Andrew Leigh

Australian shoppers deserve a fair deal at the supermarket checkout. That’s why Labor is taking action to ensure competition delivers cost of living relief.

Today’s commencement of the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission’s Supermarket Inquiry public hearings is an important milestone to getting a fair go for Australian families and farmers.

Over the next two weeks, the ACCC will examine senior executives of Coles, Woolworths, Aldi and Metcash, along with a range of suppliers and key consumer and industry stakeholders.

SUBJECTS: World Marathon Majors; HECS-HELP Changes; Merger reform.

SASKIA MABIN: Andrew Leigh has jumped on the line to talk with me about a range of things going on in his world. How are you?

ANDREW LEIGH: Very well, Saskia. How are you?

MABIN: Very well, and before we get into policy, I'd love to talk to you about the news that Sydney Marathon is going to be the seventh world marathon major. I believe you're a bit of a marathon runner yourself. Are you feeling a bit excited about this?

LEIGH: Very excited, Saskia. So, I've run the six world marathon majors and having Sydney join the ranks is just a remarkable thing for Australian runners. It will make the Sydney race a little bit harder to get into, but it will now be one which is attracting people from around the world. It won't be the fastest of the marathon majors. That will probably still be Berlin, Tokyo or Chicago, but it's going to certainly be the most scenic with that start across the bridge, the finish at the Opera House and the beautiful Sydney out in front of you. So, I'm sure many Canberra runners will be looking forward to lacing up next year to do either their seventh or their first marathon major.

Daily Telegraph 6 November 2024

Many Australian markets are dominated by a few big firms. Worse, over recent decades, market concentration has increased.

A lack of competition doesn’t just harm consumers; it can also hurt businesses that have to deal with monopolies.

Small-scale farmers are the meat in a market concentration sandwich. Upstream, there is often no choice about dealing with large-scale providers on inputs. Downstream, there is often no choice about negotiating with larger processors and retailers.

One in five Australian workers are subject to a non-compete clause in their employment agreement, impeding them from moving to a better job. Workers who want to switch to a nearby firm can find themselves barred from moving unless they take months off work. Faced with the prospect of enforced unemployment, many never make the switch. Given how important job mobility is to innovation and wages, this means non-competes may be hurting both productivity and earnings.

SUBJECTS: Travel upgrades; airline competition; competition reform; market concentration in farming.

KIERAN GILBERT, HOST: As the Assistant Minister for Competition, Charities and Treasury, Andrew Leigh, it's all pretty ugly, isn't it? This stuff about Qantas?

ANDREW LEIGH: Well, certainly our focus, Kieran, has been on getting more competition for flyers. What we've done with the airline Ombudsman, compensation for people who are delayed, the slot review at Sydney Airport. Plus I've been a pretty assiduous critic of Qantas’s cancellation of flights between Sydney and Canberra. These have been the issues that I've been focused on, which are about getting a better deal for the flying public.

GILBERT: From memory though, the government hasn't included the aviation sector in all of its competition reviews. And the argument is, this is one of the areas that you've actually taken an approach to benefit Qantas.

LEIGH: Well, not only was aviation included in the Competition Taskforce’s work, but I also gave a speech earlier this year which laid out some of the troubling statistics about aviation competition.

SUBJECTS: Competition reform in the agriculture sector, Right to Repair. 

WARWICK LONG, HOST: Let’s talk competition in farming in Australia. A member of the Federal Government has identified farming as an area in dire need of competition reform in Australia. Andrew Leigh is the Assistant Minister for Competition in the Labor Government. He says this country’s small-scale farmers are getting hammered at both ends by concentrated markets and at numerous points along the agricultural supply chain.  I had a chat to him about improving the improving the competition playing field for farmers after he made a speech on such a topic to ABARES in Canberra. 

ANDREW LEIGH: Well, farmers are the meat in the sandwich when it comes to problems of competition in the Australian economy. We see too many farmers buying seed and fertiliser from concentrated markets and then getting squeezed by having to sell into concentrated markets for processors or in freight. And the effect is that farmers aren’t getting a fair deal. I’m talking about a lot of what we’re doing in the competition space through the lens of farming. Farming is a critical industry to the Australian economy, but it also illustrates some of the big competition problems that the Australian economy faces right now.

LONG: Why is farming such an easy example to grasp about the lack of competition and what it does to markets?

SUBJECTS: Competition policy; Food and Grocery Code; right to repair; divestiture; tariffs; US election; travel upgrades

GREG JENNETT, HOST: In the fight against inflation and ever rising grocery prices, farmers have been caught in the middle of debate on the effect of pricing on customers. The Minister responsible for competition, Andrew Leigh, has been taking a close look at the farming sector. We spoke to him earlier. Andrew Leigh, good to have you back with us. Now, you've given a speech today on competition, pointing out that it's definitely lacking in the agriculture or farming sector. They feel it in lots of ways, according to your presentation, through the harvesters, they buy and maintain seeds and spray that they put in the field and cattle they sell at the yard. So, you've highlighted it. What's the solution?

ANDREW LEIGH: Well, Greg, as you say, farmers are the meat in the market concentration sandwich. You often get a lot of farmers, but just a few suppliers, and just a few people they can sell to. Part of the answer is the Food and Grocery Code of Conduct being made mandatory rather than voluntary as it was under the Liberals and Nationals. That ensures that farmers get a fairer deal when they're negotiating with supermarkets. Part of it is also about banning unfair contract terms, which we did when we came to office. Those unfair contract terms were hurting small farmers in areas like fertiliser contracts or potato grower retailing, and that ensures that the small guy gets a better deal. 

SUBJECTS: Queensland state election; competition policy; market concentration in farming; merger law reform; role of the ACCC

STEPHEN CENATIEMPO, HOST: Time to talk Federal politics with the Assistant Minister for Competition, Charities and Treasury and Member for Fenner, Andrew Leigh. Good morning, Andrew.

ANDREW LEIGH: Good morning, Stephen, great to be with you.

CENATIEMPO: I'm not going to talk to you about upgrades because I imagine in your position you probably don't fly that much so it probably doesn't affect you, but I do want to talk about the Queensland election. What lessons are there from that for the Federal Government?

LEIGH: Well certainly cost‑of‑living was a big issue and we're very aware that we need to be doing as much as possible on cost‑of‑living. Of course we had the energy bill rebates, tax cuts and the childcare package. But we're always looking to do more, particularly around the competition space. The work we've been doing in grocery competition really is focussed on ensuring Australians get a good deal and that we pay as little as possible for the groceries we need at the check out.

ADDRESS TO THE AUSTRALIAN BUREAU OF AGRICULTURAL AND RESOURCE ECONOMICS AND SCIENCES

I acknowledge the Ngunnawal people, on whose traditional lands we meet, and pay respect to all First Nations people here today.

Economist John Crawford started his public service career in the 1940s working under Nugget Coombs in the Department of Post-War Reconstruction (Miller 2007, Uhr 2006).

After taking a strong interest in agriculture, tariffs and trade in his academic studies, Crawford became the director of the Department’s rural and regional planning divisions (Powell & Macintyre 2015).

Those planning divisions evolved into the Bureau of Agricultural Economics which would serve as the Commonwealth agency responsible for examining proposals for settling returned soldiers on productive farms.

With Crawford as the inaugural director, the Bureau would assess ‘the suitability of climate and soil, the adequacy of the farm areas and likely economic viability of the farms’ (Powell & Macintyre 2015).

It was a significant task because no one wanted to repeat the costly mistakes of the 1920s where nearly 12,000 soldier settlers abandoned their farms within a few years.

SUBJECTS: Food and Grocery Code Supplier Survey; ACCC action against Coles and Woolworths; Scams; Royal visit; ACT election result 

LEON DELANEY, HOST: The Federal Government is encouraging businesses that supply stock to major supermarkets to submit feedback to the 2024 annual Food and Grocery Code Independent Reviewer Survey. To tell us what's going on, Assistant Minister for Competition, Charities and Treasury and Employment, and of course, our local member here in the seat of Fenner, Dr Andrew Leigh. Good afternoon.

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

DELANEY: Well, thanks for joining us today. So, what's going on with this independent survey?

LEIGH. The Food and Grocery Code of Conduct governs the relationship between the big supermarkets and their suppliers. We've known that big supermarkets can squeeze their consumers, but also that suppliers can be put on the hook. When there's only a couple of supermarkets and a lot of suppliers, then there's a significant power imbalance. So, Labor has announced that the Food and Grocery Code of Conduct will be made mandatory, with significant penalties for breaching it. As part of that, we're now reaching out to suppliers and saying, give us your feedback on how your relationship has been with the supermarkets in order to feed into the process.