Andrew Leigh

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

The Hon Luke Gosling MP
Special Envoy for Defence, Veterans’ Affairs &
Northern Australia
Member for Solomon

OPINION PIECE

You can't build a great nation by subtraction

Published in The NT News

6 April 2025  

In challenging times, Australians don't retreat. We build.

From the Snowy Hydro Scheme to Medicare, superannuation to the global financial crisis response, we've always chosen to meet economic pressure with purpose.

That's what Labor has done over the past three years and what this year's Budget sets us up to continue.

We are delivering cost-of-living relief for today and nation-building reform for tomorrow: universal tax cuts, cheaper energy, more social housing, stronger Medicare, and investment in education and skills.

Underpinning it all is investment in our public service and a belief in Australians' capability to solve problems and to help each other.

It's part of a broader philosophy: when Australians face pressure, a responsible government turns up and creates public value.

Peter Dutton offers a very different path.

In his budget reply, he promised to repeal Labor's tax cuts - which means clawing back $536 from every taxpayer - and to cut 41,000 public service jobs.

Cutting everything but your taxes is not a plan to relieve pressure in the short or long-term. It's a formula for making it worse. It's subtraction disguised as reform, and it doesn't add up. To put it in perspective: 41,000 jobs is more than three packed TIO Stadiums.

Centre Stage: Tax Reform for Middle Australia

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

Conference on ‘Justice and the Tax Base in the 21st Century’
University of Melbourne

3 April 2025

I begin by acknowledging the Wurundjeri people of the Kulin Nation, the Traditional Owners of the land on which we meet. I pay my respects to their Elders – past and present – and to all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people joining us today.

For tens of thousands of years, this was a place of exchange – of ideas, culture, ceremony, and resources. It’s fair to say systems of contribution and redistribution existed here long before we gave them names like ‘horizontal fiscal equalisation.’

Thank you to Miranda Stewart and Daniel Halliday, chief investigators on the Australian Research Council grant that supports this conference. I echo the organisers in acknowledging the late Geoffrey Brennan, whose big brain and baritone voice are missed by many of us.

It is a pleasure to be at a gathering where talk of tax doesn’t clear the room, but fills it.

Most Australians don’t lie awake thinking about the tax base. And if they do, they probably work at the ATO. But for those of us who care about fairness, prosperity and the mechanics of modern government, it’s hard to think of a more important topic. It’s where money meets values.

But it wasn’t always this way. In fact, income tax came late to the Australian story.

Data Connection: Turning Statistics into Shared Understanding

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

Pre-dinner Address
11th Australian Government Data Summit
Canberra

2 April 2025

Introduction

I begin by acknowledging the Traditional Custodians of the land on which we gather this evening, the Ngunnawal people, and pay my respects to their Elders past and present. For over 60,000 years, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples have collected, shared and applied knowledge – not in spreadsheets, but through songlines, stories and systems of deep observation. In many ways, they are Australia’s original data stewards – reminding us that the power of information lies not just in recording it, but in connecting it to community.

It’s a real pleasure to be here among a roomful of public servants who care deeply about the craft of government – especially those who know that, in the right light, a histogram can be almost romantic. You are the kind of people who get excited about sample sizes and quietly judge others for misusing the word ‘median’.

As many of you know, I speak often about data collection. And rightly so. This government has made significant investments in modernising our statistical systems – revitalising our longitudinal studies, restoring underfunded surveys, and expanding the frontiers of what we measure.

But tonight, I want to talk about something we don’t always give enough airtime to. Something just as vital, but far less discussed. Data connection.

We live in a world flooded with information – more graphs than grains of sand, more dashboards than actual cars. And in that world, we face a peculiar risk: that we gather more and more data, but fail to connect it with people’s lives. That a table gets published, but no one sees themselves in the numbers. That a chart goes viral… only among economists.

This isn’t a new challenge. Back in the 19th century, Florence Nightingale didn’t just transform nursing – she changed public health by using polar area charts to show how many soldiers were dying from preventable diseases. Her diagrams cut through red tape like a scalpel.

In 1854, John Snow mapped cholera deaths around a single water pump in Soho. It was data visualisation before PowerPoint – and it saved lives.

Fast forward, and we’ve seen Hans Rosling bring global trends to life with bouncing bubbles. The New York Times makes data feel like narrative. The UK’s Office for National Statistics has used sandwich metaphors to explain inflation. In the Netherlands, CBS StatLine invites citizens to dive into interactive dashboards on everything from carbon emissions to childcare.

And here in Australia, our very own Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) has taken up the baton – or perhaps the pivot table – with work that is not only accurate and informative, but clever, relatable, and, dare I say it, downright fun.

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

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

MONDAY, 31 MARCH 2025

SUBJECTS: Labor’s tax cuts, non-competes, cracking down on supermarket price gouging, Peter Dutton’s public service cuts plan and comments on The Lodge.

DELANEY: Well, we're headed towards an election whether you like it or not, so time to make your mind up. Will you be in voting for the Philistines or the Dilettantes? Assistant Minister for Competition, Charities, Treasury and Employment, not to mention our local member here in the seat of Fenner, Dr Andrew Leigh good afternoon.

LEIGH: Good afternoon Leon. I was just trying to work out which of those insults you were going to apply to me.

DELANEY: Well, you know, you take your pick - Philistines, Dilettantes. I think it really sort of is kind of self-explanatory isn't it?

LEIGH: Well I prefer to be neither of course, and certainly spend my days trying to think about ways of making the lives of people in Canberra better.

DELANEY:  Yeah, I'm obviously being a little bit facetious with that one but people do tend to be a little bit cynical about our political leaders. And do you blame them when we get a federal budget that really displays a significant lack of ambition? The centrepiece is a tax cut of $5 a week that we don't even get for another 15 months. By that time, it will have been eroded by inflation anyway, won't it?

LEIGH: Well Leon, you put together the tax cut budget with the tax cuts we've already delivered, you get some $50 a week. That might be trivial to you, but I don't think it's trivial to many Canberrans, and we'll have Peter Dutton going to the election promising to raise everyone's taxes. Every income taxpayer in Australia will pay more income tax under Peter Dutton to pay for his mad cap nuclear scheme. But also in the budget, some significant pro-productivity measures. What we've done with banning non-competes for workers earning under $175,000 will unlock job mobility, allow people to move to a better job or to set up a firm of their own, and that's great for long-term growth prospects for the economy.

Anthony Albanese MP
Prime Minister of Australia

Jim Chalmers MP
Treasurer

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

Labor Will Ban Supermarket Price Gouging In Another Move On Cost Of Living 

30 March 2025 

A re-elected Albanese Labor Government will crack down on price gouging by supermarkets because Australian families deserve fair prices for their groceries.

Australians shouldn’t be treated like mugs at the checkout – that’s why Labor will make supermarket price gouging illegal.

This is another cost-of-living relief measure the Albanese Government is taking – along with tax cuts for every tax payer, energy bill relief and cheaper medicines. 

It is unfair and un-Australian for supermarkets to exploit consumers by inflating prices and profits when they do not face enough competition. 

A re-elected Labor Government will confront price gouging to fix a key gap in Australia’s competition and consumer protection framework.

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

Opinion Piece

Want to quit your job? Your contract may be keeping you prisoner

Published in Australian Financial Review

29 March 2025

When Othelia decided to leave her job in property management, she thought she was just changing employers. Instead, she found herself cornered. Her boss told her that if she wanted to stay in the industry, she’d have to leave town. Othelia was 21, living in a regional community, and had no family support. Her choice? Stay in a job that made her miserable, or risk having no income at all.

Jasper was in a similar bind. He’d been coaching kids’ sport part-time for three years. He wasn’t in charge of marketing or finances – just teaching kids how to kick a ball. But buried in his contract was a clause banning him from working for a competitor for six months after he left. When he resigned, his boss made it clear: try to coach anywhere else, and there’d be consequences.

I’ve changed the names to protect their privacy, but these are real cases. They are among more than three million Australian workers – one in five employees – caught in the grip of non-compete clauses. Once reserved for senior executives with access to sensitive information, they’re now everywhere: in the contracts of construction workers, hairdressers, personal trainers, security guards.

They’re clauses that quietly lock people out of their own careers.

Connected, but Protected: Telecommunications for the Public Good

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

Telecommunications Amendment (Enhancing Consumer Safeguards) Bill 2025
House of Representatives

27 March 2025

Telecommunications really is fundamental to modern Australia. More than 99 per cent of Australian adults own a mobile phone; 93 per cent own a smartphone. Over a third of Australians worked from home regularly, according to the most recent ABS survey—which, in passing, does make you wonder what would happen if the Leader of the Opposition were ever to become Prime Minister and ban public servants from working from home. Suddenly public servants in the regions, with disabilities or with caring responsibilities would find themselves out of a job.

Digital health is mainstream. Over nine in 10 Australians have a My Health Record, and telehealth accounted for more than 25 million services. Online education is widespread, and we saw this particularly through the pandemic. Telecommunications are the way in which people access emergency services, with the 000 service receiving over eight million calls a year. Small business relies heavily on quality telecommunications. Over seven out of 10 Australian small businesses use mobile broadband.

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

E&OE TRANSCRIPT
TV INTERVIEW
SKY NEWS AUSTRALIA, POLITICS NOW

WEDNESDAY, 26 MARCH 2025

SUBJECTS: The Albanese Labor Government Budget, non-competes.

TOM CONNELL: Well one of the inclusions in Labor's budget was non-compete clauses. They claim this will be a big increase for people's wages. Joining the panel now for more budget reaction on that, Assistant Minister for Competition, Charities and Treasury Andrew Leigh. In his own words, he's been banging on about this for a while. Welcome to the panel. Yes, everything you say off air is on air too in this show. So, non-compete clauses - a lot of people will sort of go, alright, has that got anything to do with me? What's a specific example that you've picked up because you've been very focused on this. You don't have to put names in there, of a non-compete that just had to go in your view?

ASSISTANT MINISTER LEIGH: So, we heard the story of a 17 year-old dance instructor who was being harassed by her workplace. She moved to a competing dance studio and then got a letter from the former employer saying that she'd breached a clause that said she couldn't work in another dance studio within 15 kilometres for 18 months. These clauses were originally applied only to executives, but are now being applied right across the economy, not just in the boardroom, but also in the mailroom.

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 

E&OE TRANSCRIPT
DOORSTOP
PARLIAMENT HOUSE

WEDNESAY, 26 MARCH 2025

SUBJECTS: Federal Budget; ACT; National Security Office Precinct project; Dutton’s cuts to services; infrastructure investment; Services Australia staffing levels; bulk billing.

SENATOR THE HON KATY GALLAGHER, MINISTER FOR FINANCE: It's great to be here the day after the Budget to talk about all of the important investments made in the Budget, the announcements made and their impact here in the ACT. And I'm so pleased to be joined by all of the Labor Members of Parliament for Canberra here with Andrew Alicia and Dave. They'll all go through some specific initiatives as it relates to their areas. At a high level, for the ACT, obviously, the approach with this Budget in pretty uncertain times was to look at how we could provide some relief to households. We're doing that with our tax cuts, but also with those important investments in Medicare, in cheaper medicines, in HECS debt relief, all of those areas which are so important to households as they're going through pretty difficult times. The Budget shows that the economy is at a turning point, that there's a lot of optimism in this Budget in terms of the forecast and the way forward, and we tried to build on that with the investments that we help households through some of these costs of living pressures.

Now there's a range of areas where we have made specific investments in Canberra, but I would draw on two, and I know my colleagues will have something else to say. Obviously, the public service is a big driver of economic activity in the territory. Rebalancing and resourcing the public service has been a key feature of the Albanese Government for this entire term, making sure the APS is fit for service and fit for purpose, and we have done that, and you'll see that continue in this Budget. We're not going to be intimidated by the opposition's reckless attacks on the public service or their threats of cuts, our view is you have to have a well-resourced public service in order to deliver the outcomes that the Australian people expect, and you see that in this Budget. On the other the other point I'd raise is I've heard some criticism about lack of infrastructure spending. The single biggest project in the territory right now is federally Government funded. It's the National Security Office precinct. It is a multi-year billion-dollar investment, plus into the act to make sure that we have the facilities we need in national security and to keep Australians safe, but also that we are investing in our local economy. We also have the AIS rebuild underway, and we've got our investments in light rail as well, and this Budget contains funding in all of those areas. I'll hand to my colleagues now I'll hand to Andrew, and then you'll hear from all of them, and then happy to take questions.

ASSISTANT MINISTER FOR COMPETITION, CHARITIES, TREASURY AND EMPLOYMENT, DR ANDREW LEIGH: Thanks, Katy. I think what this budget illustrates is that when you've got a remarkable finance minister like Katy Gallagher, who hails from the territory, then Canberra gets a fair deal. People remember the Liberals last budget, where the ACT got just a fifth of our fair share of infrastructure spending. Now that's changed with projects like the National Security Precinct and other important projects my colleagues will talk about there's some exciting competition reforms in the Budget, but I'll leave that to questions if you have them.

Free To Move - Reforming Non-Compete Clauses

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

Matters of Public Importance Debate
House of Representatives

26 March 2026

You have to hand it to the Shadow Treasurer. Really, you do have to hand it to him because he doesn't have it himself. The fact is that this bloke has a three-part plan: (1) criticise Labor; (2) pause; and (3) hope no-one asks him for point 3! He's continuing as he has this entire term— a policy-free zone. Tomorrow night, we're going to hear more spin than substance from the Leader of the Opposition—the man whose only serious policy proposal has been that Australians should spend $600 billion on a madcap nuclear fantasy that won't deliver until the 2040s.

In last night's budget, you heard Labor put forward our positive economic plan: a new tax cut for every taxpayer, more energy bill relief, growing wages, even cheaper medicines, cutting student debt, strengthening Medicare, making it easier to buy and rent a home, permanent free TAFE and a fair go for families and farmers. You'll hear much more about that from the other Labor speakers in this debate.

I want to focus my remarks today on non-compete clauses, which are an important part of Labor's competition reforms. The fact is, if you had a competition agenda, then you would be pretty worried about something called a non-compete clause. The clue is in the name. These are affecting real people across Australia. Let me start with a couple of stories.