Andrew Leigh

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

Why leaving a bequest should become part of every Australian’s estate-planning

Published in The New Daily

23 April 2026

Jennie Mackenzie spent her life helping children learn.

As a former Play School director and early childhood educator, she believed in nurturing potential.

After facing cancer herself, she became interested in the work of the Charles Perkins Centre at the University of Sydney. When she died, she left a bequest to support early-career researchers.

One recipient said that support helped make her return to Australia possible after postdoctoral work in Canada and the United States.

It is a striking example of what a bequest can do. A person dies, but their values keep working.

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

Mobility Is a Productivity Policy

Keynote Address to Inequality and Intergenerational Mobility Workshop
Australian National University, Canberra 

Friday, 24 April 2026

I acknowledge the Ngunnawal people, on whose lands we meet today, and pay respects to all First Nations people present. My thanks to Peter Siminski for organising this important workshop on inequality and mobility, and to the Australian National University for hosting us.

There is a certain irony in speaking at a mobility workshop at the same institution where I was a professor sixteen years ago. As my continued presence on this campus suggests, mobility is easier to theorise than to demonstrate.

In 1901, a young woman from the drought-stricken New South Wales bush published a novel about a girl intelligent enough to see exactly why she was trapped, and powerless to escape. Miles Franklin called her book My Brilliant Career. The title was a joke. The career, at least in the novel, never comes. Sybylla Melvyn is clever, ambitious, full of force. Yet she inherits her father’s debts, her mother’s bitterness, and a social order that offers her one respectable ladder out: marriage to a wealthier man. She refuses it. So she remains where she began, with her eyes wide open, which is perhaps the cruellest version of the story.

Ninety years later, Tim Winton published Cloudstreet, with its two working-class families in post-war Perth, the Pickles and the Lambs, and in many ways he was asking the same question in a different key: does where you come from determine where you end up? Australian literature has worried at that question for as long as we have had a literature. Empirical economics arrived later, armed with big data and computing power, but it is still grappling with the same old problem.

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

Eight New Classrooms Open At Holy Spirit Catholic Primary School

23 April 2026  

Students and teachers at Holy Spirit Catholic Primary School will benefit from eight new classrooms and a new two-storey learning building, supported by a $1 million Australian Government investment through the Capital Grants Program.

Member for Fenner Andrew Leigh has officially opened the new facilities, which also include two reading rooms, two teacher planning spaces, a flexible learning space, outdoor decking and gardens.

Assistant Minister Leigh said the new building would strengthen the school’s capacity to support students now and into the future.

“Holy Spirit has built a warm and ambitious school community. This new building gives that community more room to grow, with modern spaces for students to learn and for teachers to plan and work together,” Assistant Minister Leigh said.

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

E&OE TRANSCRIPT
RADIO INTERVIEW
2CC RADIO CANBERRA, BREAKFAST WITH STEPHEN CENATIEMPO
TUESDAY, 21 APRIL 2026

SUBJECTS: One Nation; Middle East conflict; fuel supply

STEPHEN CENATIEMPO: Alright. Time to catch up as we do on a fortnightly basis with the Assistant Minister for Competition, Charities and Treasury and the Member for Fenner, Dr Andrew Leigh. Andrew, I’m sure I forgot one of your portfolio responsibilities there?

ANDREW LEIGH: I think you did all four of them there, Stephen!

STEPHEN CENATIEMPO: Did I? Okay. No, Competition, Charities and Treasury, what’s missing?

ANDREW LEIGH: Productivity.

STEPHEN CENATIEMPO: Productivity, that’s it. The important one.

ANDREW LEIGH: A big priority for the government.

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, 20 APRIL 2026

SUBJECTS: NDIS; May Budget

PATRICIA KARVELAS: For some more pre-budget chat, I want to bring in Andrew Leigh – the Assistant Minister for Productivity, Competition and Charities. Welcome to the program.

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

PATRICIA KARVELAS: You work very closely with the Treasurer. I suppose this question around the NDIS being pared back is now key and the government's put it on the agenda. When he meets with state and territory Treasurers tomorrow, what will he ask of them?

ANDREW LEIGH: Well, we engage respectfully with our state and territory colleagues and we do understand the NDIS is the biggest savings challenge we have in the budget. It's nearly $50 billion; almost the amount we spend on the age pension. And when we came to office, it was growing at 22 per cent a year Patricia. We got that down to about 10 per cent and we're working to find further savings because as a Labor creation, Labor knows how important it is to sustain the NDIS and to make sure money is going to those who really need it, not to some of sharks and shonks who've come into the industry.

PATRICIA KARVELAS: But it’s not just about sharks and shonks. Isn't it Labor's design of this scheme that's been a failure?

ANDREW LEIGH: Look, the design is strong. What we need to make sure is that the support is going to those who need it. Thriving Kids deals with one of the challenges in the NDIS, which is that we've seen a big increase in the uptake of young children with autism, particularly boys. And we think that Thriving Kids is a better way of supporting that vulnerable cohort than the NDIS. But the work that we've been doing through the competition portfolio, making sure that people aren't falsely advertising that products are NDIS approved where there's no such thing, and ensuring that we crack down on the misuse of the scheme has been absolutely critical.

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

Bequests, Belonging and the Long Future

CPA Australia Profit for Purpose Conference,
Melbourne

Tuesday, 21 April 2026

I acknowledge the Traditional Owners of the land on which we meet today, the Wurundjeri Woi-wurrung and Bunurong / Boon Wurrung peoples of the Kulin Nation, and pay my respects to Elders past and present. Thank you to CPA Australia for the invitation to open this year’s Profit for Purpose Conference.

Stories of Giving

Let me begin with three stories.

Bruce and Jenny Pryor lived simply, splitting their time between Canberra and Sydney. After their deaths, it emerged that they had left $10 million to the Australian National University, the largest bequest in the university’s history, to support research into dermatomyositis, the rare autoimmune disease that Jenny Pryor had suffered in her later years. Their nephew James Graham said they were ‘extremely humble and generous people’, and that they had ‘worked hard their whole lives, living modestly, to generate an amazing legacy’. For Jo Morris, who was diagnosed with juvenile dermatomyositis as a child and now lives with chronic pain and severe physical limitations, the bequest opened the possibility of better treatments for others. ANU Professor Carola Vinuesa said the funding would help researchers produce tangible outcomes, adding that scientists feel ‘a duty and an obligation to do our best to make a difference to our patients’. A couple who lived without fuss left behind a gift that could turn grief into discovery, and discovery into relief.

Alan Shaw was one of Australia’s most distinguished historians, a contemporary of Manning Clark’s. Upon his death, he left a bequest of almost $18 million to the National Gallery of Victoria – a gift that, as one news report put it, ‘raised the bar for philanthropic giving to the arts’. Shaw and his wife Peggy had been dedicated supporters of the NGV for more than 30 years. Peggy Shaw, an artist, had drawn him into a circle that included Fred Williams, John Olsen and John Brack. NGV Director Tony Ellwood said the Shaw bequest would have a substantial effect on the gallery, ‘including supporting the growth, preservation, presentation and awareness’ of the collection.

And then there is the story of Jennie Mackenzie, the former Play School director and early childhood educator. Having been through her own cancer journey, Ms Mackenzie was attracted to the work of the Charles Perkins Centre at the University of Sydney, which works on a range of health challenges, including cardiovascular disease and diabetes. As the then academic director of the Charles Perkins Centre put it, ‘In her typically dynamic and generous way, Jennie went on to be involved as a volunteer, mentor, donor and, ultimately, dear friend’. The bequest supports early-career researchers at the Charles Perkins Centre. One researcher, Melkam Kebede, said Mackenzie’s bequest helped make her return to Australia possible after postdoctoral fellowships in Canada and the United States.

Three gifts. Three institutions. Three donors with different passions and different lives. Yet the underlying act is the same. A bequest says: I have lived in this community, I have benefited from this society, and I want some part of what I leave behind to keep doing useful work.

That matters enormously for the for-purpose economy.

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
FRIDAY, 17 APRIL 2026

SUBJECTS: Coalition xenophobia; Labor helping consumers; Budget speculation

TOM CONNELL: Immigration has become a big political talking point in Australia. It's soared, of course. Post-COVID, Labor has been paring it back. The Coalition says not enough. It has released, well, part of its policy earlier in the week. Joining me now, Assistant Minister for Productivity, Competition, Charities and Treasury. Few titles in there. Not immigration, but he's written a piece about it, so I'll ask him anyway. It's Andrew Leigh. Thank you for your time.

ANDREW LEIGH: Pleasure Tom.

TOM CONNELL: So you've taken an issue with the Opposition on migration. I mean, they want to cut – Labor itself has been saying it really needs to reduce it though, so it's not. You're both on the same side in one sense. Immigration has been too high, it's just how much it's been too high?

ANDREW LEIGH: As you said Tom, we've pared back the numbers but we haven't done that by demonising migrants. And the Coalition traditionally has been a party that has supported openness, right through from Menzies to Turnbull. But we've seen with this speech from Matt Canavan last week praising tariffs and the one from Angus Taylor this week walking away from the bipartisan commitment to a non-discriminatory immigration policy a Coalition that seems to think that Australia lacks the confidence to engage with the world. That doesn't realise that tariffs are just a tax on consumers and doesn't recognise that migrants are out there building the houses that Australia needs.

TOM CONNELL: Does it make sense that permanent residents should learn English?

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

Taylor and Canavan united on closing door on open economy

Published in The Australian Financial Review

16 April 2026

Australia has always done best when we have looked outward with confidence rather than inward with fear.

That is why the recent attacks on trade and migration from Matt Canavan and Angus Taylor are so misguided. The National and Liberal leaders are trying to turn real pressure on households into an argument for retreat. Both are offering the same populist manoeuvre: pick an external force, blame it for domestic failures, and present withdrawal as strength.

Canavan does it with trade. Taylor does it with migration. Different target, same instinct. Shut the gate, raise the drawbridge, and imply Australia would somehow be better off with fewer connections to the world.

That is not a serious economic strategy. It is grievance dressed up as policy.

Start with trade. Canavan wants Australians to believe that a more protected economy would somehow be a more prosperous one. But tariffs are not a growth strategy. They are a tax. They raise prices for households and input costs for firms. They protect weak businesses while making life harder for the exporters, manufacturers and service providers that have to survive in world markets.

Australia has tried this before. It did not make us stronger. It made us sluggish and expensive. The bipartisan trade reforms of the 1980s and 1990s were not an act of national surrender. They were part of a broader modernisation that helped turn Australia into a bigger, more productive, more competitive and more dynamic economy. More open markets forced firms to lift their game, adopt better technology, charge fairer prices and find new customers. That is one reason living standards rose.

Along with technology, trade brings disruption. It reshapes workplaces, industries, jobs and communities. But the answer to change is not to pretend the clock can be turned back. It is to help workers move into new opportunities, back regions through periods of adjustment, and make sure the benefits of growth are more broadly shared. Nostalgia is not an industry policy.

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

Strengthening oversight of Australia’s insolvency system

16 April 2026

The Albanese Government has strengthened oversight of Australia’s insolvency system by approving a pool of 10 highly qualified experts that the Australian Financial Security Authority can appoint as part‑time members of Bankruptcy Trustee Registration and Disciplinary Committees.

The candidates will bolster the system that scrutinises bankruptcy trustees, with committees convened as needed to assess registration, conditions, suspension and disciplinary matters. The pool is designed to ensure cases are handled with deep expertise, faster turnaround, and robust independence.

The candidates bring extensive experience across insolvency and bankruptcy law, corporate and commercial law, taxation, accounting, public policy and consumer finance, drawn from academia, legal practice and regulatory roles.

The Hon Kristy McBain MP
Minister for Regional Development, Local Government and Territories
Minister for Emergency Management

The Hon Andrew Leigh MP
Member for Fenner 

New pipeline secures water future for Jervis Bay Territory

09 April 2026

Residents of the Jervis Bay Territory, including members of the Wreck Bay Aboriginal Community, will benefit from a more reliable and secure drinking water supply, with construction of the new water pipeline connecting the Territory to the Shoalhaven water network complete.

The milestone marks the completion of a major Albanese Government infrastructure project designed to strengthen essential services and improve long-term water security for the community.

The new pipeline links the reservoir at Vincentia with the Stone Creek Reservoir in the neighbouring Jervis Bay Territory, providing residents and visitors with a modern and dependable source of drinking water.

Funded through a $15.8 million Albanese Government investment, the project included the installation of about 11 kilometres of pipeline as well as upgrades to supporting infrastructure at both reservoirs.