Andrew Leigh

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

OPINION PIECE

Fair Go, Fair Markets: Why Consumer Trust Matters More Than Ever

Published in The Canberra Times

Monday, 30 June 2025

In a fast-changing economy, consumer trust isn’t just a virtue – it’s a necessity. Whether you're buying a fridge, downloading an app, or applying for a mortgage, you're taking a leap of faith that the product will do what it claims, the terms will be fair, and someone will listen if things go wrong.

Trust is the invisible infrastructure of the modern marketplace. Strip it away, and what remains is a minefield of confusion, caution and exploitation. When people stop believing the system works for them, they disengage. And when bad actors go unchallenged, good businesses suffer too.

Australia has made real strides in building trust through strong consumer protection. The Australian Consumer Law, introduced in 2011, brought together a tangle of federal, state and territory rules into a single national framework. Since then, protections have expanded – unfair contract terms are now banned, consumer guarantees are better enforced, and regulators have more tools to hold businesses to account.

But markets don’t stand still. And nor can our laws.

Today, technology has transformed the way we live and shop. Global platforms dominate online commerce. Artificial intelligence increasingly determines what ads we see, what prices we’re offered, even which products we’re shown in the first place. With these advances come opportunities – but also new risks.

AI, for all its potential, raises serious questions for consumer protection. What happens when a chatbot gives dangerously wrong advice? When a recommendation algorithm steers vulnerable users toward harmful content? Or when a company uses machine learning to nudge people into purchases they later regret?

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

Fair Go, Fair Markets: Consumer Trust in a Fast-Changing Australia

ADDRESS TO THE 2025 NATIONAL CONSUMER CONGRESS
MELBOURNE

FRIDAY, 27 JUNE 2025

I acknowledge the Traditional Owners of the land on which we meet – the Wurundjeri Woi-wurrung people of the Kulin Nation – and pay my respects to their Elders past and present.

Consumer protection matters everywhere, but its importance is especially clear in First Nations communities. A recent case reminded us of the serious harm that can occur when companies exploit Indigenous customers – and of the regulator’s willingness to act when that trust is breached.

I thank each of you for being here – consumer advocates, regulators, researchers, and business leaders. It’s great to be speaking to a room full of people who actually read the digital services agreements the rest of us scroll past on the way to ‘Accept All’.

The theme of this year’s National Consumer Congress – Who can we trust? – goes to the heart of what it means to have a functioning economy. Trust is not an optional extra. It is not a marketing gimmick or a nice-to-have. It’s the foundation on which every transaction rests.

These days, trust is harder to earn than an Uber five-star rating – and once lost, just as hard to claw back.

If you buy a carton of eggs, you trust that it won’t make your family sick. If you purchase a fridge, you trust that the energy rating is accurate. If you take out a home loan, you trust that the terms have been fairly disclosed. And if you complain, you trust that someone will listen – and act.

When that trust is absent, we all pay the price. Markets become less efficient. Consumers become more cautious. The playing field tilts towards those who can afford to game the system.

But when trust is present – when people believe the system works for them, not just for the powerful – they engage more confidently, spend more freely, and contribute to stronger and fairer markets.

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

‘The Progressive Productivity Agenda’

The McKell Institute 
Sydney 

Wednesday, 25 June 2025

I acknowledge the Gadigal people of the Eora nation, their elders past and present, and all First Nations people here today. My thanks to Ed Cavanough and the McKell Institute team for the invitation. The McKell Institute is a power player in the world of progressive ideas, and Australia is better for your contributions – incisive, practical, and unafraid of a bold argument. If progressive policy ideas were a competitive sport, McKell would already have a Brownlow – and perhaps a tribunal hearing or two.

Introduction

In 1930, just as the global economy was plunging into depression, John Maynard Keynes published a remarkably upbeat essay: Economic Possibilities for our Grandchildren (Keynes 1930). The aim, he said, was to ‘disembarrass myself of short views’ – to look beyond the Depression and imagine what life might be like a century hence.

Keynes and his wife Lydia Lopokova never had children, but I’m in the generation that would have been his great-grandchildren. Which means I’m also part of the generation he was writing about – the ones who, by 2030, would inherit a world shaped by rising productivity and the promise of abundance.

Keynes made two bold predictions.

First, he forecast that the standard of life in ‘progressive countries’ would rise four to eightfold. In Australia, that prediction has come true. Real GDP per capita is now more than five times higher than it was in 1930 (Hutchinson et al 2025). Our homes are warmer, our diets richer, our healthcare and education vastly more advanced. In almost every material sense, we now live in the world he foresaw.

His second prediction was that people would work no more than fifteen hours a week. Freed from the struggle for subsistence, Keynes believed, we could turn our attention to ‘the art of life itself’ – to leisure, to creativity, to community.

That future hasn’t arrived. But the reason isn’t that productivity failed to grow. It’s that we made a different choice.

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

Supermarket smarts: Helping shoppers find the best deals

25 June 2025             

The fifth Albanese Government funded CHOICE quarterly report into supermarket prices released today gives consumers the latest pricing information on household products, including popular ingredients for winter meals.

Kicking off the second year of reports for supermarket shoppers, CHOICE priced groceries at 104 supermarkets in 27 locations across Australia in March.

Overall, Aldi was once again the cheapest supermarket for a basket of 14 goods (without specials), followed by Woolworths, Coles, then IGA.

Including specials, CHOICE found that Aldi was still the cheapest, followed by Coles, Woolworths, then IGA. However, the gap between Aldi and Coles and Woolworths was smaller than in previous reports. This is due to the shopping basket in this year’s quarterly report comparing more fresh fruit and vegetables.

‘Winter warmer’ items like vegetable stock, sour cream, drinking chocolate, butternut pumpkins, quick oat sachets, garlic, and brown onions are in the spotlight for this quarter’s report.

Comfort food and confident customers are a good recipe, with the government backing consumers to get the best deals in the supermarket aisle.

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

E&OE TRANSCRIPT
TV INTERVIEW
ABC AFTERNOON BRIEFING WITH PATRICIA KARVELAS

TUESDAY, 24 JUNE 2025

SUBJECTS: Oil prices, petrol price monitoring by the ACCC, Israel-Iran ceasefire, Coalition’s regulation hypocrisy, Labor’s abundance agenda, Reform Roundtable

PATRICIA KARVELAS: My guest this afternoon is the Assistant Minister for Productivity, Competition, Charities and Treasury, Andrew Leigh -welcome to the program.

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

PATRICIA KARVELAS: I want to start on the conflict, and then we'll move, of course, on to these domestic economic issues which are huge. We're yet to hear from Israel in relation to this ceasefire. It's been several hours now since the President declared a ceasefire. Are you worried that sends perhaps a message that this cease fire may not hold?

ANDREW LEIGH: I'm certainly hopeful that it does Patricia. We need sustained peace in the Middle East, and the prospect of an ongoing Middle East war - a conflagration that's even worse than we're seeing now - would be desperately dangerous for so many people in the region, including thousands of Australians who are there right now. It's important that we keep Iran within the non-proliferation treaty that allows that IAEA monitoring of its nuclear capability, which has been important. And long-term, we want Iran to be joining that prosperity agenda which has been pursued by other countries in the Middle East, which is of course in the interests of Iran and its people.

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, 20 JUNE 2025

SUBJECTS: Labor’s productivity agenda, GST, competition reforms, Labor investments in Canberra, bulk-billing, universal basic income

ROSS SOLLY: Andrew Leigh is the Assistant Minister for Productivity, and he joins us this morning. Andrew Leigh good morning to you.

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

ROSS SOLLY: It is great to have you on the show this morning. Did you go a run in the minus seven this morning? Just out of interest Andrew Leigh?

ANDREW LEIGH: I was on the bike trainer this morning, so a little bit warmer, but I was out running yesterday – wonderfully crisp.

ROSS SOLLY: Lovely, best time of year to be out and about. Andrew Leigh first of all, can you tell me why does nobody ever talk about increasing the level of GST? When it came in at 10% the discussion was, you know, that there was - in future we could move it around. You'd need all the states and territories on board but if the moment required that it would be something we could look at. But nobody ever talks about it?

ANDREW LEIGH: Ross, that's not the way I remember things. I remember it very much as being John Howard saying very firmly, ‘this is locked in at 10% and the way I'll prove to you it's locked in at 10% is I'll include in the legislation, a requirement that every single state and territory has a veto power over any change’.

ROSS SOLLY: Yeah.

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

Mutual Gains: A Co‑operative Approach to Competition

Business Council of Co-operatives and Mutuals’ CEO Strategy Roundtable
Online Address

Thursday, 19 June 2025

G’day everyone – and thanks for inviting me to be part of the Business Council of Co-operatives and Mutuals’ CEO Strategy Roundtable. I acknowledge the Gadigal people of Sydney and the Ngunnawal people of Canberra, and recognise the important work that cooperatives and mutuals do to spread opportunity in First Nations communities. My thanks to the remarkable Melina Morrison for the invitation to speak with you today.

Let me start with a story. My grandfather, Keith Leigh, was born in 1912. When the stock market crashed in 1929, he was just 17 years old. To make ends meet during the Great Depression, he became a travelling salesman – mostly selling hosiery. As Keith liked to say, he was a “traveller in ladies’ underwear”.

The 1930s were tough, as they were for many Australians. Toward the end of that decade, Keith and his friend Lindsay Brehaut decided to do something practical to help their community. They set up the Hobson’s Bay Co‑Op – named after the little inlet at the top of Port Phillip Bay in Melbourne. It gave locals a way to pool their buying power – at a time when every penny counted.

That spirit – people working together to meet shared needs – is the foundation of the co-operative and mutual movement. And it’s why I’m so pleased to join you today.

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, 17 JUNE 2025

SUBJECTS: Charity fundraisers, Labor’s productivity agenda, working from home

STEPHEN CENATIEMPO: One person who has done a few of these CEO sleepouts is the Assistant Minister for Productivity, Competition, Charities and Treasury, Andrew Leigh. Good morning Andrew.

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

STEPHEN CENATIEMPO: You're not joining us this year?

ANDREW LEIGH: I'm not. I'm doing a different fundraiser. I'm raising money for the Indigenous Marathon Foundation by doing an Ironman triathlon. I’m currently at about where you are in terms of fundraising. And congratulations to you on raising money for a terrific cause. Vinnies just does such terrific work in the community.

STEPHEN CENATIEMPO: I'm going to call you out on this, because you run for fun!

ANDREW LEIGH: And you sleep for fun!

STEPHEN CENATIEMPO: I wish I did sleep. Look, let's talk federal politics. You've talked about sluggish productivity. You've warned that excessive regulation and red tape are choking growth, housing and innovation. We've talked about this ad nauseam. It's no secret to anybody, why hasn't it been done already? You've been there for three years?

ANDREW LEIGH: Yeah, one of the big challenges here is that you're working across a range of tiers of governments, and so it's local, state and federal governments have these regulations. In many cases well meaning, but often the cumulative effect of them is to create this thicket of regulation. You see in the housing space, Clare O'Neil taking a leadership role there, being very clear about the importance of engaging on regulation that’s slowing down building. We've got an ambitious housing target. We need to make sure we're not just putting the dollars behind it but that we've also got regulatory structures to make it happen.

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

E&OE TRANSCRIPT
RADIO INTERVIEW
MONEY NEWS WITH DEBORAH KNIGHT
MONDAY, 16 JUNE 2025

SUBJECTS: Labor’s productivity agenda, artificial intelligence, G7 summit, AUKUS, US tariffs, the Abundance Agenda

DEBORAH KNIGHT: We need all the help we can get with our economy barely growing at the moment and the government Assistant Minister with the job of getting productivity back on track is Andrew Leigh, Assistant Manager for Productivity, Competition, Charities and Treasury. Assistant Minister, welcome to Money News.

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

DEBORAH KNIGHT: So you've got a decisive election win under your belt. Now is the time, presumably, for action and bold reform from your government?

ANDREW LEIGH: Well, we inherited a real problem with productivity. In the quarter we came to office, productivity fell more than it had the previous four decades, and that decade leading up to 2020 was the worst productivity decade in Australia's post war history.

DEBORAH KNIGHT: Admittedly that's a global problem though, not just a problem for Australia?

ANDREW LEIGH: That's right, there's global challenges here and that's something that isn't going to be fixed overnight. We know that productivity reform sometimes takes years to have an impact, but we've got to get going on this. The Treasurer announced in the last Budget the scrapping of non-compete clauses for low and middle income workers, making it easier for people to move to a better job. That will help start-ups and it will improve the productivity of the economy. And that's just one of the measures we're putting in place.

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

Address to staff at the Australian Bureau of Statistics

Australian Bureau of Statistics
Canberra

Thursday, 12 June 2025

Good morning everyone,

It’s a pleasure to be here with you – the kind of people who quietly judge those who say “data is,” who experience mild distress at exploded pie charts, and who’ve been known to correct a dinner guest on the difference between mean, median and mode.

People after my own heart.

As someone with a long-standing affection for statistics – bordering on the statistically significant – I feel very much among kindred spirits. While others unwind with reality TV, I’ve been known to relax by running a fixed-effects model and checking for heteroskedasticity. I find a well-behaved residual plot oddly soothing. And I’ll admit: I’ve lost more than one afternoon to a debate about instrument validity.

I know I’m among people who’ve said the phrase “conditional on observables” in casual conversation – and meant it.

That’s why I’m proud to serve as the Assistant Minister responsible for the ABS – an institution that proves, day after day, that good government begins with good data.