Andrew Leigh

The Hon Kristy McBain MP
Minister for Regional Development, Local Government and Territories 
Member for Eden-Monaro

Alicia Payne MP
Member for Canberra

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

David Smith MP
Member for Bean 

Wednesday, 20 May 2026

Black Spot Funding To Improve Road Safety Across Canberra 

The Albanese Government has committed almost $7 million to address safety at 17 locations under the Australian Capital Territory 2026–27 Black Spot Program funding round.

The Black Spot Program funds safety measures such as traffic lights, safety barriers, roundabouts and pedestrian crossings at locations where several serious crashes have occurred or are at risk of occurring.

Projects funded in this round include:

• Over $1 million to install mast arms and widen the road at the intersection of Hindmarsh Drive and Yamba Drive in Garran
• $120,000 to improve the intersection of Manning Clarke Crescent, Anthony Rolfe Avenue and Eva West Street in Gungahlin
• $225,180 for line marking and signage, speed limit reduction to 50 kilometres per hour and the installation of speed humps on Cowper Street in Dickson and Ainslie.

The projects were recommended by the ACT Black Spot Consultative Panel. This panel is comprised of local stakeholders who are best placed to ensure nominations of the highest priority and importance to the local community are recommended for approval.

The Black Spot Program provides $150 million annually towards improving road safety at sites across the country.

It is a key part of the Australian Government’s commitment under the National Road Safety Strategy 2021–2030 to reducing fatalities and serious injuries on our roads.

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

From Clever to Competitive: Lifting Productivity Through Innovation

Opening Keynote Address to 18th Annual Agile Australia Conference,

Melbourne Cricket Ground 

Tuesday, 19 May 2026

Thank you for the invitation to join you at AgileAus, on the lands of the Wurundjeri people of the Kulin Nation.

It is a pleasure to be with a room full of people who spend their days trying to make organisations less cumbersome, products more useful, systems a bit less maddening and the future more intelligent.

That last phrase is your conference theme this year: Building our Intelligent Future.

I’m a big admirer of intelligence. I’m an even bigger admirer of intelligence paired with wisdom. Wisdom is knowing which problems are worth solving. For a technologist, that means asking whether the clever thing is useful, safe, adopted, and capable of making life better beyond the demo screen.

My theme today is how innovation happens, and what governments can do to encourage more innovation and technological diffusion.

The history of innovation is full of myths about solitary genius. Alexander Fleming returns from holiday, notices mould on a petri dish, and penicillin is born. It’s a cute tale, particularly because Fleming considered calling penicillin ‘mould juice’, which should give comfort to anyone who’s ever launched with a bad product name.

Senator The Hon Katy Gallagher
Minister for Finance
Minister for Women
Minister for the Public Service
Minister for Government Services

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

Tuesday, 19 May 2026

Every Answer Matters: New myGov Feature Makes The 2026 Census Easier

Australians have a new way to get updates and access the 2026 Census online, with a new subscription option now available through myGov.

The myGov subscription option is just one way to access the 2026 Census.

From 18 May to 6 June 2026, those who choose to subscribe in myGov will get 2026 Census updates from the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) sent directly to their secure myGov Inbox.

In late July, ahead of Census night on Tuesday 11 August, people who’ve subscribed will be sent a link to the online Census form. The link will take them to the Census website to complete the form for their household.

This new option makes it easy for people to get updates and access the Census form online through a familiar and secure digital channel.

Households that don’t subscribe through myGov will get their Census instructions in the mail. People will still be able to complete the Census form online through the Census website or using a paper form.

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, 18 MAY 2026

SUBJECTS: 2026 Budget; housing; Foreign Investment Review Board; polling

PATRICIA KARVELAS: For the government's view, I want to bring in Assistant Productivity Minister Andrew Leigh. Welcome to the program.

ANDREW LEIGH: Thanks Patricia, it's an armada of Andrews you've got this afternoon.

PATRICIA KARVELAS: Oh look, doesn't that speak volumes about politics, although I respect your right to be here. Yes, there's a lot of Andrews in the Parliament, but look that's another audit for another day.

Has your decision to alter taxes and break election promises, clearly, backfired politically? I mean one poll today shows Angus Taylor as preferred Prime Minister next to Anthony Albanese.

ANDREW LEIGH: Patricia, reform is hard but that doesn't make it any less important. What we've done in this Budget is to make a series of tough changes around trusts, around negative gearing, around capital gains taxation, that experts like the Grattan Institute have been calling for for decades. And we've done it in the teeth of an international crisis not of our own making. The fifth big international crisis to hit Australia in a couple of decades.

I think that speaks volumes to the political courage of the Prime Minister and the Treasurer and the importance of continuing to reform despite the international circumstances coming at us.

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

E&OE TRANSCRIPT
TV INTERVIEW
ABC THE BUSINESS, WITH DAVID TAYLOR
MONDAY, 18 MAY 2026

SUBJECTS: Boosting Innovation and Encouraging Startups

DAVID TAYLOR: Australian entrepreneurs are lobbying the government to unwind the changes to the capital gains tax discount announced in last week's Budget. They say the reform could spark a mass exodus of small businesses from Australia. Andrew Leigh is the Assistant Minister for Productivity, Competition, Charities and Treasury, and he joined me earlier. Assistant Minister, welcome.

ANDREW LEIGH: G'day David, great to be with you.

DAVID TAYLOR: Look, tech startups have taken to social media to express their frustration that the CGT changes will mean losing close to half their gains to the government upon sale of their business. Is that realistic?

ANDREW LEIGH: Well, we've been very clear that we're open to the conversation with that community. The Treasurer has been continuing that conversation. We've had good discussions already with the Tech Council and the Investment Council. But it is important to remember that new businesses and small businesses are at the heart of this Budget. We've got making the instant asset write-off permanent, permanent loss carryback measures and changes to the research and development tax credit that will deliver, in our estimation, another $400 million of research and development by new firms.

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, 19 MAY 2026

SUBJECTS: Veterans funding; 2026 Agile Australia Conference; instant asset write-off; innovation; AI

STEPHEN CENATIEMPO: Time to talk more federal politics with 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, great to be with you.

STEPHEN CENATIEMPO: I'm not going to talk to you about the Budget. Beyond the charity issue, though. I mean, in the current environment to be cutting funding to things like Invictus and this $3,000 to Cameron Baird's family. I mean, these are minor amounts of money and when people are doing it tough, I mean surely this is where we need to focus?

ANDREW LEIGH: Well, we're giving record amounts of funding to veterans’ groups and through veterans support. A lot of what we've done since coming to office is to get veterans' claims processed more quickly. Invictus has done terrific work, and we continue to support a whole range of veterans support groups across the country.

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

A Country of Community Foundations

Community Foundations Australia Dinner,
Melbourne

Monday, 18 May 2026

I acknowledge the Wurundjeri people of the East Kulin Nation, and pay my respects to Elders past and present. I acknowledge the First Nations leaders who are part of this community foundations movement, including Warren Miller and the Indigenous-led funds whose work is helping show Australia a better way to share resources and power.

It is a pleasure to be here with Community Foundations Australia’s outgoing CEO Ian Bird, incoming co-CEOs Georgia Mathews and Dylan Smith, board chair Stacey Thomas and board members, and Bharat Mehta and Jenny Hodgson from the Global Fund for Community Foundations. My thanks to John Spierings and our hosts from the South Side Community Foundation and the Australian Communities Foundation. Thanks to everyone in the room who has spent years building one of Australia’s most patient forms of optimism.

Tonight, I want to tackle a big question.

What should our vision be for community foundations in ten years’ time?

What is the kind of Australian community we’d like to see in 2036?

How would our country be different if every major town had a trusted local foundation?

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

The Diffusion Dividend

Chifley Institute Forum 'Prosperity With Purpose – How Labor Governs',
Canberra 

Friday, 15 May 2026

I acknowledge the Ngunnawal people, traditional custodians of the land on which we meet, and acknowledge all First Nations people present.

My thanks to Chifley’s multitalented Executive Director, Emma Dawson, for bringing us together today at the end of budget week for this panel on ‘Innovation, Productivity and Prosperity for All’. It is a pleasure to open the session before we hear from the four brilliant panellists: Kate Cornick, Tony Sheldon, Amit Singh and Rob Nicholls.

A Paddock Revolution

Let me start with a story.

For thousands of years, farming began by turning the soil over.

The plough was one of humanity’s oldest technologies. It broke the ground, buried weeds and prepared a seedbed. It was so familiar that most people would scarcely have thought of it as a technology at all. It was just farming.

Then, in the second half of the twentieth century, some Australian grain growers began asking a provocative question: what if we stopped?

What if the best way to grow a crop in a dry country was to disturb the soil less? What if farmers could sow directly into the ground, keep stubble on the surface, reduce erosion and conserve moisture? What if progress meant doing less to the soil, rather than more?

At first, zero-till looked like a very antipodean kind of innovation: less big-screen announcement, more paddock trial. Less breathless futurism, more farmers standing beside seeders asking whether the thing would work after three dry months and a nor-westerly.

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

E&OE TRANSCRIPT
RADIO INTERVIEW
ABC RADIO SYDNEY, DRIVE WITH THOMAS ORITI
THURSDAY, 14 MAY 2026

SUBJECTS: Federal Court decision against Coles; Albanese Government cracking down on supermarkets

THOMAS ORITI: Andrew Leigh is the Assistant Minister for Competition. He is with us now on Drive. Andrew, good afternoon.

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

THOMAS ORITI: Thanks for joining us. How are you feeling about today's decision?

ANDREW LEIGH: Oh, it's a great win for Aussie consumers and a real win for the ACCC and a tribute to Gina Cass-Gottlieb and her team. This reaffirms the basic principle that a discount should be a real saving, not a pricing trick and that you should be able to trust the ticket on the shelf when it says it's a discount that it actually is.

So this reinforces our reforms in which we've put more power behind the ACCC, we've increased the maximum penalty tenfold, we've better resourced the ACCC to go after misconduct in the supermarket and retail sectors and we're continuing to strengthen the laws.

THOMAS ORITI: I mentioned that Woolworths is waiting for a similar judgment to be handed down by the same judge. Now obviously we need to respect the judicial process with that, but does this serve as a warning to other retailers about misleading promotions?

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

E&OE TRANSCRIPT
RADIO INTERVIEW
ABC RADIO CANBERRA, BREAKFAST WITH ROSS SOLLY
FRIDAY, 15 MAY 2026

SUBJECTS: Delta Goodrem; Opposition Budget reply; Federal Court decision against Coles; Albanese Government cracking down on supermarkets

ROSS SOLLY: Congratulations to Delta Goodrem who has qualified for the final of Eurovision. And Andrew Leigh I mean, we love celebrating Australian success stories and this is building up, Andrew Leigh to a wonderful success story for Australia. Am I right?

ANDREW LEIGH: I think it is Ross, it's looking very, very exciting.

ROSS SOLLY: Has Eurovision fever taken over the Leigh household this morning, or are you trying to keep a lid on things?

ANDREW LEIGH: We're just managing to keep a lid on things but, you know, it is basically at simmering point as you say Ross.

ROSS SOLLY: Yeah. Well, you've got to wait now for the weekend to see if she can go all the way. Andrew Leigh, thanks for joining us. Of course, Member for Fenner, Assistant Minister for Productivity, Competition, Charities and Treasury. I want to talk to you about the Coles decision yesterday and what the ramifications might be for the supermarkets, but also for shoppers. But can I just get your response to the Budget reply speech last night from Angus Taylor? Some pretty strong initiatives there on immigration and also on bracket creep.

First of all, with immigration and a lot of people jumping on to say the text that I read out before the news when someone said, ‘Oh, it only takes four and a half months or four to eight months to then qualify to become a citizen’ – that's actually not correct. Once you've got four years of residency I understand, then it takes four to eight months. So it is a long process. But is Angus Taylor tapping into something of general concern out there, do you think Andrew Leigh, about the number of immigrants that are coming into Australia and, in his own words, accessing up to 17 different forms of welfare payments?