The Hon Andrew Leigh MP
Assistant Minister for Productivity, Competition, Charities and Treasury
E&OE TRANSCRIPT
TV INTERVIEW
SKY NEWS AUSTRALIA, AFTERNOON AGENDA WITH TOM CONNELL
WEDNESDAY, 1 JULY 2026
SUBJECTS: Price gouging by Coles and Woolworths illegal from 1 July 2026 under the Albanese Government; AI; 2026 ABS Census
TOM CONNELL: Another big change spoken about by the government today is a ban on supermarket so-called price gouging. Assistant Minister for Competition, Charities and Treasury Andrew Leigh joins me now for more on this. Thank you for your time.
ANDREW LEIGH: Pleasure Tom.
TOM CONNELL: The rule comes in, says supermarkets are allowed to charge cost of supply plus a reasonable margin. What's a reasonable margin?
ANDREW LEIGH: Well, that'll be up to the competition watchdog. The ACCC is one of the most experienced regulators. They've shown their willingness to take on the big supermarkets and we deliberately didn't put numbers around this, Tom because that becomes too easily gamed. We've done it the way in which other jurisdictions have approached the challenge in Europe and the United Kingdom and we've done it to make sure that families get a fair deal at the checkout.
TOM CONNELL: In terms of supermarkets and reasonable margins though, they have some of the lowest margins out of any business. So is it going to be hard to say, you know, a 2.2% margin on something's unreasonable when most businesses have a higher one?
ANDREW LEIGH: We asked the competition watchdog to do a supermarket inquiry, and they came back reporting to us that where you've got high market concentration, there is a propensity for consumers to be gouged as well as suppliers to be gouged. So we've come at both of those issues. Our mandatory Food and Grocery Code gives greater protections to farmers. And the price gouging laws, along with everything else we've done around shrinkflation and the like, ensures that consumers are looked after at the checkout.
TOM CONNELL: So, the 400-page ACCC report. It had – it spoke about dodgy promos, for sure; we know that's going through the courts, unit pricing. But nowhere did it talk about systemic price gouging. They actually didn't highlight that as a particular problem, did they?
ANDREW LEIGH: Well, the ACCC weren't particularly asked to look at that issue, but these are protections that we believe are important for consumers to have. And they sit alongside a whole range of other things we've done. Reforming the unit pricing code so consumers get proper warning around shrinkflation. Getting better information out to consumers through funding CHOICE to do quarterly grocery price monitoring. The work we've done in regional areas to make sure that there's good information available on supermarket shelves. All directed towards one goal Tom – making sure families are getting a fair deal at the checkout.
TOM CONNELL: And what about other factors? So, you know, what's being decided as a fair margin? They might say, ‘Well, that margin's a bit high on this product’, but does that take into account weekly specials and the rest of the supermarket that they might be making less money on? How does that come into things?
ANDREW LEIGH: They'll certainly be looking at specials and they'll have access to better data than ever before. The supermarket inquiry dealt with more than a billion pieces of data across the major supermarkets, which allowed them to do better data analysis than ever before. This is big data being used in service of families. People don't need to be able to crunch the numbers. The ACCC will do that for them. But if there's outrages that you see, you can certainly report those to the competition watchdog.
TOM CONNELL: Getting a watchdog, you know, a government watchdog to decide what a reasonable margin is. I mean, it doesn't sound like capitalism, really?
ANDREW LEIGH: I don't think there's a more respected regulator than the ACCC, Tom. They're somebody who has a great track record. And I think it's really important in this context to remember that to be pro-market is different from backing any particular business. Adam Smith went to this 250 years ago. The notion that market relies on competition, and where we have limited competition as we have in a sector like this, where the big two have two thirds of the market, you need extra powers from the competition watchdog to make sure that the biggest players aren't flexing their muscle unfairly.
TOM CONNELL: His silent hand has become the heavy hand of government, some might say?
ANDREW LEIGH: Adam Smith advocated good competition regulation and that's exactly the spirit in which we're operating. Capitalism isn't about trying to ensure that the biggest firms capture huge profits at the expense of farmers and families. It's about making sure farmers and families have a fair deal.
TOM CONNELL: Okay. So, given your trust in the ACCC, if we don't see any fines over this, that it proves too elusive to be able to say what a reasonable margin is, will you say, well fair enough?
ANDREW LEIGH: Laws have deterrent effects. What would be ideal out of this Tom, is if the majors do the right thing.
TOM CONNELL: So, not a single fine, you'll say, that's worked regardless?
ANDREW LEIGH: Well, as with our murder laws, our drink driving laws, we don't want people to be out there breaking the laws.
TOM CONNELL: But there’s no such thing as [indistinct] or no drink driving?
ANDREW LEIGH: Well, we want these large supermarkets to comply, to do the right thing by families. They have access to all of the data the ACCC will have access to. My hope is they'll do the right thing and families will see the benefits.
TOM CONNELL: Copyright laws. So, last year the government was adamant, no weakening at all despite lobbying from AI and tech companies. Does that remain the case?
ANDREW LEIGH: Look, the government has broad principles on AI. We believe that workers need a voice, that we need to have fairness, that we need to ensure that people are getting the appropriate training, and those principles guide what we do. Jobs and Skills Australia estimates that 87% of jobs will be augmented by AI rather than automated away. So, I think there's great potential here and we're obviously working strongly with creative groups and with unions to make sure these technologies are rolled out fairly.
TOM CONNELL: Creative groups were here today saying on the reports, that maybe these copyright laws will be weakened. Don't weaken the laws. What's your response to that?
ANDREW LEIGH: We stand firmly with creators in making sure that they get a fair deal. We understand the value for creators. In some cases, these agreements have been struck between some of the large firms and copyright owners. But creators need to be at the table, need to be getting the benefits of AI.
TOM CONNELL: And there won't be a softening from that stance that we heard last year? There's no change from what we heard last year from the Prime Minister and the Minister to now?
ANDREW LEIGH: Well, we've been very clear about the principles with which we approach this, Tom. The principles of voice, of skills and of fairness which guide a Labor Government as we look to make sure that workers are getting the benefits of AI. And you see that in some occupations. You can see it with logistics, where workers in the transport sector are able to drive shorter routes thanks to AI. You see it in radiology, where AI is helping radiologists do a better job. It's labour-augmenting in those contexts, and we want to see more of those examples.
TOM CONNELL: So, the argument from AI is ‘Oh, we need access to be able to train our systems to be able to get the benefit you're talking about’. Previously, that argument was rejected. Is that something that Labor is softening to?
ANDREW LEIGH: Well, those firms are getting access. In many cases, they're striking deals with news outlets in order to purchase access to data.
TOM CONNELL: So that will remain? They’ll have to purchase that access?
ANDREW LEIGH: That is a fair and reasonable way of doing things. I don't think it's fair for the AI companies to be stealing information…
TOM CONNELL: Even just to train? It wouldn't be fair to just go, ‘We're going to have this, trust us?’
ANDREW LEIGH: They're buying access Tom, in order to train their models. That sees creators get a fair deal and it's important in terms of getting one piece of the puzzle right. The other piece of the puzzle is the skills and the involvement with workers as AI is rolled out in workplaces. It's a great productivity-boosting technology; we've got to make sure it serves workers.
TOM CONNELL: Tim Duggan is a representative of Publishing Umbrella. He says government advertising should keep dollars onshore, so not just pump out money to Meta and so on. Is that something Labor's cognisant of?
ANDREW LEIGH: We're doing advertising where the eyeballs are. So right now, the Australian Bureau of Statistics is rolling out an awareness campaign leading up to the Census on the second Tuesday in August. Their campaign, for example, Tom, is largely proportional to where people are looking. So, they're going to be engaging in billboards, they'll be engaging online, they'll be engaging through newspapers, engaging through First Nations media and local radio stations. I imagine that's the way a modern campaign will operate.
TOM CONNELL: Andrew Leigh, appreciate your time today. Thank you.
ANDREW LEIGH: Thanks so much Tom.
ENDS