Andrew Leigh

Productivity Roundtables, Abundance and the ANU Indonesia Project

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

House of Representatives

Wednesday 27 August

It's a real pleasure to rise to speak in the address-in-reply debate following a remarkable election victory for the Albanese Government. The Prime Minister spoke during the election campaign about the importance of kindness and about looking after the most vulnerable. That message resonated with the Australian community, and the number of seats that Labor now holds in the House of Representatives is higher than at any time in Australian history. The share of the seats is higher than at any time since 1943.

I was really honoured in my own electorate of Fenner to receive a 6.4 per cent swing, with 53.8 per cent of the primary vote and 72.1 per cent of the two-party preferred vote. I want to acknowledge the other candidates who ran in that election—Bola Olatunbosun, Dani Hunterford and Elizabeth Kikkert—and to thank each of the 97,000 voters who participated. You might think that I'm approximating when I say '97,000 voters'. No, I'm being exact. There were precisely 97,000 voters in the last election in the electorate of Fenner.

I want to thank my staff who worked on the campaign—my campaign manager, Kal Slater; my chief of staff, Nick Terrell; Blair Arnold, Bronwyn Asquith, Chris Davis, Cohen Elliott, Cullen Savle, Felicity Wilkins, Frances Kitt, Maria Neill and Meg Thomas - and my volunteers, including Christine Debu, Gerry Lloyd, Jo Corrigan, Naomi Nicholson and 93-year-old Trevor Smith. As the previous speaker did, I acknowledge the immense support that I receive from my family. My parents Barbara and Michael Leigh, my wife, Gweneth Leigh and my three wonderful boys, Sebastian, Theodore and Zachary.

Since being elected, the government has turned its focus to the issue of productivity. Productivity is a significant challenge in Australia, and the decade up to 2020 was the worst decade of productivity growth in the postwar era. The quarter in which our government came to office in 2022 saw a huge fall in productivity. Our government wants to boost productivity, because we recognise that this is the way we raise living standards and the way Australia can be more generous to those who are vulnerable here and overseas.

The Treasurer's Economic Reform Roundtable was preceded by a range of productivity roundtables across the country — more than 40 in all — and I was pleased to participate in a number of those. On 13 August, the ACT Labor federal representatives — Katy Gallagher, David Smith, Alicia Payne and myself held a roundtable focusing on how we boost productivity, resilience and budget sustainability. I would like to thank the attendees: Blake Conor Proberts, Devin Bowles, Abid Khan, Michael Thomson, Hala Batainah, Margot McNeill, David Marshall, Mandy Hill, George Kadmos, Adam Fennessy, Matthew Kadelaars, Markus Doherty, Janet Salisbury, Maddy Northam, Corinne Dobson, Anna-Maria Arabia, Andrew Meares, Greg Harford, Michael Matthews, Alison Percival, Frank Porreca, Garry Watson, Kathy Ehrmann, Michael Hamill, Keith Cantlie and Emma Sparks, as well as Bill Shorten, the Vice-Chancellor of the University of Canberra. The discussion was free-flowing and thoughtful, engaged in topics such as how the ACT can help to serve as the nation's social laboratory and how we can use our willingness to be at the cutting edge of reform to provide productivity lessons that benefit the nation as a whole.

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

A Capital Investment: Salesforce in Canberra

SALESFORCE OFFICE OPENING
CANBERRA 

MONDAY, 25 AUGUST 2025

It’s a pleasure to be here on Ngunnawal land for the opening of Salesforce’s new Canberra office. Thank you to Sassoon Grigorian and your Salesforce colleagues for hosting me today.

As the Assistant Minister for Treasury, I’m more accustomed to tax cutting than ribbon cutting – but today I’m happy to swap spreadsheets for scissors.

Salesforce began in 1999 in a San Francisco apartment with a simple, disruptive idea: deliver enterprise software over the internet, eliminating the need for on-site installations and licences. Back then it was called “the end of software.” It turned out to be the start of cloud computing.

Twenty-five years later, that idea has grown into a company headquartered in San Francisco –12,000 kilometres from here – with a new presence in Canberra to support Australian and ACT governments, as well as local customers.

From its earliest days, Salesforce coupled technology with civic spirit. The 1-1-1 model – dedicating 1% of equity, 1% of product and 1% of employee time to public good – was unusual in the dot-com boom. At a time when many firms were focused only on quarterly earnings, Salesforce was also thinking about community impact. It was a pleasure to join you almost exactly a year ago today at the opening of Salesforce’s ‘Ohana Floors in Sydney, a space available to community organisations for their events.

Opening a Canberra office is a practical step. With its previous base near the Burbury Hotel, Salesforce has already been working with Commonwealth and ACT agencies, and this new office strengthens that capability. It’s good to see a technology company that recognises the benefits of proximity. Sometimes it really does help to be just down the road – especially in Canberra, where most of the roads lead to a department.

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

E&OE TRANSCRIPT
RADIO INTERVIEW
2CC RADIO CANBERRA, LIVE WITH LEON DELANEY
FRIDAY, 22 AUGUST 2025

SUBJECTS: Canberra Airport and competition in the aviation sector, Economic Reform Roundtable, housing, road user charge

LEON DELANEY: Andrew Leigh, good afternoon.

ANDREW LEIGH: Good afternoon Leon, great to be with you.

LEON DELANEY: Well, you're the Assistant Minister for Competition, amongst other things. Can't you tell Qantas to be more competitive?

ANDREW LEIGH: Katy Gallagher has done exactly that, and certainly she's speaking on behalf of all of the ACT Federal Labor representatives. The cancelation rate is outrageous, and the fares are sky high. The fact is that you can get the bus up to Sydney for less than 50 bucks. And so, the idea that they ought to be charging 700 bucks for a 30-minute flight just strikes me as pretty outrageous.

LEON DELANEY: It's a weird flight isn't it? Because you actually spend more time in the airport than you do in the air. But even so, sometimes people just have no choice but to take that flight because they need to be travelling between Sydney and Canberra fairly quickly to meet an appointment or meet a deadline or something of that nature. It's basically extortion, isn't it?

ANDREW LEIGH: Well, Katy Gallagher is speaking out on behalf of not only the government, which is paying fares for people to come to and from Canberra for public servants and politicians to make that trip, but also for the Canberra travelling public. Because analysis from Canberra Airport seems to suggest a bit of a price spike during parliamentary sitting periods, not just on that Sydney to Canberra leg, but also on Adelaide, Perth and Brisbane. Their analysis seems to suggest mark-ups anything up to 135 per cent coinciding with parliamentary settings. That's not what you'd expect in a competitive market, to say the least.

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

E&OE TRANSCRIPT
RADIO INTERVIEW
ABC RADIO CANBERRA, MORNINGS WITH SASKIA MABIN
FRIDAY, 22 AUGUST 2025

SUBJECTS: Economic Reform Roundtable, tax, housing, securing the future of the NDIS

SASKIA MABIN: Andrew Leigh, welcome to the program.

ANDREW LEIGH: Thanks Saskia, great to be with you.

SASKIA MABIN: It's certainly been a very busy week for you. Thanks for making time to speak to us. A few in the office have had a bit of a bugbear about it being described as a Productivity Roundtable, because I don't believe that table was actually perfectly round.

ANDREW LEIGH: Very astute of you. It's not like King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table, it's in fact an oval table. Having stared at it for 29 hours this week, I can certainly speak to that.

SASKIA MABIN: Yes. Now, given all of those conversations across 29 hours, we know that there is an appetite for tax reform and I just listed the three points that Treasurer Jim Chalmers has made. It sort of has been pointed out that perhaps the government used the cover of this roundtable to go beyond what was talked at the election when Anthony Albanese played down the prospect of tax changes. Has this been, you know, a little bit conniving, a little bit scheming on that front?

ANDREW LEIGH: Not in the least. There were a whole range of discussions around tax, many of which surprised me in terms of the perspectives that were put and the ideas that were advanced. There was a clear focus on intergenerational equity, on making sure that the next generation have a fair go and are able to get ahead and buy a house. There's a big emphasis on looking at how challenges of the future will face us, such as electric vehicles, and how we make sure the tax system is fit for purpose in a net zero economy.

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

OPINION PIECE

Fair Play, High Performance: What Sport Teaches Us About Productivity

Published in Region Canberra

20 August 2025

Australia is a nation obsessed with performance. We admire grit, teamwork and ingenuity on the field, and we take pride in our reputation for punching above our weight in international sport. From the pool to the pitch, our athletes regularly outperform much bigger nations. Not because we’re richer, but because we’ve built systems that work: talent is spotted early, coaching is world-class, infrastructure is prioritised, and everything is measured. What gets measured gets improved.

But while our athletes keep breaking records, productivity has been limping. When our government came to office, labour productivity – the engine of long-term prosperity – had suffered its worst drop in nearly half a century. The 2010s were the slowest decade for productivity growth since the war. Australians are switching jobs and starting businesses less often. In too many markets, incumbents dominate. If these markets were sporting leagues, they would have one team, one trophy and one very bored mascot.

This matters. A sluggish economy means fewer chances for the aspiring entrepreneur, fewer pathways for the ambitious worker and a lower ceiling on our collective ambition. We would never accept a sporting competition in which the results bore no relationship to effort, where newcomers could never crack the starting lineup, or where legacy players always won regardless of merit. Yet that is exactly what is happening in parts of our economy. The lesson from sport is clear: if you want fair play and high performance, you need the right systems.

Sport teaches us that potential only becomes performance when talent is nurtured. Megan Still had never sat in a rowing boat until the Australian Institute of Sport tested her in 1988. She was so strong she tipped the scull each time she pulled the oars. The coaches took notice, and eight years later she won Olympic gold. Evonne Goolagong Cawley, watching tennis from behind the fence in Barellan, was invited in for a hit: a gesture that launched a career at the top of world tennis. Cathy Freeman’s speed was matched by the scholarships and training that allowed her to develop it. None of them would have reached those heights without systems that identified and supported their ability. The same principle applies in the economy. The next champion might not be holding an oar or a racquet. She might be writing code or sketching a business plan. Our challenge is to make sure she gets the chance to succeed.

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

E&OE TRANSCRIPT
RADIO INTERVIEW
ABC RADIO SYDNEY, MORNINGS WITH HAMISH MACDONALD
TUESDAY, 19 AUGUST 2025

SUBJECTS: Regulatory reform, competition policy reforms, Labor’s abundance agenda, Economic Reform Roundtable, housing

HAMISH MACDONALD: Andrew Leigh, welcome to 702 Mornings.

ANDREW LEIGH: Thanks Hamish, great to be with you.

HAMISH MACDONALD: Andrew Bragg, the Coalition Senator - one of your opposites in the Shadow Ministry had a bit of a hit out at you on the program yesterday, saying too much regulation. 5,000 new regulations. He says you've lumped $5 billion of new regulatory costs on businesses, 400 new laws onto the box. Has he got a point?

ANDREW LEIGH: Not in the least Hamish. Let me tell you what Andrew Bragg has done. He went to the Parliamentary Library and asked them to count up the number of regulations in Labor's last term. They came back with the answer 5,034. So, I got curious. I asked the Parliamentary Library how many regulations were passed in the Coalition's last term? They said 5,383. So, if Andrew Bragg was being honest, he'd be telling everyone that regulations have fallen under Labor. But of course, counting the number of regulations is a bit like working out the quality of a library by weighing the books. It’s not a particularly helpful exercise when you’re weighing up regulations to improve child safety, national security, or indeed regulations that reduce the regulatory burden.

HAMISH MACDONALD: Do you accept though, that people working and living in the real economy experience too much regulation? Like, we hear it day in, day out here from listeners - it's just too difficult to get things done.

ANDREW LEIGH: Well, if you're talking about areas like aged care or child care, then I think there's a demand for getting more regulation in some cases. If you're looking at the thicket of regulation that's slowed down housing approvals, then yes we've got a challenge. The key isn't to get rid of all regulation, it's about making regulation smarter. That's what Labor's been doing through our national competition policy reforms, through improving occupational licensing, making it easier for people to switch jobs and making it easier to approve clean energy projects. All of this is the hard work of sorting out regulation, rather than the easy job of just sitting back and pretending you can count regulations, then be done with it.

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

E&OE TRANSCRIPT
RADIO INTERVIEW
2CC RADIO CANBERRA, BREAKFAST WITH LEON DELANEY
TUESDAY, 19 AUGUST 2025

SUBJECTS: Economic Reform Roundtable, four day working week, AI, regulatory reform

LEON DELANEY: The federal Member for Fenner and Assistant Minister for Productivity, Competition, Charities, Treasury and other things as well, Dr Andrew Leigh, good morning.

ANDREW LEIGH: Morning Leon, great to be with you.

LEON DELANEY: Thanks for joining us today. It's a big day for you and your colleagues. It's day one of what I have described as ‘Woodstock for policy wonks and economic nerds’ - the productivity roundtable. What are you expecting?

ANDREW LEIGH: Three days in a windowless room talking policy. What can be more exciting for those of us who are excited about building stronger productivity growth, a more resilient country and dealing with some of the budget sustainability issues? This really is an exciting moment, and a great group of people have been brought together. I'm really expecting a productive conversation around issues of how we get regulation right, whether we can improve our tax settings and what we need to do to make the most of the artificial intelligence opportunities for the future. Now, the energy transformation is not just something we need to do for climate reasons, but also a great opportunity for a sun‑drenched country like ours, so there's great upside of potential for this three‑day conversation.

LEON DELANEY: Okay. A lot of commentary has suggested that it will be nothing much more than just a gabfest with very little, if any concrete value to be produced. And in that context, it seems a little odd that the Prime Minister and the Treasurer have both kind of downplayed expectations in recent weeks. Why have they done that?

ANDREW LEIGH: Well, they've been very clear that decisions are made around the Cabinet table by the Cabinet, but that this conversation in the Cabinet room will help inform that. I think it's a great opportunity to build stronger consensus for some of what we need to do and to think through some of the big challenges for the economy. We know for example, in the area of capital attraction we need to do more. The government's got a significant agenda on competition, which you and I have talked about frequently Leon, and much of what we've done in the first term and have said we'll do in the next term will lead to a more dynamic and competitive economy. That's really fundamental to increasing the speed limit of the economy. Think of it like a sporting team, you've got to make sure that you get the athletes as fit as possible, that you get the team working together, and that the rules of the game are fair, and so you can do your best before you get on the field.

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

E&OE TRANSCRIPT
TV INTERVIEW
ABC AFTERNOON BRIEFING WITH PATRICIA KARVELAS
MONDAY, 18 AUGUST 2025

SUBJECTS: Economic Reform Roundtable, Productivity Commission, Labor’s productivity agenda, competition reform, artificial intelligence, tax reform, social media minimum age, cancellation of Israeli MP Simcha Rothman’s visa

PATRICIA KARVELAS: To discuss the direction of this week’s roundtable, I want to bring in one of the figures in the government most focused on regulation, deregulation and competition - that’s the Assistant Minister for Productivity, Competition and Charities, Andrew Leigh. Andrew Leigh, welcome to the program.

ANDREW LEIGH: Thanks Patricia, great to be with you.

PATRICIA KARVELAS: This is your Christmas week, is that right?

ANDREW LEIGH: Absolutely. Christmas comes early for policy wonks. Three days in the windowless Cabinet room talking about how to raise the speed limit of the national economy and how to deliver higher living standards for Australians.

PATRICIA KARVELAS: Okay. So, business groups are framing this week’s productivity roundtable as a legacy moment for Australia. Is that what it is – a legacy moment for Australia?

ANDREW LEIGH: I think it’s a wonderful opportunity to bring together big thinkers to discuss big ideas around the Cabinet table. There’s the challenge of artificial intelligence, there’s the opportunity of skilling up Australians, there’s the moment where Australia can be a superpower in the renewable energies transition. All of that is going to be a discussion around the Cabinet table. Three days split into talking about resilience, talking about opportunities in productivity and talking about budget sustainability.

PATRICIA KARVELAS: Danielle Wood says economic growth hasn’t been a priority for years. Were you too fixated on other issues in the last term for it to be a priority when it should have been?

ANDREW LEIGH: We had a big growth focus in the last term, and I enjoyed Danielle Wood’s speech at the Press Club today, where I attended. We talked about the importance of getting the national competition policy going again. We’ve reformed our merger laws. We’ve invested in the education system, which is a real key driver of productivity. And we’ve announced the scrapping of non-compete clauses to make it easier for people to move to a better job. Some of productivity is about boosting individual workers’ productivity capacity; some of it is about making it easier to move to a more productive firm; some of it is about encouraging more productive firms to grow and allow those less productive firms to exit the market. So, that reallocation process was really fundamental to how economists think about productivity, much in the same as sports people would think about how to raise the speed limit on the track or in the pool or on the sporting field.

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

OPINION PIECE

We must stay open: Five reasons tariffs are a bad idea

Published in The New Daily

14 August 2025

For more than half a century, open trade has helped make Australia more prosperous, dynamic and resilient. Yet around the world, support for openness is fraying. Big economies are turning inward. Tariffs are creeping back. Multilateral institutions are struggling.

At times like this, it’s worth reminding ourselves why Australia has done well by keeping our doors open, and why tariffs are rarely the answer.

The case for openness starts with the idea of comparative advantage. Just as most of us don’t cut our own hair or fix our own shoes, countries do better when they specialise in what they’re relatively good at, and trade for the rest. That’s why Australian miners export lithium to Korea, our farmers sell beef to Vietnam, and our universities teach students from across the Indo-Pacific.

We’re a small share of the global economy – just 0.3 per cent of the world’s population – so trading with others is essential. Trade supports nearly a third of our economic activity and one in four Australian jobs. It keeps prices lower for consumers, encourages innovation, and helps businesses grow to a scale that wouldn’t be possible on the domestic market alone.

It wasn’t always this way. In the late 1800s, most colonies slapped hefty tariffs on goods such as furniture, musical instruments and carriages. Federation removed internal tariffs, but high external tariffs persisted for decades. Only after World War Two did we begin serious cuts, first through global trade agreements, and then on our own.

From Whitlam’s across-the-board 25 per cent tariff cut in 1973, to the Hawke Government’s phased reductions in the late 1980s and early 1990s, Australia chose to lower barriers regardless of what others did. The results were clear: more competitive industries, better jobs, and stronger links to the region.

Today, we have 18 free trade agreements covering 30 economies, with more on the way. But the case for openness still needs defending. Tariffs may sound like a quick fix, but they come with real costs.

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

Fair Play, High Performance: What Sport Teaches Us About Productivity

SOUTH AUSTRALIAN CENTRE FOR ECONOMIC STUDIES
ADELAIDE

THURSDAY, 14 AUGUST 2025

I acknowledge the Kaurna people, traditional owners and custodians of the Adelaide Plains, and all First Nations people present. Thank you to Jim Hancock and the South Australian Centre for Economic Studies for the invitation to speak with you today.

1. A Nation Obsessed with Performance

On most mornings, I start the day with a run through the bushland behind our home. I nod to the kangaroos, exchange grins with the kookaburras, and watch the sun rise over Canberra’s ridgeline. If I’ve pushed myself – sprinted up hills or chased a personal best – then whatever else the day holds feels a little bit easier.

Australians love to move. We hike, we swim, we ride, we play. In a sun-drenched country with open spaces and a culture of mateship, sport isn’t just recreation. It’s part of our national identity. Whether it’s a footy game in the park, a community netball match, or the roar of a stadium when the Matildas score, sport brings us together and brings out our best.

And when it comes to performance, few do it better. Australian athletes routinely punch above their weight. From the pool to the track, from cycling velodromes to cricket pitches, we overachieve. Not because we’re richer or more populous, but because we’ve built systems that work. Talent gets spotted early. Coaching is world-class. Infrastructure is a priority. Incentives are smart. And we measure everything, from split times to stride length, because we know that what gets measured gets improved.

So why is it that while our athletes keep breaking records, productivity seems to have pulled a hamstring?

When we came to office, labour productivity – the engine of long-term prosperity – had suffered its worst drop in 45 years. The decade ending in 2020 was the worst decade for productivity growth in the post-war era. We had seen a decline in the rate at which Australians switch jobs or start new businesses. Today, some of our largest companies are the same giants that topped the sharemarket a century ago. Economic mobility is stuck in second gear. In too many sectors, it’s not the best that win, but the biggest. Some markets are so concentrated, if they were sporting leagues, they’d have one team, one trophy, and one very bored mascot.

This isn’t just a technical problem. A sluggish economy means fewer chances for the aspiring entrepreneur, fewer pathways for the ambitious worker, and a lower ceiling on our collective ambition. We’d never tolerate a sporting system where a few legacy players won every match, newcomers couldn’t crack the starting lineup, or results bore no relationship to effort. Yet that’s precisely what we’re seeing in parts of our economy.

What if we treated productivity the way we treat sport?

What if we built an economy that celebrated effort, rewarded ingenuity, and gave everyone a fair shot?

What if we saw dynamism and decency not as opposing forces, but as complementary goals?

In this speech, I want to explore what sport can teach us about building a more dynamic, inclusive and high-performing economy. I’ll draw on stories of athletes and teams, of rule changes and coaching breakthroughs, of fair play and relentless ambition. Because when it comes to reforming our economy, we don’t need to start from scratch. We just need to look around the oval.