDREW LEIGH: We know one in five workers are subject to a non-compete clause, according to research that's been done by e61. We know that from surveys of employers done by the Australian Bureau of Statistics that these clauses are replete across the economy. When I first started talking about this, I was citing a statistic that in the United States, 18 per cent of workers were subject to a non-compete. Some people said, ‘Ah, it's just an American thing’. And then the e61 survey came back saying that the figure for Australia was 21 per cent. Nine in ten workers are below that Fair Work Act high income earner threshold, so nine in ten workers will benefit from us banning non-competes. We're conducting further consultation as to what we do with workers above that threshold.
JOURNALIST: No doubt an impact on productivity, but I've always yearned for a bit of gardening leave. Do you think there'll be any pushback on it?
ANDREW LEIGH: Look, when I've spoken to organisations about this, I've received strong support. I've spoken extensively to unions and I call out the ACTU and the way in which unions such as the ASU have supported these reforms. But I also gave a speech to the Sydney Institute last year, putting a freedom lens around this. The freedom of workers to be able to move to a better job. And the main questions that I got in the Q&A session after that is ‘Why doesn't it happen sooner?’ So I think there will be strong reform from this. Whether you're an egalitarian or a freedom lover, you should want Australian workers to be able to get a better job.
JOURNALIST: Thank you Assistant Minister.
ENDS