Andrew Leigh

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

E&OE TRANSCRIPT
RADIO INTERVIEW
2CC, CANBERRA WITH STEPHEN CENATIEMPO

TUESDAY, 8 APRIL 2025

SUBJECTS: Albanese Government’s investment in Margaret Timpson Park, Peter Dutton’s public service cuts, Peter Dutton’s vendetta against Canberra.

STEPHEN CENATIEMPO, 2CC: Time to catch up with the Assistant Minister for Competition, Charities and Treasury, and the Member for Fenner Leigh. Andrew, good morning.

ASSISTANT MINISTER LEIGH: Morning Stephen.

STEPHEN CENATIEMPO, 2CC: Now you've announced, if you're re-elected, or if the government's re-elected, $1.5 million for upgrades at Margaret Timpson Park in Belconnen. Look, I don’t spend a lot of time in Margaret Timpson Park, but it does look pretty good to me from what I've seen, and I’ve got no problem with this. But are you confident that the ACT Government's actually going to stump up and do the work?

ASSISTANT MINISTER LEIGH: Absolutely Stephen. Margaret Timpson Park is right in the heart of Belconnen, and if you go to the Westfield Shopping Centre there, it's the park looking straight out from the Westfield. A lovely little space, very heavily used now that you've got so many of those apartment towers going up, and our $1.5 million upgrade will see toilets, a barbecue area and a play area put in place there. It's going to be well used as Belconnen continues to gentrify and we get more and more people using that space. And it was great yesterday - you really would have enjoyed this Stephen, we had Chris Timpson, who is Margaret's widower. She passed away way back in 1993 and he's still with us and was telling us the stories of what she did in that early period of self-government. The first ACT Woman of the Year; just a remarkable woman. So, it was great to honour her legacy and also to be investing in that park.

STEPHEN CENATIEMPO, 2CC: The question is though, why is it a federal government responsibility? Isn't this the kind of thing that local governments would normally do?

ASSISTANT MINISTER LEIGH: Well, the federal government is making investments right across the country. In Canberra, we announced investment in the National Convention Centre over the weekend and we’re investing in a range of roads, such as the Monaro and Barton Highway. And we’re making some of these smaller investments, including in parks. We understand that this is an important priority for people in Canberra, getting a good leisure facility. This isn't something that's going to send GDP through the roof, but certainly will do an awful lot for happiness in the Belconnen community.

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.

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

$1.5 Million For Upgrades For Upgrades At Margaret Timpson Park

7 April 2025

Member for Fenner Dr Andrew Leigh has today announced that a re-elected Albanese Labor Government will deliver $1.5 million for upgrades at Margaret Timpson Park in Belconnen.

This election commitment would go towards providing a new playground, public toilets, picnic tables, a barbecue area, an accessible ramp on the northern edge of the park and landscaping works.

Located in the heart of Belconnen’s town centre, the beloved park is named after Margaret Timpson, who was an influential figure in the women’s movement.

These improvements will ensure that residents, businesses, workers and visitors can continue to enjoy the hub for recreation activities such as picnics, walks and social gatherings.

A Fair Go, Not a Throwback

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

ACT Federal Labor Campaign Launch Address
Albert Hall,
Yarralumla, ACT

Sunday 6 April 2025

Thank you very much for all giving up your Sunday to be part of this great festival of democracy. Can I acknowledge my extraordinary federal colleagues, the great ACT MLAs, Aunty Violet Sheridan and our wonderful Labor red members. Particularly two of our newest branch members, Clementine and Bill Shorten - thank you for being here this morning.

Three years ago, we promised a fairer Australia. In that time, we've gotten wages moving, we've expanded renewable energy, we've strengthened Medicare, we've begun to rebuild public housing. In fact, the only thing we haven't been able to make any progress on is fixing up Scott Morrison's LinkedIn page. Apparently, it still says he held five jobs.

Make no mistake, we have done an extraordinary amount over these last three years. We have created a more dynamic and competitive economy, the biggest merger shakeup in fifty years, and we've worked to invest in Australia's schools, bringing home the promise of the Gonski agreement.

We have stood up to vested interests in making medicines cheaper and ensuring that those who are living on fixed incomes are able to afford those essential medicines – building on a legacy that goes back to Chifley’s creation of the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme.

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

The Hon Luke Gosling MP
Special Envoy for Defence, Veterans’ Affairs &
Northern Australia
Member for Solomon

OPINION PIECE

You can't build a great nation by subtraction

Published in The NT News

6 April 2025  

In challenging times, Australians don't retreat. We build.

From the Snowy Hydro Scheme to Medicare, superannuation to the global financial crisis response, we've always chosen to meet economic pressure with purpose.

That's what Labor has done over the past three years and what this year's Budget sets us up to continue.

We are delivering cost-of-living relief for today and nation-building reform for tomorrow: universal tax cuts, cheaper energy, more social housing, stronger Medicare, and investment in education and skills.

Underpinning it all is investment in our public service and a belief in Australians' capability to solve problems and to help each other.

It's part of a broader philosophy: when Australians face pressure, a responsible government turns up and creates public value.

Peter Dutton offers a very different path.

In his budget reply, he promised to repeal Labor's tax cuts - which means clawing back $536 from every taxpayer - and to cut 41,000 public service jobs.

Cutting everything but your taxes is not a plan to relieve pressure in the short or long-term. It's a formula for making it worse. It's subtraction disguised as reform, and it doesn't add up. To put it in perspective: 41,000 jobs is more than three packed TIO Stadiums.

Centre Stage: Tax Reform for Middle Australia

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

Conference on ‘Justice and the Tax Base in the 21st Century’
University of Melbourne

3 April 2025

I begin by acknowledging the Wurundjeri people of the Kulin Nation, the Traditional Owners of the land on which we meet. I pay my respects to their Elders – past and present – and to all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people joining us today.

For tens of thousands of years, this was a place of exchange – of ideas, culture, ceremony, and resources. It’s fair to say systems of contribution and redistribution existed here long before we gave them names like ‘horizontal fiscal equalisation.’

Thank you to Miranda Stewart and Daniel Halliday, chief investigators on the Australian Research Council grant that supports this conference. I echo the organisers in acknowledging the late Geoffrey Brennan, whose big brain and baritone voice are missed by many of us.

It is a pleasure to be at a gathering where talk of tax doesn’t clear the room, but fills it.

Most Australians don’t lie awake thinking about the tax base. And if they do, they probably work at the ATO. But for those of us who care about fairness, prosperity and the mechanics of modern government, it’s hard to think of a more important topic. It’s where money meets values.

But it wasn’t always this way. In fact, income tax came late to the Australian story.

Data Connection: Turning Statistics into Shared Understanding

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

Pre-dinner Address
11th Australian Government Data Summit
Canberra

2 April 2025

Introduction

I begin by acknowledging the Traditional Custodians of the land on which we gather this evening, the Ngunnawal people, and pay my respects to their Elders past and present. For over 60,000 years, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples have collected, shared and applied knowledge – not in spreadsheets, but through songlines, stories and systems of deep observation. In many ways, they are Australia’s original data stewards – reminding us that the power of information lies not just in recording it, but in connecting it to community.

It’s a real pleasure to be here among a roomful of public servants who care deeply about the craft of government – especially those who know that, in the right light, a histogram can be almost romantic. You are the kind of people who get excited about sample sizes and quietly judge others for misusing the word ‘median’.

As many of you know, I speak often about data collection. And rightly so. This government has made significant investments in modernising our statistical systems – revitalising our longitudinal studies, restoring underfunded surveys, and expanding the frontiers of what we measure.

But tonight, I want to talk about something we don’t always give enough airtime to. Something just as vital, but far less discussed. Data connection.

We live in a world flooded with information – more graphs than grains of sand, more dashboards than actual cars. And in that world, we face a peculiar risk: that we gather more and more data, but fail to connect it with people’s lives. That a table gets published, but no one sees themselves in the numbers. That a chart goes viral… only among economists.

This isn’t a new challenge. Back in the 19th century, Florence Nightingale didn’t just transform nursing – she changed public health by using polar area charts to show how many soldiers were dying from preventable diseases. Her diagrams cut through red tape like a scalpel.

In 1854, John Snow mapped cholera deaths around a single water pump in Soho. It was data visualisation before PowerPoint – and it saved lives.

Fast forward, and we’ve seen Hans Rosling bring global trends to life with bouncing bubbles. The New York Times makes data feel like narrative. The UK’s Office for National Statistics has used sandwich metaphors to explain inflation. In the Netherlands, CBS StatLine invites citizens to dive into interactive dashboards on everything from carbon emissions to childcare.

And here in Australia, our very own Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) has taken up the baton – or perhaps the pivot table – with work that is not only accurate and informative, but clever, relatable, and, dare I say it, downright fun.

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

E&OE TRANSCRIPT
RADIO INTERVIEW
2CC CANBERRA, WITH LEON DELANEY

MONDAY, 31 MARCH 2025

SUBJECTS: Labor’s tax cuts, non-competes, cracking down on supermarket price gouging, Peter Dutton’s public service cuts plan and comments on The Lodge.

DELANEY: Well, we're headed towards an election whether you like it or not, so time to make your mind up. Will you be in voting for the Philistines or the Dilettantes? Assistant Minister for Competition, Charities, Treasury and Employment, not to mention our local member here in the seat of Fenner, Dr Andrew Leigh good afternoon.

LEIGH: Good afternoon Leon. I was just trying to work out which of those insults you were going to apply to me.

DELANEY: Well, you know, you take your pick - Philistines, Dilettantes. I think it really sort of is kind of self-explanatory isn't it?

LEIGH: Well I prefer to be neither of course, and certainly spend my days trying to think about ways of making the lives of people in Canberra better.

DELANEY:  Yeah, I'm obviously being a little bit facetious with that one but people do tend to be a little bit cynical about our political leaders. And do you blame them when we get a federal budget that really displays a significant lack of ambition? The centrepiece is a tax cut of $5 a week that we don't even get for another 15 months. By that time, it will have been eroded by inflation anyway, won't it?

LEIGH: Well Leon, you put together the tax cut budget with the tax cuts we've already delivered, you get some $50 a week. That might be trivial to you, but I don't think it's trivial to many Canberrans, and we'll have Peter Dutton going to the election promising to raise everyone's taxes. Every income taxpayer in Australia will pay more income tax under Peter Dutton to pay for his mad cap nuclear scheme. But also in the budget, some significant pro-productivity measures. What we've done with banning non-competes for workers earning under $175,000 will unlock job mobility, allow people to move to a better job or to set up a firm of their own, and that's great for long-term growth prospects for the economy.

Anthony Albanese MP
Prime Minister of Australia

Jim Chalmers MP
Treasurer

Andrew Leigh MP
Assistant Minister for Competition, Charities and Treasury
Assistant Minister for Employment

Labor Will Ban Supermarket Price Gouging In Another Move On Cost Of Living 

30 March 2025 

A re-elected Albanese Labor Government will crack down on price gouging by supermarkets because Australian families deserve fair prices for their groceries.

Australians shouldn’t be treated like mugs at the checkout – that’s why Labor will make supermarket price gouging illegal.

This is another cost-of-living relief measure the Albanese Government is taking – along with tax cuts for every tax payer, energy bill relief and cheaper medicines. 

It is unfair and un-Australian for supermarkets to exploit consumers by inflating prices and profits when they do not face enough competition. 

A re-elected Labor Government will confront price gouging to fix a key gap in Australia’s competition and consumer protection framework.

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

Opinion Piece

Want to quit your job? Your contract may be keeping you prisoner

Published in Australian Financial Review

29 March 2025

When Othelia decided to leave her job in property management, she thought she was just changing employers. Instead, she found herself cornered. Her boss told her that if she wanted to stay in the industry, she’d have to leave town. Othelia was 21, living in a regional community, and had no family support. Her choice? Stay in a job that made her miserable, or risk having no income at all.

Jasper was in a similar bind. He’d been coaching kids’ sport part-time for three years. He wasn’t in charge of marketing or finances – just teaching kids how to kick a ball. But buried in his contract was a clause banning him from working for a competitor for six months after he left. When he resigned, his boss made it clear: try to coach anywhere else, and there’d be consequences.

I’ve changed the names to protect their privacy, but these are real cases. They are among more than three million Australian workers – one in five employees – caught in the grip of non-compete clauses. Once reserved for senior executives with access to sensitive information, they’re now everywhere: in the contracts of construction workers, hairdressers, personal trainers, security guards.

They’re clauses that quietly lock people out of their own careers.