Andrew Leigh

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

E&OE TRANSCRIPT
RADIO INTERVIEW
2CC RADIO CANBERRA, WITH LEON DELANEY
THURSDAY, 2 JULY 2026

SUBJECTS: Price gouging by Coles and Woolworths illegal under the Albanese Government; unfair trading practices to be banned; banning card surcharges

LEON DELANEY: The federal government has today managed to have some important legislation passed which relates to unfair trading and traps. And the Assistant Minister for Productivity, Competition, Charities and Treasury also happens to be our local federal Member for the seat of Fenner. Andrew Leigh, good afternoon.

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

LEON DELANEY: Well thanks for joining us today. Let's start with this important legislation about unfair trading tricks and traps. And I know, of course, one of the big frustrations many people have is when they try to unsubscribe, often the process is made as difficult as possible. You're hoping to change that?

ANDREW LEIGH: That's right. People get sick of having to take an afternoon to cancel something that only took 30 seconds to sign up for, and as a result of our legislation passing Parliament, we're getting rid of that. The legislation also cracks down on drip pricing, which is where you get to the end of the checkout process and there's an additional compulsory fee that's added and also puts in a ban on unfair trading practices which include these sort of dark patterns that try and steer you into choices you didn't want when you're shopping online. Now, all of that's about trying to make sure that families get a better deal. Whether it's subscribing, whether it's shopping online, whether it's getting a gym subscription, all of those practices will have to comply with our new laws.

The Hon Jim Chalmers MP
Treasurer

The Hon Dr Daniel Mulino MP
Assistant Treasurer and Minister for Financial Services

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

Stronger Penalties For Tax Misconduct

Thursday, 2 July 2026

The Albanese Government is legislating tougher sanctions in response to misconduct by tax advisors.

This is all about making our taxation system stronger, driving better behaviour and deterring misconduct.

We’re introducing a stronger sanctions framework including criminal penalties for unregistered tax preparers, new civil penalties for breaches of the Code of Professional Conduct, and increased penalty amounts.

We’re doubling the maximum duration of termination of registration to 10 years and giving the Tax Practitioners Board new powers to issue infringement notice penalties, enter into enforceable voluntary undertakings and impose contingent and interim registration suspensions.

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

Unfair Trading Tricks And Traps To Be Banned

Thursday, 2 July 2026

The Albanese Government is continuing its strong track record of standing up for consumers, delivering one of the most significant strengthening of the Australian Consumer Law since it was created.

Following passage of the Competition and Consumer Amendment (Unfair Trading Practices) Bill 2026 in Parliament today, unfair trading practices and subscription traps will be banned from 1 July 2027.

Australians know exactly what these reforms are about because they have lived it.  Whether it’s spending half a day trying to exit a subscription that took 30 seconds to sign up, being slugged with last‑minute ‘service’ and ‘handling’ fees at checkout that weren’t previously disclosed, or being nudged and steered by online design features into decisions they wouldn’t otherwise make. Australians have had a gutful of these practices that waste their time, drain their wallets and undermine genuine choice.

We also know that the majority of businesses, especially small businesses, do the right thing and treat their customers fairly. These reforms back those businesses, ensuring they aren’t undercut by competitors who rely on tricks, manipulation and unnecessary complexity.

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
WEDNESDAY, 1 JULY 2026

SUBJECTS: Price gouging by Coles and Woolworths illegal from 1 July 2026 under the Albanese Government; AI; 2026 ABS Census

TOM CONNELL: Another big change spoken about by the government today is a ban on supermarket so-called price gouging. Assistant Minister for Competition, Charities and Treasury Andrew Leigh joins me now for more on this. Thank you for your time.

ANDREW LEIGH: Pleasure Tom.

TOM CONNELL: The rule comes in, says supermarkets are allowed to charge cost of supply plus a reasonable margin. What's a reasonable margin?

ANDREW LEIGH: Well, that'll be up to the competition watchdog. The ACCC is one of the most experienced regulators. They've shown their willingness to take on the big supermarkets and we deliberately didn't put numbers around this, Tom because that becomes too easily gamed. We've done it the way in which other jurisdictions have approached the challenge in Europe and the United Kingdom and we've done it to make sure that families get a fair deal at the checkout.

TOM CONNELL: In terms of supermarkets and reasonable margins though, they have some of the lowest margins out of any business. So is it going to be hard to say, you know, a 2.2% margin on something's unreasonable when most businesses have a higher one?

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

Matters of Public Importance: Labor Government

House of Representatives,
Parliament House

Wednesday, 1 July 2026

When the Leader of the Opposition became leader, getting rid of the first woman to head the Liberal Party, he said that his party needed to ‘change or die’. I don't think many Australians thought that they were going to choose door 2, but that's what's happening right now. The modern Liberal Party won't change, and it's choosing to die. They won't change a system that's locked a generation of young Australians out of homeownership. They won't change their natural inclination, in a choice between opportunity and privilege, to back privilege every time. As the Opposition Leader himself might have said: 'Fantastic. Great move. Well done, Angus.'

The fact is that Labor is today introducing measures which are going to benefit millions of Australians, and so many of these measures have been opposed by the shadow treasurer. We are boosting minimum wages and award wages, benefiting more than three million Australians, and yet the shadow treasurer is on the record criticising the Fair Work Commission's decision to deliver a real wage increase to low-income workers. We're increasing wages for care workers, who'll benefit by around $59 a week. A registered nurse will benefit to the tune of about $86 a week. And yet the Shadow Treasurer has criticised better wages for frontline workers as 'borrowing from future generations'.

From today, workers will see payday super. They'll actually see money coming into their super accounts when it should. But the Shadow Treasurer has criticised universal superannuation, labelling it 'a form of economic social engineering' and 'a form of economic insanity'. 

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, 30 JUNE 2026    

SUBJECTS: Price gouging by Coles and Woolworths illegal from 1 July 2026 under the Albanese Government

STEPHEN CENATIEMPO: Now, I’ve got to say one of the very most disciplined politicians I’ve ever seen – not only in his personal life because he runs and, as I say, running is undignified – but he’ll always tow the party line, is the Assistant Minister for Productivity, Competition, Charities and Treasury and the Member for Fenner, Dr Andrew Leigh. Andrew, good morning.

ANDREW LEIGH: Good morning Stephen. I’m very proud to be an undignified runner. I think many of my running companions would say the same.

STEPHEN CENATIEMPO: Well, but having said that, it’s not the running that’s undignified; it’s what you look like at the end of it is what I find undignified!

ANDREW LEIGH: It does look like a bit of a war zone when you get to the end of an ultramarathon.

STEPHEN CENATIEMPO: I can imagine. Now, I want to talk about, from tomorrow there’s going to be – now, you and I disagree on the concept of price gouging, and I think we’ve done a Julia Gillard and redefined what it is. But tell us what’s actually going to change tomorrow?

ANDREW LEIGH: So from tomorrow we’re banning price gouging for supermarkets turning over more than $30 billion, which is Coles and Woolworths and that will protect Australian families from artificially inflated prices on their groceries. It means they can’t try and charge prices that are excessive when compared to the cost of supply plus a reasonable margin. And they’ll face very significant fines if they do: up to $10 million, three times the value of the breach or 10 per cent of annual turnover.

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

Aviation Consumer Protection Bill 2026
Second Reading

House of Representatives,
Parliament House

Monday, 29 June 2026

Australia has an unusual aviation market. A population our size is thought by many experts to be able to support about three airlines, and we do have three airlines. The problem is that two of them are owned by the same company: the Qantas group. That means that the Qantas group and Virgin have 98.5 per cent of the market. The top two players having 98.5 per cent of the market means that industries like banking and telecommunications look pretty competitive by comparison.

This is one of the most concentrated industries in Australia. Most regional routes are monopolies and, as work carried out by the competition taskforce in Treasury by Omer Majeed in conjunction with Robert Breunig at the Australian National University has shown, there is a strong relationship between the lack of competition and the prices that flyers pay. When one airline services a route, they find, airfares average 39.6c a kilometre. When two airlines compete, the average fare drops to 28.2c per kilometre. With three competitors, it drops to 19.2c. In other words, if you've got a route where there are three competitors, flyers are paying about half the price per kilometre that they pay over a monopoly route. Even the threat of competition, researchers have found, brings down lower prices.

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

New Laws To Help Australians Know Who Stands Behind A Company 

Tuesday, 30 June 2026

The Albanese Government has secured passage of the Treasury Laws Amendment (Business Registries Stabilisation and Uplift) Bill 2026, strengthening Australia’s business registers and enhancing the Director Identification regime.

The reforms will make it easier for Australians to answer a simple but vital question: who am I dealing with?

Australia’s business registers are critical economic infrastructure. They help small businesses decide whether to extend credit, banks make lending decisions, consumers check who is behind a company, and regulators detect misconduct.

A key measure in the Bill will enable Director Identification Numbers to be linked to the ASIC Companies Register from 1 July 2027, significantly strengthening transparency and making it easier to trace directors across corporate entities.

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

More Tools To Protect Consumers And Small Businesses From Unfair Contract Terms

Monday, 29 June 2026

The Albanese Government will introduce more powers for regulators to issue infringement notices for breaches of unfair contract term laws by big business.

Whether a big business is a supermarket, a petrol company, or a digital platform we won’t tolerate Australian consumers and small businesses being taken for mugs.

The changes will expand reforms we introduced to make unfair contract terms illegal, including increasing maximum penalties to $100 million per offence.

Infringement notice powers will allow the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) and Australian Securities and Investment Commission (ASIC) to respond more flexibly without the need for lengthy court proceedings. 

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

E&OE TRANSCRIPT
DOORSTOP PRESS CONFERENCE
DICKSON SQUARE, ACT
SATURDAY, 27 JUNE 2026

SUBJECTS: Price gouging by Coles and Woolworths illegal from 1 July 2026 under the Albanese Government

ANDREW LEIGH: Well thanks very much for coming this morning. My name is Andrew Leigh, the Assistant Minister for Competition. I’m pleased to announce today that on 1 July 2026, the Albanese Government is cracking down on price gouging by the major supermarkets. We know the two major supermarkets in Australia have a very large share of the market – about two thirds between them, a number that's barely changed in the last couple of decades. 

The ACCC’s supermarket report made clear that when you've got significant market concentration, you have the potential for excessive pricing. So what these new laws will do is to say to the two major supermarkets: If you're engaging in excessive pricing, that is pricing that's above the cost of supply plus a reasonable margin, then the ACCC will be empowered to come after you.