The Hon Andrew Leigh MP
Assistant Minister for Competition, Charities, and Treasury
Assistant Minister for Employment
E&OE TRANSCRIPT
PRESS CONFERENCE
CANBERRA
MONDAY, 7 APRIL 2025
SUBJECTS: Albanese Government’s $1.5 million funding commitment for Margaret Timpson Park, Labor’s cost of living relief, Peter Dutton’s public service cuts and work from home ban, international students and migration, ACT Senators recommendation.
ANDREW LEIGH, MEMBER FOR FENNER: Well thanks everyone for coming along today. My name is Andrew Leigh, the Federal Member for Fenner and I'm joined by Tara Cheyne MLA and Lachlan Butler who will say a few words on behalf of the Belconnen Community Council. We are also really privileged to have here Chris Timpson, Margaret Timpson’s widow, who has just been telling me a little bit more about Margaret. Margaret Timpson was the first ACT Woman of the Year - somebody who was a real pioneer for the women's movement and who helped shape Canberra through her work at the Australian Bureau of Statistics and her work in the Canberra community. It was Rosemary Follett who made the decision for this park to be named Margaret Timpson Park in 1994 - the year after Margaret Timpson’s untimely death as a result of cancer.
A lot of time has passed since 1994 of course, and the park is due for a revamp. That's why I'm really pleased to announce that a re-elected Albanese Government would invest $1.5 million in Margaret Timpson Park. This new investment will go to improved play spaces, to toilets, to a barbecue area. It will ensure that Margaret Timpson Park is a better space for the many office workers to come to use it, the shoppers who spill out of Westfield, the young parents who are looking for a place for their kids to play and the seniors who are looking for a spot to relax. Margaret Timpson Park really is a great part of the Belconnen community.
Some investments are measured in GDP, others are measured in giggles and shared lunches. This is the latter. It will be a great investment, and it will ensure that a terrific Park honouring an extraordinary Canberran becomes an even better place to play into the future. I am pleased now to hand over to Tara Cheyne and then to Lachlan Butler.
TARA CHEYNE MLA: Good morning, it’s terrific to be here with our local federal Member for Fenner, Andrew Leigh to announce this $1.5 million investment here in Margaret Timpson Park. This aligns with an ACT Labor election commitment last year, which we have been in the process of pulling together ahead of the budget. And so, this announcement that a re-elected Albanese Government will invest in Margaret Timpson Park is both welcome and fitting, particularly because Margaret Timpson not only was the first ACT Woman of the Year, but she worked just down the road at the Australian Bureau of Statistics, and she's still revered. People still talk to me about the impact that she had as a female leader, and to have done that at the federal public service and for this park here in the heart of Belconnen to be named after her, and then to have this investment from a federal Albanese Government is very, very welcome.
This is a park that's seeing more and more people enjoy it, especially as the town centre expands. I’m not only a local member, I'm the Minister for City and Government Services, and I live just up there. I've seen firsthand every single day, this park being used. We've got so many more residents than we had ten years ago, and many people use this as their green space - this as their backyard. There have been calls for a long time for a public toilet. The nearest one is at Westfield, and the other nearest one is at the skate park. So, both of those are quite a way away, especially for people who live here using some of the services, especially like the Access Canberra service centre. There's also Medicare behind me, and so being able to have that sort of investment means the playground, not just for people who are visiting the town centre, but for our residents as well. Again, the nearest playground is about two kilometres away, and when you've got young kids in some of these towers around us, two kilometres is just a little bit too far. So that's why we're very proud to make this investment. We're very proud to hear that the Albanese Labor Government if re-elected, would be making this investment with the ACT Government for Margaret Timpson Park.
LEIGH: Thanks Tara. Lachlan, would you like to say a few words?
LACHLAN BUTLER, CHAIR BELCONNEN COMMUNITY COUNCIL: Good morning. It is fantastic to see the announcement this morning. We have thousands of more people living in Belconnen, and we need to make sure the public spaces improve and are greater to match that. When this park was built and designed, it wasn't designed with all of the residents that we have around us today, and that's one of the reasons why we have been calling for upgrades to the park. We want to make this a really good space for everyone that uses the town centre to be able to come and stay and want to stay, and not just as a thorough way to get somewhere else. So, we're very keen to make sure these upgrades occur, and we hope that the federal money that comes behind it ensures that there are no delays in getting it done. Thank you.
LEIGH: Great, thanks Lachlan.
JOURNALIST: Assistant Minister, can you explain why is this a Commonwealth project?
LEIGH: Well, the Commonwealth is making investments in parks and spaces right across the country. We've got a strong commitment to Canberra. The Albanese Government's infrastructure investment in Canberra is fitting for a population of our size. I remember the Morrison Government's last budget where the ACT received just one fifth of our proportional infrastructure spend. That hasn't happened under the Albanese Government. We've made investments such as the National Security Precinct, our national cultural institutions funding, the Monaro and Barton Highway upgrades in the latest budget and in local infrastructure like this one.
JOURNALIST: Is this a fully funded Commonwealth project?
LEIGH: Yes, it is.
JOURNALIST: It’s not a matching project with the ACT Government?
LEIGH: No.
JOURNALIST: You've campaigned - like yesterday with the Convention Centre announcement, and today with the park upgrades. Do Canberrans care more about Park upgrades and Convention Centres than measures to ease the cost of living?
LEIGH: We're doing all of those things. The fact that is that under the Albanese Government, every Canberra household has received energy bill rebates. Under the Albanese Government, every Canberra income taxpayer has received income tax cuts. That stands in stark contrast to the Coalition, where every income taxpayer in Canberra will pay more tax. We understand the cost of living is a significant issue to Canberrans, and that's why the four budgets that Jim Chalmers has handed down have had cost of living as their central focus.
JOURNALIST: Is that what you hear from Canberrans? What's their main concern, the main issue for Canberrans?
LEIGH: Canberrans are wonderfully diverse. It's one of the real joys about representing an electorate like the ACT. Many people are concerned about the issue of climate change, and therefore pleased to see that we're investing in subsidising household batteries which will have that dual benefit of reducing cost of living pressures and encouraging the renewables rollout. But I hear a lot from Canberrans about our place in the world, about the future of climate change and about the cost of living.
JOURNALIST: Did the ACT Government come to you and say, ‘help us out with this one’?
LEIGH: We're always working with the ACT Government to determine infrastructure priorities. So, we want to make sure that the two levels of government are working together, and I think that's one of the really strong things about this partnership. Katy Gallagher as the Finance Minister, having been the former Chief Minister. There's just a great working relationship between the federal and ACT Governments. We don't make an announcement of this kind without close and careful engagement with the ACT Government. And of course, that's why Tara is here today.
JOURNALIST: I just have a question about the APS work from home announcements by the Coalition. We heard that announcement today. Does that reflect Canberrans sentiment to work from home and have flexibility, as well as the importance of the APS?
LEIGH: Well of course, Canberrans have benefited from flexible work arrangements, as have all Australians from a more effective public service. But I guess the big question today is, do you believe Peter Dutton? Do you really believe that a guy who has been campaigning so hard, so intensely and so nastily against Canberra is really now going to spare this city from his public service cuts. Or more likely, does the leopard have exactly the same spots and he's just saying what he thinks people need to hear in order to get him through to polling day.
I think it's very clear the Coalition's anti public service sentiments remain. We have a whole range of quotes from Coalition members where they have very clearly expressed their desire not just to decimate, but to reduce by one fifth the public service. And just as the Abbott Government before the election said no cuts to health, no cuts to the ABC, no cuts to SBS, no cuts to education, and then came in and did all of those things. I think Australians can fully expect that if Peter Dutton was to become Prime Minister, that public service would be massively cut and we would be back to the bad old days of longer wait times for veterans’ claims, longer wait times for parental leave payments and the problems of the Robodebt scandal.
JOURNALIST: In relation to the migration and international students issue, in Canberra how significant are international students and migration to housing prices?
LEIGH: Migration is one of the factors in housing prices, but it's not the central challenge. The main problem we've had in housing is we just haven't built enough houses. You can see this if we look across the OECD: the number of homes per capita in Australia is lower than average. So, the work we're doing on getting more apprentices in place, in providing those resources to the Housing Australia Future Fund - that is at the heart of our housing policy. And then of course, you've got Peter Dutton who does one thing in the Parliament and then says something else on the campaign trail. Frankly, this bloke can't be believed about the public service, and this bloke can't be believed when it comes to migration.
JOURNALIST: So is reducing international students a solution at all to the housing crisis in Canberra and Australia?
LEIGH: Labor has announced that we will better manage international student numbers. We recognise that there had been a blowout in some institutions going past 50 per cent international students, and that there's a potentially adverse impact on the student experience of that. Our policies though, when we took them to the Parliament were opposed by the Coalition who now say they want to do something about international students. Well, you had your chance in the Parliament and you had your chance to vote for this measure. It's extraordinary voting one way in Parliament and saying something else on the campaign trail.
JOURNALIST: I’ve got one more on another topic. Yesterday, Katy Gallagher - she mentioned Labor will be pushing to increase the number of ACT Senators – doubling it. It’s a recommendation. Do you have a timeline on that at all?
LEIGH: We're keen to push to get better representation for the Territories. We believe that's appropriate. Certainly, if you look at the representation per person that the ACT has compared to Tasmania, then we're underweight. And if you look at the calibre of people that are sent to the Senate from the Northern Territory and from the ACT, I think you can confidently say that both jurisdictions have consistently, over decades, sent people of high calibre to the nation's capital and that recommendation is something that Labor supports.
JOURNALIST: If re-elected, how soon would you be pushing that?
LEIGH: We would be keen to proceed with it, but all of these things end up being a negotiation involving engagement with others, and so it's difficult to put precise timelines around a process that involves quite thorough engagement across the Parliament and the community.
JOURNALIST: On timelines, when would the money for this park go to the ACT Government?
LEIGH: The money will flow immediately, and then it’s a matter of getting the works underway. Obviously, there's a lot of construction going on in the ACT. You would be aware of the work going on with the National Security Precinct and the Light Rail extension. So the ACT Government will manage that alongside its other priorities. Did you want to add anything more on timelines Tara?
CHEYNE: Our intention would be to be delivering this over the next two financial years, just recognising that procurement takes a little bit of time once the budget has passed and construction timelines with both the major playground, as well as the accessible ramp on Chandler Street and with toilet, that these things will probably cross into the second financial year.
JOURNALIST: Would this project be part of the ACT Government budget if it wasn’t funded by the Commonwealth?
CHEYNE: We’re going through the budget process as we speak. Certainly, I've been very keen to deliver on our election commitments right across Belconnen in particular. We've got a lot of aging infrastructure here and we’ve got the fastest growing region after Gungahlin. But the density that we've seen in the Belconnen town sector has been extraordinary, and how much people value their public assets like Margaret Timpson Park has come through very strongly.
JOURNALIST: Just one quick question Lachlan. You're happy with the upgrade and the detail? Is there anything else that you would like in this park?
BUTLER: We're definitely excited to see the upgrades. We’re very, very keen to see what that looks like over the time period that Tara has outlined. We would also be keen to see the ACT Government come to the party and expand Margaret Timpson Park. The hole in the ground next door has been a hole in the ground for far too long, and we want to see that addressed. So, we think it would be absolutely fantastic if we could improve the amenities and expand the park. If we want people to embrace high density living, we've got to show that the infrastructure, services and amenities will match.
JOURNALIST: Okay. There have been a couple of development applications lodged just recently for high density residential towers. That just reinforces the case for public spaces in this area?
BUTLER: Definitely. As Tara mentioned, it's one of the fastest growing regions, and with thousands of more people you know, residents and families moving into the town centre, we need to make sure that what they expect is what they get.
LEIGH: Thanks everyone, and particularly Chris Timpson for being here today - lovely to have you here.
ENDS