Andrew Leigh

The Hon Andrew Leigh MP
Assistant Minister for Productivity, Competition, Charities and Treasury
Member for Fenner

Competition and Consumer Amendment (Responding to Exceptional Circumstances) Bill 2026
House of Representatives, Parliament House 

Monday, 25 May 2026

I present the revised explanatory memorandum to this bill and move that this bill be now read a second time.

Since the conflict between the United States, Israel and Iran began on 28 February, our government has been responding to the biggest oil shock in history with a comprehensive plan to secure more fuel, strengthen supply chains, build resilience and take the sting out of prices. The government's Strengthening Australia's Fuel Resilience package will deliver more fuel for drivers and industry, more fertiliser for farmers and more fuel security for the economy, with its centrepiece being immediate fuel supplies and a permanent Australian fuel security reserve to ensure we have the fuels and fertiliser we need.

Our government is helping businesses and manufacturers bolster supply chains through interest free loans via the National Reconstruction Fund. Along with incentives to shift more freight onto trains and ships, targeted support for electric vehicles, more charging stations and heavy vehicle reform, this will strengthen our long-term fuel resilience, while the Cleaner Fuels Program and reforms to the low-carbon liquid fuels market will help Australia produce more fuel at home and support future demand. We're reserving 20 per cent of gas exports for Australian users to increase domestic supply and lower prices, and we're advancing the Future Made in Australia agenda through the Critical Minerals Strategic Reserve and investments in domestic smelting and manufacturing.

We understand this crisis is adding to cost-of-living pressures, which is why we're more than halving the fuel excise, reducing the heavy vehicle road user charge to zero, putting petrol companies on notice by doubling the consumer watchdog's maximum penalties and ramping up enforcement and monitoring, giving businesses more leeway at tax time if they face fuel supply problems and continuing to make it easier and quicker for small businesses to access credit when they need. It. This bill supports that action by creating new powers for the Treasurer and the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission to permit coordinated action during a crisis by increasing the maximum penalties that can be imposed for breaches of the Oil Code of Conduct.

The Hon Catherine King MP
Minister for Infrastructure, Transport, Regional Development and Local Government

The Hon Andrew Leigh MP
Assistant Minister for Productivity, Competition, Charities and Treasury
Member for Fenner

Yvette Berry MLA
Deputy Chief Minister
Member for Ginninderra

Tara Cheye MLA
Minister for City and Government Services
Member for Ginninderra

Construction Underway On William Hovell Drive Duplication

25 May 2026

Main construction works have begun today on the William Hovell Drive Duplication, with the major project set to improve safety, ease congestion and support growth in Canberra's northwestern suburbs.

The upgrade will duplicate 4.5 kilometres of road between John Gorton Drive and Drake Brockman Drive, creating two lanes in each direction to ease congestion and improve safety for more than 20,000 vehicles that who use the corridor each day.

The $107.25 million project is jointly funded by the Australian and ACT governments.

The start of main works follows completion of surveying, dilapidation assessments and site compound establishment over the last month.

Long-term modelling indicates that Belconnen’s population could exceed 185,000 people by 2065, and up to another 79,000 residents living in the Molonglo Valley, increasing demand for safer and more efficient transport.

Complementing the $225 million joint investment to build a new bridge crossing over the Molonglo River, which is expected to open to traffic later this year, these projects will support future housing growth in Ginninderry, Denman Prospect, Whitlam and Molonglo.

Julie Collins MP
Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry
Member for Franklin

The Hon Andrew Leigh MP
Assistant Minister for Productivity, Competition, Charities and Treasury

E&OE TRANSCRIPT
DOORSTOP PRESS CONFERENCE
MORNINGTON, HOBART
FRIDAY, 22 MAY 2026

SUBJECTS: Extending the Right to Repair framework to agricultural machinery

ASSISTANT MINISTER FOR COMPETITION, ANDREW LEIGH: Thank you for joining us today. My name is Andrew Leigh, the Assistant Minister for Competition. When Labor came to office, independent mechanics didn’t have access to the data they needed to fix modern cars. That changed with the introduction in July 2022 of the Motor Vehicle Information Sharing Scheme, That has created $2.4 billion a year in additional value. Much of it comes from independent mechanics like this one. Cooper Automotive, which is able to fix modern cars by getting access to the onboard computer data. We've also seen huge benefits for consumers. Independent mechanics tend to be a whole lot cheaper than the authorised dealer, and that gives more choice to consumers, particularly in regional areas.

What Julie and I are announcing today is the next stage in the Motor Vehicle Information Sharing Scheme. We're looking at how we can expand it to agricultural machinery, to tractors, harvesters and roll out more information that allows farmers to get that machinery fixed. Now for a motorist, having a car break down can be frustrating. But for farmers, this can cost thousands of dollars a day in lost productivity as a harvester isn't able to work when you need it most.

The Hon Andrew Leigh MP 
Assistant Minister for Productivity, Competition, Charities and Treasury 

When Employers Collude, Workers Pay

Published in The New Daily

24 May 2026

Adam Smith saw it 250 years ago. ‘We rarely hear,’ he wrote, ‘of the combinations of masters, though frequently of those of workmen’. And anyone who imagines employers do not combine to lower wages, he added, is ‘ignorant of the world’. Such arrangements, Smith observed, are conducted ‘with the utmost silence and secrecy’.

He could have been writing about Silicon Valley.

For years, some of the biggest names in American tech operated what looked less like a labour market and more like a private arrangement among insiders.

Apple, Google, Intel, Adobe, Intuit, Pixar, Lucasfilm and eBay entered no-poach arrangements under which they agreed to avoid recruiting one another’s staff.

In some cases, they went further. If an employee applied to move, the current employer could be tipped off. In some instances, hiring required permission. At least one arrangement barred bidding wars.

It was cartel conduct, translated from the product market to the pay packet.

The secret deals were made by those at the top: senior executives and board members.

The Hon Julie Collins MP
Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry

The Hon Anne Aly MP
Minister for Small Business

The Hon Dr Andrew Leigh MP
Assistant Minister for Productivity, Competition, Charities and Treasury

22 May 2026

Keeping machinery moving when it matters most: Right to Repair reforms for farmers and drivers

The Albanese Government is seeking feedback on reforms to strengthen competition in repair markets and expand choice for drivers and farmers.

We know some Australians are doing it tough, which is why we are expanding consumer choice to help put downward pressure on the cost of maintaining vehicles and machinery.

Global uncertainty, including the current conflict in the Middle East, is putting pressure on fuel prices, freight costs and supply chains.

For farmers, keeping their machinery running quickly and affordably has never been more important.

Today, the Government has released a discussion paper outlining proposals to extend Australia’s Right to Repair framework to agricultural machinery, alongside targeted improvements to the Motor Vehicle Information Sharing Scheme, which has been operating since 2022.

The Hon Andrew Leigh MP 
Assistant Minister for Productivity, Competition, Charities and Treasury 

Linking the Dots

Workshop On Maximizing The Use of Linked And Integrated Administrative Data Assets To Inform Government Policy Decision-Making

ABS House, Belconnen,
Online Address

Friday, 22 May 2026

I acknowledge the Ngunnawal people, on whose lands you are meeting today, and pay respects to all First Nations people present.

I’m sorry to be appearing on screen rather than in the room. I’m in Tasmania, where the datasets are rich, the scenery is richer, and every regression should probably include a variable for sudden rain.

Let me begin by acknowledging and thanking Professor Philip Clarke, of the University of Melbourne and Oxford University.

Philip has probably had a bigger impact on Australian policy than any Oxford professor since Keith Hancock. That is because he brings intellectual horsepower, but also because he brings the rarer gift of applying frontier research to practical public problems.

Australia is lucky that Philip keeps returning home. He is one of those scholars who reminds us that research isn’t only about top journals. It can also help a minister, a department, a clinician or a service provider make a better decision.

The Hon Andrew Leigh MP
Assistant Minister for Productivity, Competition, Charities and Treasury

E&OE TRANSCRIPT
RADIO INTERVIEW
ABC RADIO HOBART, BREAKFAST WITH RYK GODDARD
THURSDAY, 21 MAY 2026

SUBJECTS: 2026 Budget; Giblin Lecture on ‘The Economics of Human Extinction’; AI; Albanese Government cracking down on the supermarkets

RYK GODDARD: Right around Tasmania today, Dr Andrew Leigh MP is visiting Tasmania to deliver a lecture about economics and he's one of those people who actually has a portfolio in an area in which he has some expertise. Andrew Leigh, good morning.

ANDREW LEIGH: Good morning Ryk, great to be with you.

RYK GODDARD: Welcome to Tassie. You're speaking at the Giblin Lecture today at the University of Tasmania on economics and we will dive into the economics of crisis. But is the Prime Minister really taking 47 per cent of my small business?

ANDREW LEIGH: No, that's simply not right. I mean, right now there is a capital gains tax discount and in the future, there'll be a capital gains tax discount. But it won't be an arbitrary one, it'll be based on inflation - going back to the system we used from 1985 to 1999. So you'll pay capital gains on the real gain, not on the nominal gain discounted by 50 per cent. For some people, that will be more generous. For some people, it'll be less generous. But overall, it's going to help 75,000 people get into the housing market who can't get in there now.

The Hon Andrew Leigh MP 
Assistant Minister for Productivity, Competition, Charities and Treasury

The Economics of Human Extinction

Giblin Lecture,
University of Tasmania

Thursday, 21 May 2026

1. The Last Externality

I acknowledge the muwinina people, the traditional and original owners of the land on which we gather tonight, and pay my respects to Tasmanian Aboriginal people and to First Nations people present. My thanks to Mark Bowles, the University of Tasmania and the Tasmanian branch of the Economic Society of Australia for organising this event.

As a longtime admirer of Lyndhurst Giblin, it is an honour to be delivering the 2026 Giblin lecture. Giblin was born in 1872, exactly 100 years before me. He was both a Labor member of parliament and a professor of economics (Cain 1981). He loved Tasmania’s high country, and I like to think that in the modern era, his passion for exercise and mountains would have made him a keen ultramarathoner.

At this point, I can almost imagine we belong in the same paragraph. But not when you note that Giblin also played Rugby Union for England, prospected for gold in Canada and taught ju-jitsu in London. In the First World War, Giblin fought at the Somme and Passchendaele, was wounded three times, and received the Distinguished Service Order.

As an economist, Giblin focused on large, practical questions. How to manage an economy in crisis? How to design institutions that would endure? He did early work on what became known as the Keynesian multiplier, shaped the approach of the Commonwealth Grants Commission and helped form the Economic Society of Australia.

Giblin did not confine himself to tidy questions. He worked on problems that mattered, even when they were messy or uncertain. He belonged to a generation of economists who did not wait for perfect data before offering advice, perhaps because the problems they faced did not wait either.

That makes him an apt namesake for a lecture on a topic that economists have largely neglected: the risk that the system does not merely falter, but ends.

The Hon Kristy McBain MP
Minister for Regional Development, Local Government and Territories 
Member for Eden-Monaro

Alicia Payne MP
Member for Canberra

The Hon Andrew Leigh MP
Assistant Minister for Productivity, Competition, Charities and Treasury
Member for Fenner

David Smith MP
Member for Bean 

Wednesday, 20 May 2026

Black Spot Funding To Improve Road Safety Across Canberra 

The Albanese Government has committed almost $7 million to address safety at 17 locations under the Australian Capital Territory 2026–27 Black Spot Program funding round.

The Black Spot Program funds safety measures such as traffic lights, safety barriers, roundabouts and pedestrian crossings at locations where several serious crashes have occurred or are at risk of occurring.

Projects funded in this round include:

• Over $1 million to install mast arms and widen the road at the intersection of Hindmarsh Drive and Yamba Drive in Garran
• $120,000 to improve the intersection of Manning Clarke Crescent, Anthony Rolfe Avenue and Eva West Street in Gungahlin
• $225,180 for line marking and signage, speed limit reduction to 50 kilometres per hour and the installation of speed humps on Cowper Street in Dickson and Ainslie.

The projects were recommended by the ACT Black Spot Consultative Panel. This panel is comprised of local stakeholders who are best placed to ensure nominations of the highest priority and importance to the local community are recommended for approval.

The Black Spot Program provides $150 million annually towards improving road safety at sites across the country.

It is a key part of the Australian Government’s commitment under the National Road Safety Strategy 2021–2030 to reducing fatalities and serious injuries on our roads.

The Hon Andrew Leigh MP 
Assistant Minister for Productivity, Competition, Charities and Treasury 

From Clever to Competitive: Lifting Productivity Through Innovation

Opening Keynote Address to 18th Annual Agile Australia Conference,

Melbourne Cricket Ground 

Tuesday, 19 May 2026

Thank you for the invitation to join you at AgileAus, on the lands of the Wurundjeri people of the Kulin Nation.

It is a pleasure to be with a room full of people who spend their days trying to make organisations less cumbersome, products more useful, systems a bit less maddening and the future more intelligent.

That last phrase is your conference theme this year: Building our Intelligent Future.

I’m a big admirer of intelligence. I’m an even bigger admirer of intelligence paired with wisdom. Wisdom is knowing which problems are worth solving. For a technologist, that means asking whether the clever thing is useful, safe, adopted, and capable of making life better beyond the demo screen.

My theme today is how innovation happens, and what governments can do to encourage more innovation and technological diffusion.

The history of innovation is full of myths about solitary genius. Alexander Fleming returns from holiday, notices mould on a petri dish, and penicillin is born. It’s a cute tale, particularly because Fleming considered calling penicillin ‘mould juice’, which should give comfort to anyone who’s ever launched with a bad product name.