Andrew Leigh

Stronger Together: How Co-operatives Build a Fairer Economy

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

Co-Op Federation Assembly 2025: UN International Year of Co-Operatives
Art Gallery of NSW

20 March 2025

Australians don’t sit back and wait for problems to solve themselves – we step up, we work together, and we get things done. Cooperation is part of who we are. It’s mateship in action, self-reliance at scale, and fairness in practice.

Whether it’s farmers protecting fair prices, workers building industry super funds, or communities ensuring access to affordable housing, co-operatives have long been the quiet achievers of our economy – reshaping markets and putting fairness at the centre of economic life.

I’m excited to be here today at the Co-op Assembly 2025 to talk about this important topic.

Here in the Naala Badu building, I acknowledge the Gadigal people of the Eora Nation, the traditional custodians of the land on which we meet today. I pay my respects to their elders past and present, and I extend that respect to all First Nations people here today.  

Like Australia’s co-operatives, this gallery has become more diverse over time, not only expanding its collection of Indigenous art, but also building its collection of international art. My mother, Barbara Leigh, has an ongoing interest in textiles in Southeast Asia. She reminded me that a dedicated space for Asian art only opened in 1988, flourishing under Edmund Capon and Jacqueline Menzies, and expanding into this new building.

This evolution wasn’t accidental. It was built through collaboration – by people who believed in the value of cultural diversity, who pooled resources, and who created something greater than the sum of its parts. That same spirit of cooperation underpins the co-operative movement. Just as this gallery has grown through collective effort, co-operatives, too, show us what’s possible when people come together with a common purpose.

Thank you to the Co-op Federation for inviting me to speak today at the Co-op Assembly 2025, in celebration of the UN International Year of Co-operatives. This year’s theme – 'Co-operatives Build a Better World' – isn’t just an ideal. It’s a fact. Co-operatives have demonstrated their potential to enhance economic fairness, resilience, and community empowerment – particularly in sectors such as agriculture, finance, and energy. Globally, co-operatives have helped shape industries and foster economic inclusion, particularly in regions where traditional business models have failed to serve local communities.

For me, this is not just an abstract concept – it’s personal. During the Great Depression, my grandfather Keith Leigh and his friend Lindsay Brehaut saw families in their community struggling to afford basic goods. So, they founded the Hobson’s Bay Co-op, giving locals the ability to pool their buying power and secure fair prices. It was a simple idea, but a profound one: that by working together, they could build a more secure, more just economic future. And that’s what the co-operative movement has always been about – people banding together, not just to get by, but to take control of their futures.

And this isn’t just history. Co-operatives are addressing today’s biggest challenges – from clean energy to economic inclusion. That’s why, today, I want to talk about how co-operatives have shaped Australia and why they are more relevant than ever in our mission to build a better world.

The Least of These: Dignity, Justice, and the Fight Against Inequality

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

Catholic Social Services Australia Conference
Sydney

19 March 2025

Thank you for the opportunity to address you today. I acknowledge the Gadigal people of the Eora nation and pay my respects to all First Nations people present. Their connection to community and country reminds us of our ongoing responsibility to care for each other.

The Gospel of Matthew teaches us powerfully:

‘Truly, I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me.’ (Matthew 25:40)

This teaching resonates deeply with Australia’s ideals of fairness and community. Yet, our society today faces a significant challenge: inequality. Inequality matters profoundly - not just economically, but morally, socially, and spiritually. It shapes opportunities, influences life outcomes, and determines who shares in our national prosperity.

In reflecting upon inequality today, I’d like to begin with a thought experiment developed by the Dutch economist Jan Pen.

Imagine all Australians marching in a one-hour parade, their height reflecting their wealth.

At first, you wouldn’t see anyone - the poorest Australians, submerged by debt, would be underground. Several minutes would pass before you see people the height of tiny insects, representing those with minimal savings and precarious jobs. At half-time, the parade participants would be barely waist-high, reflecting an average wealth level that is far below what many expect.

It isn’t until the last few minutes that the parade gets dramatic. Australians become giants, several metres tall, owning investment properties and multiple cars. In the last seconds, billionaires appear, their heads literally in the clouds. The richest Australian would tower over 46 kilometres high - far above Mt Everest.

This image vividly captures the scale and drama of inequality in Australia today.

From Monopoly to Lego: Building a More Competitive Economy From the Ground Up

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

Corones' Law Competition Reform Event
Sydney

19 March 2025

I acknowledge the Gadigal of the Eora Nation. I pay my respects to Elders past and present and extend that respect to First Nations people taking part in today’s event.

Fresh out of law school, I had the privilege of working as one of Justice Michael Kirby’s High Court associates. I answered the phone, put thousands of letters in envelopes, made hundreds of cups of Ceylon Orange Pekoe tea and occasionally had the chance to do some legal research (Leigh 2016).

One of the things I learned was that lawyers would be lost without resources like Corones’ Competition Law (Svetiev 2023). Pages dog-eared and tabbed to death, Corones is a trusted source of how the courts have ruled and how arguments have been won and lost.

Corones texts also stand as a record of reform. Over many editions, it has captured everything from judgments on the original 1974 legislation, to reforms allowing third parties to access infrastructure in the 1990s, to the introduction of criminal cartel sanctions in the 2000s.

And today, a new round of competition reforms takes shape. This includes the new merger regime – the largest shakeup of Australia’s merger settings in half a century. And it includes a revitalised National Competition Policy agenda. These are the two areas I want to cover today, with a focus on the microdata underpinning these macro reforms.

Building an innovative economy

Ultimately, competition reform is about improving the long-term prosperity of the Australian people. This means getting the policy settings right if we want to build a stronger, more resilient and dynamic economy.

Think of the end-game as more like Lego than Monopoly. In Monopoly, one person gets everything while everyone else watches in frustration. In Lego, all the players get to build something – though in both cases, stepping on a piece can be painful.

As US congressman Jake Auchincloss put it, ‘Everybody, when they think about playing with Legos, has this sense of creativity and empowerment.’ (Klein 2025)

Competitive markets help ensure Australians pay fair prices for goods and services (Leigh 2024a). Without competition, businesses can charge whatever they like – kind of like airport food courts, where a ham and cheese sandwich requires a mortgage.

Competition also promotes choice and freedom.

The challenge is Australia’s competitiveness has been declining since the 2000s, while market concentration has nearly doubled since 2010 (Chalmers and Leigh 2024).

The Hon Clare O'Neil MP
Minister for Housing and Homelessness 

Senator The Hon Katy Gallagher
Senator for the ACT

The Hon Dr Andrew Leigh MP
Member for Fenner

Alicia Payne MP
Member for Canberra

David Smith MP
Member for Bean

Media Release

More Homes, More Opportunities: Delivering For Canberra 

Monday 17 March 2025

The Albanese Government’s Housing Australia Future Fund (HAFF) is delivering 757 new social and affordable homes for the Canberra region, part of more than 13,000 across Australia under the first round of the HAFF.

The Housing Australia Future Fund is a $10 billion investment and part of the Albanese Government’s plan to deliver 55,000 new social and affordable homes over the next 5 years, including for at-risk women, children, key workers and veterans.

This follows the Albanese Government starting the largest house build in Australia’s history, building 1.2 million homes for Australians over 5 years.

Details of the Housing Australia Future Fund homes that are being delivered in Canberra appear below.

The Hon Julie Collins MP
Minister For Agriculture, Fisheries And Forestry 
Minister For Small Business

Senator The Hon Murray Watt
Minister For Employment And Workplace Relations

The Hon Stephen Jones MP
Assistant Treasurer
Minister For Financial Services

The Hon Andrew Leigh MP
Assistant Minister For Competition, Charities And Treasury
Assistant Minister For Employment

Media Release 

New government action to help tradies get paid on time and in full

Friday 14 March 2025

The Albanese Labor Government is taking further action to help ensure tradies and subcontractors in the construction industry are paid on time and in full. 

Our immediate actions are: 

• Leveraging 20-day maximum payment times through the Commonwealth Supplier Code of Conduct and promoting similar expectations of Government Businesses like the NBN, Western Sydney Airport and Inland Rail. 
• Extending unfair trading practice protections to small businesses. 
• Boosting funding for ASIC to identify and take enforcement against more dodgy directors for illegal phoenixing conduct, focusing on the sectors that are more at risk of such conduct like construction.  

We are also releasing the Government’s response to the Review of Security of Payment Laws. 

The Review of Security of Payment Laws (the Review), undertaken by Mr John Murray AM, recommended ways to improve consistency across the different state and territory laws on security of payment to foster a fairer and more resilient construction sector. 

Since the release of the Review many states and territories have amended security of payment laws, but the former federal government failed to respond. 

Today our Government is reaffirming its commitment to fairness and bolstering support for small businesses that are contractors, subcontractors and suppliers in the construction sector. 

We are taking action to support the objectives of the Murray Review, including: 

• progressing our tripartite work with businesses and unions on a Building and Construction Industry Blueprint to develop effective arrangements to protect the security of payments for contractors down the supply chain; 
• leveraging the Commonwealth Supplier Code of Conduct which requires suppliers contracted to non-corporate Commonwealth Entities to reflect the Commonwealth’s maximum payment times in their contracts with subcontractors, and by promoting similar expectations of Government Businesses; 
• using wider policy levers to assist small businesses facing an imbalance of bargaining power, such as, providing guidance to help identify unfair contract terms in standard contracts, and extending unfair trading practices protections to small businesses; 
• taking action to support the adoption of eInvoicing; and 
• boosting funding for ASIC to improve its ability to identify and take enforcement action against those involved in illegal phoenixing conduct, focusing on the sectors that are more susceptible and impacted by such conduct, particularly construction.  

Senator The Hon Katy Gallagher 
Minister For Finance
Minister For Women
Senator For The ACT

The Hon Andrew Leigh MP
Assistant Minister For Competition, Charities And Treasury 
Assistant Minister For Employment 

Alicia Payne MP
Member For Canberra

David Smith MP
Member For Bean 

Media Release

Thursday, 13 March 2025

More Crisis Accommodation For Canberra

The Albanese Labor Government will deliver more housing for women and children experiencing family and domestic violence in Canberra, as part of our commitment to ending gender-based violence in one generation.

Local not-for-profit Marymead CatholicCare Canberra & Goulburn will receive $3.5 million in funding to deliver up to seven dwellings under the Crisis and Transitional Accommodation Program, which will offer housing options to those in the Canberra community experiencing family and domestic violence.

The announcement exceeds Labor’s 2022 pledge to deliver an additional $1 million in funding to extra crisis accommodation in the ACT.

The project will be among 42 funded under the Program nationally, which is investing $100 million to support the building, remodelling or purchase of crisis or transitional accommodation for women and children experiencing family and domestic violence, and older women at risk of homelessness.

The Program is part of the Australian Government’s investment of more than $4 billion in women’s safety to support the National Plan to End Violence against Women and Children 2022-2032.

The project is expected to welcome women and children later in 2025 and will be used as crisis and transitional accommodation for the next 20 years.

Quotes attributable to Minister for Women, Senator the Hon Katy Gallagher

“This funding delivers on a commitment we made at the last election to help keep women and children in Canberra safe.

“Our Government has committed more than $4 billion to ending violence against women, including towards this important investment in housing for women and children affected by domestic and family violence.

“We know this is a priority and the Albanese Government is investing nearly 20 times more funding in crisis and transitional accommodation and programs than the previous Coalition government did in a decade.”

Quotes attributable to the Hon Andrew Leigh MP, Assistant Minister for Competition, Charities and Treasury

“A safe place to sleep should never be a privilege. This investment isn’t just about bricks and mortar - it’s about dignity, security, and the chance to rebuild.

By expanding crisis accommodation, we’re ensuring that more women and children can escape violence without facing the added trauma of homelessness."

The Hon Julie Collins MP
Minister For Agriculture, Fisheries And Forestry 
Minister For Small Business

The Hon Stephen Jones MP
Assistant Treasurer
Minister For Financial Services

The Hon Andrew Leigh MP
Assistant Minister For Competition, Charities And Treasury
Assistant Minister For Employment

Media Release

Friday 14 March 2025

Albanese Labor Government to extend unfair trading practice protections to small businesses 

The Albanese Government will extend a crackdown on Unfair Trading Practices to small businesses after last year’s commitment to protect consumers.   

We heard during consultation on protecting consumers from Unfair Trading Practices that it is important to also extend protections to small businesses, who face power imbalances when dealing with larger businesses. 

This is why the Albanese Labor Government will also address this significant gap in legal protections for small businesses, where thousands of businesses – including in the construction, agriculture and retail sectors – have experienced unfair practices that cause substantial harm. 

The Albanese Labor Government will ensure that small businesses are fairly protected when dealing with large businesses. 

This builds on action we have already taken to level the playing field for Australia’s record 2.6 million small businesses including: 

• extending unfair contract term protections to more businesses and introducing penalties for firms that breach them;  
• improving the Franchising Code of Conduct; and
• delivering new action to improve small business payment times. 

Treasury will consult this year on the design of protections for businesses, including on whether a principles-based prohibition should apply and whether specific unfair trading practices should be targeted to protect small businesses.  

This will complement a statutory review of the amendments to strengthen unfair contract term protections that the Albanese Labor Government legislated in 2022. 

The consultation will consider how Unfair Trading Practice protections can be used to address practices that harm small businesses.  

Noticing the dog that didn't bark

Published in The Canberra Times

12 March 2025  

The Reserve Bank’s decision to cut rates marks a historic moment. Never before have we managed to reduce inflation without a sustained experience of joblessness. In the past, curtailing inflation meant thousands of people thrown out of work – suffering the loss of income and dignity that comes with being unable to find a job. Now, for the very first time, we’ve managed to get price growth down without the human toll of mass unemployment.

To see how remarkable this experience has been, it’s worth going back through how past episodes of inflation have been handled.

In 1973, an oil embargo in response to the Yom Kippur War caused world oil prices to more than double. The global oil price shock pushed annual inflation in Australia to a peak of 18 percent. Unemployment went up from 4 percent to 6 percent, leaving many Australians claiming unemployment benefits for the first time. The combination of double-digit inflation and higher unemployment led to the term ‘stagflation’. Australia entered recession.

Inflation was briefly brought back down in 1977 before a second oil shock hit. The 1979 Iranian revolution caused a drop in global oil production. Again, oil prices doubled. Again, Australian inflation took off, with annual inflation exceeding 10 percent. Again, unemployment rose – this time from 6 percent to 10 percent. In the early-1980s, Australia – like many other countries around the world – went into recession.

Inflation was brought under control, but only briefly. By the mid-1980s, inflation began to increase again, averaging around 8 percent for the second half of the decade. Unemployment, which had fallen to 6 percent by the late-1980s, spiked upwards. The early-1990s recession, caused largely by Australia’s efforts to curb demand and reduce inflation, saw unemployment peak at 11 percent. Factory workers in their fifties were laid off. Some would never work again. Among young people, one in five were unable to find work.

Fast forward to the post-pandemic inflation spike, which has hit countries around the world. In 2023, the UK economy entered recession. In 2024, New Zealand entered recession, and finished the year with unemployment having risen to 5 percent. Canada has also seen a significant rise in joblessness, with the unemployment rate rising through 2024, and now standing at nearly 7 percent.

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

Why competition reform is more fun than it looks and more significant than you thought

11 March 2025

Good morning, everyone. I acknowledge the Whadjuk Nyoongar people, the Traditional Owners of the lands on which we meet. I pay my respects to their Elders past and present and extend that respect to First Nations people taking part in today’s event.

Thank you to the Economic Society of Australia for the invitation to address the first Economics on the Swan event for the year.

Economics is not only a powerful policy tool but a rewarding profession. Among other things, economics provides an opportunity to focus on wellbeing and not just dollars, a chance to be bold and a platform for rigorous evidence (Leigh 2023). And when research and reform come together, economics is more fun than it looks.

Fun can be hard

Dr Rainer Newberry, a geologist from the University of Alaska, came up with the 3‑point fun scale which was adopted by the outdoor adventure community (Strout 2022).

‘Type I Fun’ is fun in the moment. ‘Type II Fun’ is unpleasant in the moment but satisfying in retrospect. ‘Type III Fun’ is not fun at all, even in retrospect. In a Western Australian context, Type I fun might be a pleasant day exploring Rottnest Island.

Type III Fun might be where a four‑wheel drive adventure turns into getting lost in the Gibson Desert, risking the fate of Mr Gibson.

Type II Fun is how I’d think about the Busselton Ironman. Long, hot and gruelling, but satisfying to reflect upon.

Competition reform is like Type II Fun for economists. It is no policy paradise or island stroll. But it is no data desert either. Competition reform is somewhere in between – hard work at the time but worth the effort.

That was the experience of the Hilmer reforms in the 1990s. The process took almost a decade, ideas were contested, and cooperation across governments required constant vigilance. Yet the benefits were massive – equating to a $5,000 boost in average annual household incomes.

E&OE TRANSCRIPT
TELEVISION INTERVIEW
ABC AFTERNOON BRIEFING WITH OLIVIA CAISLEY

SUBJECTS: Cyclone Alfred; Ukraine; The Coalition’s promise to limit public servants’ ability to work from home; Tariffs

4 MARCH 2025

OLIVIA CAISLEY: To unpack that and much, much more today, let's bring in our political panel, LNP Senator Paul Scarr and Assistant Minister for Competition Andrew Leigh.

Welcome to you both to the program. There is plenty of news to get through today. Paul let's start with you quickly first. You're in Queensland, which is in the path of Cyclone Alfred.

PAUL SCARR: Yep.

CAISLEY: How prepared is your community?

SCARR: I think the community is as prepared as it can be. There's very close liaison between all three levels of government: the Federal Government, the State Government, the local government authorities. Sandbags are being made available, people are being given warnings and suggestions and recommendations as to how to prepare. And the community's coming together, as Queenslanders always come together, whether or not it's in North Queensland or in the southeast corner, we come together at times like this and help each other.

CAISLEY: And Paul, we just heard there before the WA Premier Roger Cook referring to the American Vice President as a “knob” over that extraordinary argument that took place in the Oval Office over the weekend. Is that an appropriate way for a state leader to be speaking?

SCARR: I don't believe so. I don't believe it is. And I don't believe it's helpful. And from my perspective, I think our focus here in Australia should be on Australia's commitment to the people of the Ukraine, and in respect of that commitment, it's quite bipartisan.

And before the last election, the Coalition Government had a very strong position with respect to assisting the people of Ukraine and Ukraine's right to its sovereignty, its own secure sovereign borders, and that policy has continued, notwithstanding there was a change in government after the last election. So, I think we should focus on what Australia's policy is.

CAISLEY: And Andrew, what did you think?

ANDREW LEIGH: Well, US politics is endlessly interesting, and it's always tempting to express your view every time something happens over in the US. But we're really focused right now on the challenges that Australia faces.

As Paul said, preparing for Cyclone Alfred, which is looking like making landfall either on Thursday or Friday of this week.

I would urge any of your viewers who are able-bodied to consider signing up for EV CREW, a great on-the-ground operation which allows you to help out in the local community.

And as Paul said, there's bipartisan support for Ukraine. Australia has given $1.5 billion in assistance, of which $1.3 billion is military aid.