Energy Bill Relief for Jervis Bay Territory – Media Release
Joint media release with
The Hon Kristy McBain MP
Minister for Regional Development, Local Government and Territories
ENERGY BILL RELIEF FOR JERVIS BAY TERRITORY
The Albanese Labor Government continues to deliver cost of living relief to families and businesses across the Jervis Bay Territory, through the Energy Bill Relief Fund.
From today, every household will see a $300 credit automatically applied to their electricity bills and eligible small businesses will receive $325 off their bills over 2024–25.
This relief will be directly applied to people’s energy accounts, with the Government to work with territory electricity providers to deliver this support.
Read moreCondolence Motion for those lost at Bondi Junction - Speech
CONDOLENCE MOTION FOR THE VICTIMS OF BONDI JUNCTION
House of Representatives, Federation Chamber
Thursday 27 June 2024
The shocking events at Bondi Junction have impacted many. Six lives were lost, 12 people were injured and many others were traumatised. We've heard much about the heroism of the first responders. I, too, acknowledge the extraordinary work that they did in swiftly addressing this shocking tragedy.
Read moreMeasuring what matters to deliver better outcomes - Media Release
Joint media release with
The Hon Dr Jim Chalmers MP
Treasurer
MEASURING WHAT MATTERS TO DELIVER BETTER OUTCOMES
The Albanese Government is strengthening Australia’s first national wellbeing framework to support policy development and better align our economic and social goals in communities right across the country.
The Australian Bureau of Statistics will deliver a newly renovated annual survey on the wellbeing of Australians, helping to inform a more comprehensive statement that the Government will publish every three years.
This is about measuring what matters most to Australians to deliver better outcomes for our communities and our economy.
Read more2CC Breakfast with Stephen Cenatiempo - 25 June 2024
E&OE TRANSCRIPT
RADIO INTERVIEW
2CC CANBERRA BREAKFAST WITH STEPHEN CENATIEMPO
TUESDAY, 25 JUNE 2024
SUBJECTS: St Vincent De Paul’s CEO Sleepout, Coalition’s failure to provide detail on their nuclear plan, Food and Grocery Code of Conduct, Government funded CHOICE reports to help Australian shoppers.
STEPHEN CENATIEMPO, HOST: All right, time to talk federal politics with the Assistant Minister for Competition, Charities and Treasury and Member for Fenner, Andrew Leigh. Morning, Andrew.
ASSISTANT MINISTER ANDREW LEIGH: Morning, Stephen.
CENATIEMPO: How did you pull up after the sleep out?
LEIGH: Oh, pretty rough. That's the aim of the game, isn't it? One rough night and reminds you how much tougher so many people who have to sleep rough have it. It's brutal in the Canberra cold.
Read moreABC Perth Drive with Jo Trilling - 24 June 2024
E&OE TRANSCRIPT
RADIO INTERVIEW
ABC PERTH DRIVE WITH JO TRILLING
MONDAY, 24 JUNE 2024
SUBJECTS: Supermarket Code of Conduct, Food and Grocery Code of Conduct, Government funded CHOICE reports to help Australian shoppers, Australian Competition and Consumer Commission inquiry into supermarkets, Government’s plan to reform Australian merger laws.
JO TRILLING, HOST: The major supermarkets could cop fines in the billions of dollars as part of a suite of recommendations in a new report examining the power and behaviour of Coles, Woolies, Aldi and Metcash, which runs many IGA's. The review into the grocery chains' conduct was led by former Labor MP Craig Emerson, and today, the Federal Government announced it will implement all of his recommendations. So, what's set to change, and what does it mean for you at the checkout? Doctor Andrew Leigh is the Assistant Minister for Competition. Good afternoon.
ASSISTANT MINISTER ANDREW LEIGH: Good afternoon, Joanna. Great to be with you and your listeners.
TRILLING: Let's start with the Grocery Code of Conduct. It's been voluntary, I think, for about a decade. It's now set to be mandatory. What sorts of things will that ensure?
Read more6PR Perth Mornings with Jo MacManus - Monday 24 June
E&OE TRANSCRIPT
RADIO INTERVIEW
6PR PERTH MORNINGS WITH JO MCMANUS
MONDAY, 24 JUNE 2024
SUBJECTS: Food and Grocery Code of Conduct Review, Government funded CHOICE reports to help Australian shoppers.
JO MCMANUS: Well, supermarkets are under the spotlight yet again. Last week, you'll recall, CHOICE released the first of ongoing reports on price monitoring. And you may remember that, surprise, surprise, Coles and Woolies' basket of goods was basically the same price. We know Aldi was a lot cheaper, we know IGA was a bit more expensive, but the two big ones basically exactly the same. So, today the Government announced that what was a voluntary code of conduct for the supermarkets will become mandatory. And that means they could be fined billions, I'm not saying millions, billions with a B for Bobby, of dollars if they breach the code. Interested to know what it all means, whether it's going to make any difference to the prices that you pay each week, which is, I think, what we all actually care about. So, Andrew Leigh is the Assistant Minister for Competition, Charities and Treasury, and it's with that hat on that he joins me this morning. Good morning, Andrew.
ASSISTANT MINISTER ANDREW LEIGH: Good morning, Jo. Great to be with you and your listeners.
MCMANUS: Yeah, thank you very much. Look, first of all, can you tell us what this mandatory code will do - what it means, how it works?
LEIGH: Australia's supermarket sector is one of the most concentrated in the world. The big three have a 75 per cent market share and the risk when you've got large firms is that they can squeeze their consumers, and they can also squeeze their suppliers. The Food and Grocery Code of Conduct, set up nearly a decade ago, has been a voluntary code and many farmers have been telling us it's just not working. Suppliers are scared to make complaints because they're scared of being dropped by the majors. So, we asked Craig Emerson, the former Competition Minister, to review the Food and Grocery Code and he's come back with a recommendation to make it mandatory, which the Government's announced we're accepting today. Now, that means that it'll be a code with teeth, not a toothless tiger like was set up by the Liberals and Nationals, but a code which ensures that there are significant penalties, as you said in your introduction.
Read moreABC Melbourne Drive with Charlie Pickering - 24 June 2024
E&OE TRANSCRIPT
RADIO INTERVIEW
ABC MELBOURNE DRIVE WITH CHARLIE PICKERING
MONDAY, 24 JUNE 2024
SUBJECTS: Food and Grocery Code of Conduct Review 2023–24, Government funded CHOICE reports to help Australian shoppers.
CHARLIE PICKERING, HOST: Australia's supermarket giants could be fined billions of dollars if they breach a revamped and mandatory code of conduct designed to fix the imbalance of bargaining power between major grocery chains and small suppliers. Woolworths would face maximum penalties of $5 billion, Coles up to $3.8 billion, and Aldi, around a billion dollars, which shakes out at the end of the day to around 10 per cent of each company's annual turnover. That's the recommendation of a major review tasked with strengthening the Food and Grocery Code of Conduct and making it a mandatory code of conduct. The report also recommends stronger protections against retribution for suppliers who make complaints. What do you think? Is that going to make a difference? 1300 222 774 is the number to call. Or are consumers always going to end up paying for whatever extra costs the supermarkets face? Well, to talk about the report, the code and where to from here, I'm joined by Andrew Leigh, Assistant Minister for Competition, Charities and Treasury. Andrew, welcome to ABC Drive on 774.
ASSISTANT MINISTER ANDREW LEIGH: Thanks, Charlie. Great to be with you.
PICKERING: Now, Andrew, what are these measures meant to achieve?
Read moreRandomised Trials Are Our Path To Effective Spending - Opinion Piece
RANDOMISED TRIALS ARE OUR PATH TO EFFECTIVE SPENDING
In medicine, bad evaluation comes with a body count. Until it was shown up in a randomised trial, hydroxychloroquine as a treatment for Covid cost more than 10,000 lives. Before they were proven to be dangerous in a randomised trial, antiarrhythmic drugs for errant heartbeats cost more than 50,000 lives. In the century before they were put to a randomised trial, radical mastectomies for breast cancer disfigured 500,000 women while producing no better outcomes than targeted surgery.
Expert opinion and low-quality before-after studies supported these harmful treatments. If randomised trials had not put a stop to them, the toll might have been greater still. Yet while randomised trials are common in medicine, rigorous evaluation remains rare in policymaking. A study from the Committee for Economic Development of Australia think tank examined a sample of 20 Australian government programs conducted between 2015 and 2022, with a total expenditure of more than $200bn.
Sky News Agenda with Kieran Gilbert - Monday 24 June
E&OE TRANSCRIPT
TV INTERVIEW
SKY NEWS AGENDA WITH KIERAN GILBERT
MONDAY, 24 JUNE 2024
SUBJECTS: Mandatory Food and Grocery Code of Conduct, Government-funded CHOICE reports to help Australian shoppers, Appointment of Matt Kean as Chair of Climate Change Authority.
KIERAN GILBERT, HOST: Let's return now to politics here in Canberra. We've got a lot to talk about with the Assistant Minister for Competition, Charities and Treasury, Andrew Leigh. You've released this review into the Code of Conduct and into supermarkets. It's going to be made a compulsory code of conduct with some massive fines if the major players breach the rules here, do you think those fines are likely or will the supermarkets change their behaviour?
ASSISTANT MINISTER ANDREW LEIGH: Well, these are huge firms, Kieran. Woolworths's estimated revenue this year is $50 billion and so it does make sense that there's significant penalties associated with the industry code. We've got a very concentrated grocery sector, as you well know – the top three have a 75 per cent share. So, it's appropriate that we have a mandatory code of conduct governing their relationship.
Read moreJoint Press Conference with Minister Watt and Dr Craig Emerson - Monday 24 June
JOINT PRESS CONFERENCE
Senator Murray Watt
Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry
Minister for Emergency Management
E&OE TRANSCRIPT
DOORSTOP
DICKSON SHOPS, CANBERRA
MONDAY, 24 JUNE 2024
SUBJECTS: Review of Food and Grocery Code of Conduct to deliver a better deal for Australian farmers and consumers; Avian flu; Support for live sheep export industry.
ASSISTANT MINISTER FOR COMPETITION ANDREW LEIGH: Good morning everyone thanks very much for coming along on a beautiful Canberra morning. My name is Andrew Leigh, the Assistant Minister for Competition. Australia's supermarket sector is one of the most concentrated in the world. The top three supermarkets control three quarters of the market. With great power comes a responsibility to do the right thing by consumers. Last week, the Albanese government announced price monitoring which we will fund CHOICE to do grocery price comparisons every quarter. That grocery price comparison is appropriate in order to ensure that shoppers get the very best deal. We've tasked the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission to do a deep dive into supermarket pricing, to make sure that supermarkets provide a fair deal. We've heard from many suppliers or supermarkets that they feel left out in the cold. And that's why we've asked Craig Emerson one of Australia's best economic policy brain's, a former competition minister, to look at the Food and Grocery. I'm here today with Murray Watt, the Agriculture Minister, and Craig Emerson, who has conducted this important review, to announce the Albanese Government will be accepting all of Craig Emerson's recommendations. That means that a Code set up by the Liberals and Nationals to be voluntary, without appropriate penalties attached, will now have substantial penalties associated with breaches. We know that large firms don't just squeeze their consumers they squeeze their suppliers too. We've heard too many stories about the suppliers not getting a fair deal. This is about a fair deal for families and a fair deal for farmers. The Albanese Government is committed to a more competitive and dynamic economy. We understand the benefits that competition brings to the economy. And I'm really pleased now to hand over to Craig Emerson to talk about his important reporting. And then to Murray Watt to wrap up.
Read more